76 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



asked if he bad deposited his f200 in the casket. "Yis, indade;" he^ 

 "niver wint back ou a frind, dead or alive," and bad put in |200 in gold. 

 The Jew was asked if be put in bis |200. "I surely did, sir; I put in my 

 check for |00() and took out the change." 



The tiist element of success, I would repeat, must be the man. He 

 must have energy, perseverance, integrity, and be fertile in resource. 

 The second element, though just as important, is location. This we all 

 know must be generally free from killing frosts. 



In regard to location, I am safe in saying that the success attained the 

 last ten years in growing those fruits to which western Michigan has 

 given attention, warrant the conclusion that, with proper care on such 

 locations as can be found in great numbers along this shore, a crop can 

 be secured in at least four out of live seasons. Why these lands along 

 the eastern shore of lake Michigan are practically adapted to the tender 

 fruits is so well understood b}' my hearers that I need not discuss this 

 feature of the subject. Nor could I add any light to the subject of eleva- 

 tion, air drainage, or soils. Sufiice it to say, time and experience have 

 demonstrated to our entire satisfaction that we have an excellent loca- 

 tion for fruits, and that many know how to grow them to perfection. 

 With these natural advantages in our favor, and a better knowledge of 

 varieties and how to grow them, of diseases and how to check them, and 

 of the most approved methods of culture, I am certain Michigan has a 

 great future befoi-c her in the production of fruits. 



But the more and finer the fruits we grow tlie more important becomes 

 the question of how and when they shall be marketed. The great prob- 

 lem that confronts the California and Georgia growers today is, how to 

 market their immense crops to advantage; and this question demands the 

 best efforts of the best minds in the business, if we hope to reap even fair 

 returns in the years to come. 



A friend engaged in fruit culture in California, writes me that he has 

 to pay .fl.34: freight per forty-pound box to Chicago. This means .fl.67 

 per bushel of fifty pounds. ' Mr. Hale tells us he pays |40 to |50 per 

 car to New York city or Boston from Georgia. This of course is for 

 fancy fruit sold at fancy prices; but we must understand that the bulk 

 of our fruit can not be sold at fancy prices, and, in justice to the millions 

 of poor people in our country, ought not to be. 



However, we have the best natural advantages for marketing of any 

 fruit location in the United States. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, 

 Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin, in which the bulk of our fruit is mar- 

 keted, and by which we are surrounded, and in which the most distant 

 point of distribution is only about 400 miles from our orchard, had a pop- 

 ulation in 1890 of 16,685,000, and contain the largest percentage of well- 

 to-do people on the face of the earth. The wealth of this region is more 

 evenly distributed, and the masses more able and willing to purchase 

 the comforts and luxuric^s of the home. \Miile the population of these 

 states is vast it is also rapidly increasing. 



In the February number of the North American Review for 1896, Mul- 

 hall. the statistician, makes a foi-ecast of the i»oitulation of ihe T'^nited 

 States for the census vears 1900 and 1!)10. compared with 1880 and 

 1890. as follows: l»opulation in 1880, ,50,1.56,000; in 1890, 62,622,000; in 



