348 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



varieties ripen with us compared witli other localities. Fifty miles south,, 

 freestone peaches will come with our early clings, and so on to the end 

 of our list. Find when the bulk of the crop from other sections is out of 

 the market, and choose varieties that will supply the place. Strike from 

 your catalogue most of the sorts. Whatever you do on the soil, mixed 

 farming is best, save the exceptions. 



Visit the best growers, study their work, read, keep a small experi- 

 ment station of your own, take no man's advice who is not successful, see 

 what you yourself can do, grade and pack up to date, forge right ahead, 

 and you are ready to face the most difficult problem of fruitgrowing, how 

 to sell and how to distribute. As yet we are mostly in the realm of ideals, 

 the best of which is, let the buyer come to the grower; both can see, bar- 

 gain, and handle. If the commission fraud should " get left," some of us 

 would not. To sell through association is better than to sell single- 

 handed. Grand Kapids societies are in evidence. This method has its 

 difficulties, especially near the shore; like ducks with their ducklings, 

 men readily take to the water; if thousands of miles of " the Rockies " 

 were between us and the dock, associated effort would be a necessity. 



But, shipping arrangements made, whence shall we ship? Report says 

 prices are declining westward; to the east, then, ours goes, but only to 

 find all others there. Naturally there is a vacuum at the other extreme, 

 and the rush is to that. So we vibrate between glutted markets. When 

 peaches were selling in Chicago for ten cents per basket, they were bring- 

 ing, in parts of Minnesota and Dakota, twenty-five cents per dozen. If 

 associated methods succeed, it must be through a central bureau. 



All in all, we have this hope and consolation: our best men are at the 

 problem. A brighter tomorrow will dawn. Fabulous prices may never 

 return, but a profit will come, appreciating, in comparison with general 

 farming, with added delight and exaltation. The Creator still walks in 

 the Eden of fruits, and communes with the faithful and obedient. There 

 will be toil, but amid blossoms and fragrance. The dearest of memories 

 will cluster round the old apple tree, the home fireside, and the altar of 

 associated fellowship; and, best of all, something will be contributed to 

 the beauty of home and landscape, to the happiness, prosperity, and 

 uplifting of our world-wide humanity. 



DISCUSSION. 



The President: I wish to say one thing about Mr. Rork's paper. It 

 seems to me that this paper itself is up to date, and shows a great deal of 

 appreciation of the needs of the fruitgrower; it shows that Mr. Rork has 

 made a careful study of the question. 



Mr. Wilde: That paper needs no criticism. It is a grand success; it is 

 well done, I will say, for Mr. Rork. 



Mr. Rouse: He savs, take no man's advice who is not successful. How 

 shall we judge whether he is successful? Advice has been given here by 

 men who have not been long in the business, and they have not succeeded 

 very largely; but those things they say seem good, although they have 

 not experienced very much nor been proved by a long line of success. 



Mr. Rork: I will stick to my text. I have been fooled by too many 

 that had good theories and good advice, and when I undertook to follow 



