454 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Too many of us start out and think we have the love for Bome kinds of fruit and soon 

 are led off again with the thought that we want something in which there is more 

 money. 



MUST RAISE BETTER STOCK. 



Another thought. It was brought to my attention in the census investigations of 

 1890, when I found that nearly one hundred millions of apple trees, and forty or fifty- 

 millions of plums and other kinds, were sold yearly. And when we know how few 

 there are that thrive and come into full bearing, I feel that our nurserymen have a 

 duty to perform if we are to make the profession of horticulture what it ought to be. 

 This tendency of producing so many trees and plants, because of the tremendous com- 

 petition, has stimulated cheap production, cheap handling and cheap sales. The man 

 who buys a cheap article thinks it is not of much value, because if it does not live he 

 can replace it. Novelties do well in the hands of originators and disseminators, 

 because they believe in them, give them the best care and treatment all the way 

 through. The man who buys these novelties and pays an extravagant price for them, 

 has got to believe m them, consequently he gives them great care, and if they are 

 adapted to his soil and its conditions, he comes somewhere near obtaining the objects 

 sought. The fact that the thing cost something stimulates the best of care. You give 

 a neighbor a scion of some fine horticultural product, and a year later enquire how it 

 has progressed and receive some flimsy excuse for an answer; the man knows nothing 

 of it. Why? It was too cheap. If you had sold that same man some high-priced 

 novelty, and it had proved a failure, you would have heard of it pretty quick. So it 

 seems to me there is a chance for the nurseryman to produce more and better stock, 

 and then charge what it is worth, and we shall get better returns in the field and in 

 the markets. 



DEMAND FOR BETTER PRODUCTS AND STYLE IN PACKING. 



The season of 1893 taught a good many of us object lessons in horticulture. When I 

 heard Mr. Josselyu read the report from Chautauqua county, I thought the grape 

 growers could not be getting very rich with the prices they got. The working man 

 and the middle classes are the consumers of fruit, and if they are short of funds, it at once 

 affects the markets. But the Chautauqua grape growers learned in 1893 that a nine 

 pound basket could be sold for twelve cents and give good returns. The tendency of 

 the times is for better products and better style in packing, and if our fruits are well 

 grown and honestly packed the pockets of buyers will be opened. 



PLEA FOR THOROUGH CULTIVATION. 



The year 1893 in Connecticut was peculiar. Early rains were abundant and fruit 

 started gloriously. Three months of terrible drouth, followed by terrific wind storms 

 then came and we learned some lessons. The fruit orchards that were in condition to 

 . be thoroughly cultivated throughout the season kept steadily growing a little during 

 that drouth, and when the storms came those thoroughly cultivated orchards held on and 

 the damage done was nothing compared with what visited the less highly cultivated 

 orchards. In the latter the fruit ceased growing in July and stood still, when the 

 storms came nine-tenths of that fruit fell to the ground. The fruit that was left started 

 again when the rains came. The freestone varieties were cling-stones and woald not 

 start further. There were great complaints in the markets, fruit came back, and we 

 had a good deal of trouble. 



MUST THIN FRUIT MORE. 



The question of thinning peaches, apples, pears, etc., has been brought more forcibly 

 to me than ever before. The curculio has worked more seriously on the eastern coast 

 than ever before in my meoaory. In thinning the fruit it has always been our custom 

 to take off every curculio-stung specimen; put them into bags, take them away and 

 burn. We have been less troubled than have our neighbors, The demands of the 

 market are such that we must thin our fruits if we are to be successful. The demand 

 is for larger and more showy fruit and of better quality; but particularly for fruit of 

 fine appearance. We are allowing our friends from over the Sierras to come east and 

 take the money we should have. Why? Because they bring in finer looking fruit than 

 ours. Are you going to let the large sized fruit of California beat the ingenuity of the 



