630 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



if he does not see dollars and cents in it, his interest lags, and wa have 

 to create an interest before we can get people to engage in an industry. 

 This would be the first question. Is there a marliet for my fruit if I 

 go into the horticultural business? Fifty years ago fruit culture was 

 not known in a commercial sense. It has been developed in the last half 

 of the century, and even of that time perhaps within the last twenty- 

 five or thirty years. This business has been developed until it is now 

 one of the largest industries in this country and one of the most profit- 

 able. There are three important factors that have brought this about. 

 They have entered into creating the market and developing the fruit 

 industry into a commercial size. The first" of these is the railway, 

 the next the canning industry, and the third the refrigerator, or cold 

 storage. These are the three elements that have come into the fruit 

 business and have developed it to Avonderful proportions. I remember 

 when at Indianapolis there was only one man in Marion County 

 that was growing strawberries for commercial purposes, and now 

 there are hundreds of them. It is being developed all over the State. 

 Fruit which Ave once thought could not be marketed is now 

 shipped long distances. We did not think the red raspberry could be 

 picked and sent to market, but now they are shipped everywhere. Our 

 market is now almost without a limit. The canning industry came in 

 for the purpose of taking care of the surplus, and is a factor we should 

 not lose sight of. The quantity of apples and berries and fruits that 

 have gone into tin is beyond measurement. I wish we had better figures 

 so that we could know the amount of fruit that goes into tin. This is 

 helping to save the surplus all over the country. 1 am perhaps better 

 posted on the tomato than any other, and know more about how many go 

 into tin. I can remember when the tomato was placed on the shelf with 

 the pomegranate and the children were told not to handle it, because thej' 

 thought it was poison. Now, what is the result? Last year fifteen 

 millions of bushels went into tin, to say nothing of the raw consump- 

 tion. So you see what we are doing for the market on this line. So 

 there seems to be no opportunity to overstock the market, for when we 

 have too much wo have this method of storing things away for future 

 use. The amount of money interests us. When you take fifteen millions 

 of bushels of tomatoes it represents practically fifteen niillions of dollars. 

 Now this is .iust one item. So you see this fruit business and vegetable 

 business is growing into wonderful proportions. It has brought a vast 

 amount of money into our country, and we are making use of land that 

 is not fit for anything else. This market stands as wide open surely for 

 everybody as it does for Indianapolis people. We are engaged in plant- 

 ing out orchards of different kinds of fruits, and if more people would 

 stop farming and go to raising fruit they would find that their farms 

 would pay much better. It seems to me if I were writing on the gate 

 post I would wi-ilc "rc'liribnd." Men are making failures because they 



