426 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the State, and they never stopped until the good old State had invest?^ 

 forty thousand dollars a year for horticultural purposes. Mr. DeLong, 

 who holds the same position that Mr. Flick does, received three thousand 

 dollars a year for staying in the office and answering calls of the farmers 

 and growers of fruit. Men coming to the city will, nine times out of ten, 

 go to the horticultural office. At that office they have a splendid collec- 

 tion of the best information that can be got for different sections of the 

 State and various liiuds of fruit. California never made a better invest- 

 ment, and neither could she have made a better investment when she 

 paid this man three thousand dollars as a salary. It raised the land from 

 ten to twenty-five dollars an acre up to twenty-five hundred dollars, and 

 it surprises me that the land owners of Indiana permit themselves to let 

 their land go on as they have been doing and do not attempt to avail 

 themselves of this golden opportunity. I think we should have ten thou- 

 sand dollars a year. This is an insignificant sum when we consider the 

 splendid opportunities which we have to make an investment. I think 

 we should get out of this routine work and try to do some head work. 

 At the World's Fair people from all over the United States were surprised 

 at the apples that were grown in Indiana. They never thought we could 

 do it. There is a feeling over the whole State that we have a great op- 

 portunity, and it strikes me that this is the time we want to make use 

 of it. We want a reasonable, respectable appropriation and we will try 

 to make use of it. We do not believe in crimping a good work. When 

 the land owners see that they will get a great benefit from fruit growing 

 they will turn their attention to it. When a man that owns only forty 

 acres of land has an orchard of four or five acres on it, it almost doubles 

 the value of the land, and it makes enjoyment and comfort for the boys 

 and girls and all the family. I think we should get ten thousand dollars 

 from the State. 



Mr. Kingsbury: After that admirable speech of Mr. Zion's I think 

 there ought to be a suggestion made like this, and the suggestion ought 

 to be acted upon. That is, that we appoint a committee here to make a 

 report, one to the Senate and one to the House, concerning these mat- 

 ters, and that we make a showing of the Indiana fruit which has been 

 produced in the fruit districts of our State, and at the same time show 

 what might be done all over the State with a certain appropriation, as 

 Mr. Zion has suggested— ten thousand dollars— to carry on the work. 

 Tills committee should endeavor to get this appropriation. Indiana is 

 naturally a fruit-growing State, and it is helped by the large markets 

 all around it, and if we had this appropriation we would soon get back 

 the ten thousand dollars. I think we should e.xpect this appropriation. 



President Stevens: I would just add a word of explanation with 

 regard to an office. I suggested that we secure a room exclusively for 

 this purjiose. Room 11 is used for public meetings. The Secretai-y has 



