206 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



pers over the Illinois Central railroad via their fruit train? Well, you 

 will be told that their contracts with the express company forbid them 

 from carrying less then car lots at car rates. You go to the express 

 company and they will tell you that they are compelled by their con- 

 tract to pay 40, 50 or 60 per cent, as the case may be, of present rate 

 to the railroad company for providing facilities and transportation ; 

 therefore, cannot afford to reduce rates, 



I ask your patience one moment more. I wish to point to the work 

 of one man and his associates. I allude to that magnificent triumph 

 of human effort and intelligence — the Olden fruit farm. What is 

 that improvement and the immense development of the fruit interest 

 of that section directly resulting from it worth to the Springfield & 

 Memphis railroad? I answer, millions on millions of dollars. That 

 company could well afford to transport free of charge to either end of 

 its line every pound of fruit produced on that farm for the next 25 

 years and then would not have repaid the favor that has been conferred 

 upon them. 



ifow, does it cost our honorable President anything to ship his 

 fruit"? Oh, no ; not so much; take a car of peaches to Boston, the 

 expenses are only about $500. What will it cost Mr. Old Timer back 

 ten miles in the "breash" to ship a car of steers fattened on sumach 

 berries and hazel brush to the same point in practically the same time? 

 Answer: About one- fourth as much. Yet the cattle will sell for as 

 much or more per car-load, will cost as much or more for care and at- 

 tention en route. One represents the probable gross product of a 

 whole township of wild land ; the other represents the annual product 

 of two or three acres of similar land, only the owner has waved his 

 magic wand and caused the black-jack and hickory to disappear and 

 the Elberta and Ben Davis to grow instead. Yet there is not a point 

 on that line, or off it, where the stock grower cannot reach for about 

 one-fourth the price per hundred, per ton or per car, than is accorded 

 this benefactor of that line and South Missouri. 



This is the encouragemeni fruit men receive at the hands of trans- 

 portation companies, though engaged in a pursuit that produces more 

 tonnage per acre than is the case with any important product of the 

 soil. Do you want to know why stockmen receive such low rates 

 comparatively? I will tell you. Cattle have legs and can be driven 

 to rival lines or even to market, therefore they are carried to market 

 for about what the service is worth. What we want is to produce 

 some varieties of peaches, apples and strawberries with legs; that would 

 soon solve the transportation question. 



