10 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



men whom I have dealt with for years with entire satisfaction have "fell 

 down" at last and given me a deal that would make the angels weep. 



We now began, abont 1800, to be troubled with the disease known as 

 cnrl leaf and lost largely by it, but in 1894 I began spraying for it 

 under the direction of Prof. Newton B. Pierce, government pathologist, 

 stationed at Santa Ana, Cal. I was thus the first man to use the spray 

 ]nimp in this county. The results were so entirely successful that I have 

 never omitted spraying since. The following year I began spraying my 

 apple orchard with results even more gratifying than with the peaches. 

 All my early knowledge of apple spraying I owe to Prof. Taft, who was 

 experimenting at that time and whose experiments Avere printed in the 

 college bulletins. Of course, I have continued spraying since and have 

 always found that the better I did the work the better the results and 

 that I only got good fruit but that I have conserved the life and health 

 of my trees. Spraying is now recognized as a necessity by all progres- 

 sive fruit growers. There are a few, however, who balk at the expense 

 and trust to ''luck" for a crop, but luck cuts a mighty small figure in 

 fruit growing. It has instead become almost an exact science and I 

 find that the successful fruit grower of the future must become a special- 

 ist. And this applies not only to the art of producing good fruit but 

 also to the proper methods of handling and marketing his product. Dif- 

 ferent markets require diflFerent packages, especially so with peaches 

 and the shrewd grower will cater to the requirements of his market. 

 But no market I find has any call for cull fruit and the successful fruit 

 grower of the future must quit growing that kind, or if he does happen 

 to have some that is poor he would better feed it to the hogs than to 

 market it. 



The abundant crops of fruit and the good prices we have obtained for 

 it for the last few years in this county have given such an impetus to 

 the fruit industry that at the present rate of tree planting we will soon 

 be in the front rank among the fruit growing counties of the State, and 

 it will soon become all important that we grow and market nothing but 

 the best for there is no money in growing and marketing any but the 

 best. Packages, freight and other expenses are just as great for culls 

 as for the best, and it is always owing to an over supply of poor fruit 

 that the markets go broke. Of course, we have had our ''bumps" and dis- 

 couragements along the way during all these years, for it has not been 

 all smooth sailingVith us,' just the same as others have experienced in 

 other places. But most of our troubles have come from the selling end 

 of the business. We have tried various methods of disposing of our 

 finiit, selling more or less to local buyers, but the greater x>art of it being 

 mostly consigned to commission houses in Chicago and Milwaukee, and 

 while this is an easy and convenient way to get rid of our fruit, it has 

 too often happened that all we did was to get rid of our fruit, as there 

 were many times when there was nothing left for the grower. They 

 have even sent us bills for the freight; solicitors from other points have 

 occasionally visited us and in a couple of instances succeeded in getting 

 four or five cars of fruit and then skipping out, leaving the grower in 

 the lurch. But most of these scoundrels have been exposed and I guess 

 it would be a hard matter now for a stranger to get fruit without pay- 

 ing for it. While the majority of the commission merchants today are 

 probably as square dealing as the average business man, there was a 



