121 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



found (a brother is in with me) that when we are not on the job per- 

 sonally to control their movements it is difficult to get anything like 

 satisfaction from the ordinary help that we are obliged to employ. It 

 would hardly seem as though it would be this way but we have found i! 

 so. 



Then, there is another side to this question, and perhaps it may be 

 where some have made failures, where otherwise they might not have 

 been. There are two sides to the proposition that in I crest me, one, the 

 commercial side, and the other, the ethical side. When I see an orchard 

 that has not done anything because of a lack of care, that orchard 

 appeals to me to make it do something. It may cost me all that I make 

 out of it, but I never hesitate at the expense to make it come up to 

 its best and reach a standard that I try to have it attain, and I have 

 the satisfaction of knowing in a goodly number of cases that I have 

 done something for an orchard, have demonstrated that the application 

 of the methods we have advocated for years, are all right, even though 

 it has not proved a profitable investment from the commercial stand- 

 point. I have in mind particularly an orchard that we have had for 

 two years. It is a large orchard, and today it is one of the finest or- 

 chards in the state of Michigan. When we got it it was in a very poor 

 condition. A lot of things I didn't know then, but that I supposed I 

 knew, I have learned since. This is a Northern Spy orchard. I found 

 it to be 33 years old, and we invested quite a large sum of money 

 in it. We find it takes a lot of money in the orchard renting business. 

 You must spend money if you get any money back. We never picked 

 an apple the first year, from this orchard. I suppose that orchard has 

 borne three or four crops in the 33 years, and that is all. 



Then there is another thing that we have learned, and that is that 

 you want to have every thing put in writing so that it is known just 

 what will be expected of each party, and then there will be no quibbing 

 or getting around what is plainly the duty of the owner of the orchard, 

 after he finds out that his orchard is made to bear better than he sup- 

 posed it would. 



Then we have found that it is well to have only a few varieties. Too 

 many varieties are not good. By having two or three varieties instead 

 of one in an orchard, and that gives you more time for harvesting. 



A Member — With good apples selling at $2.00 per barrel, what en- 

 couragement have we to go on setting new orchards? 



Mr. Farrand — The man who owns his farm can make a good profit 

 at $2.00 a barrel, if he gets a usual crop. On the other hand, if you take 

 an orchard, raise it, prune it, and for twenty years pay the price for 

 labor — if I thought I had to sell my apples for less than $2.00 per 

 barrel, I think I would look for something else to do. 



A Member — Now this seems to bring us back again to the question of 

 marketing our fruit. If Ave never have any more satisfactory means 

 or bettev ways of disposing of our fruit it seems to me that we would 

 hesitate about planting new orchards; but as was said, we must educate 

 the dishonest packers to act right, but to truly educate a man you should 

 start at the grandfather. The education will not be so very effective if 

 you start in to educate now; that is, it will not have a very decided 

 effect on the people you try to educate. I think that Mr. Smythe hit 



