166 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETF. 



There was no market for the fruit. Now apples are worth more than 

 a dollar a bushel. Eighteen years ago when I planted quite largely, 

 1 was asked, "what are you going to do with the fruit when your trees 

 bear ?" This year I sold my fruit for $4.60 per barrel on the track at 

 the shipping place. I don't think that was ever done before. Judging 

 by the past, I see no reason why it should not be equally as good in 

 the future. 



Mr. Elliott — As to whether it pays to grow apples : I can't tell 

 whether it will pay Tom Jones, Grover Harrison or Dick Cleveland, 

 but I speak for myself. I labor under disadvantages as well as other 

 men. I lived in the city till eight years ago. I knew nothing of the 

 business. My oldest orchard is eight years from the seed, and has 

 almost paid for itself already. From two and one-half acres I sold 

 fifty-eight bushels, besides having what we needed for ourselves. This 

 paid for the work upon orchard and a narrow margin for the use of 

 the land. 



Mr. Goodman — I want the question of transportation discussed. 

 In Michigan we once sold apples for six and one-fourth cents per 

 bushel. Seven years afterward they sold in the same place for seventy- 

 five cents, because we had a way to reach a market. 



A. Nelson — Two years ago I visited my old home in western New 

 York, and traveled over the country to see the condition of the 

 orchards. In the territory where I visited the old orchards are going 

 down and the ground is occupied with something else. In that local- 

 ity I saw no new oi chards being planted. Orchards fourteen to twenty 

 years old, once in two or three years are giving just as good crops as 

 in times past. I believe the new lands of Missouri and Kansas are 

 going to be the apple-ground of the world. From Minnesota to Texas I 

 have shipped apples and got paying results. 



Mr. Simpson — This discussion seems to be all on one side, but I 

 have misgivings. They have a saying in Colorado that you can't see an 

 inch into the ground. We can't see a great way into the future. Judg- 

 ing by the past, have not the American people run everything into the 

 ground they ever undertook ? Look at poultry. At one time a new 

 breed of chickens would make a man a fortune. Then hogs and hops 

 turned the minds of the people. Then people went wild in the cattle 

 boom. Men came from England and Scotland and invested vast 

 amounts in cattle. I told them the thing would be overdone. They talked 

 just as we now talk about apples, and said it could not be overdone. I 

 presume that 100,000 acres have been planted to apples in the last three 

 years in Southern Illinois, Missouri and in Arkansas. It seems to me 

 that it must make them a drug in the market. A few years ago Kansas 



