FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 145 



LESSONS FROM WESTERN APPLE GROWERS. 



C. E. BASSETT, FENNVILLE. 



The average farmer is not a good business man. That is a harsh 

 statement, but we may as well face it and make the most of it. If we 

 ever take a look at our competitors it is to become jealous of their 

 successes or to gloat over their failures, rather than to study their 

 methods so as to adopt what brings success or avoid the plans which 

 lead to defeat. 



It is reported that within two years the Pacific Coast will have over 

 15,000,000 bearing apple trees. Tbat is interesting to the eastern 

 grower, because he ought to plan his work so as to meet that competi- 

 tion. My home town of Fennville, in western Michigan, is known to 

 very few of my readers — is hardly on the map, so far as you are con- 

 cerned — and still it ships about as many apples to cold storage every 

 year as does the world-wide known Hood River valley. Western New 

 York and southern Pennsylvania also have points that excel Hood River 

 in the quantity of apples grown and shipped, but it is in the quantity 

 and natural quality that we lead, white it is the finish and excellence 

 of pack that has put the Pacific coast points on the map in big red 

 letters. 



We all have a general knowledge of western conditions, but it was 

 this summer, while visiting that section, that I had an opportunity 

 to study their problems by seeing for myself and by talking with the 

 growers. Tbe western land agents know just how to use the brightest 

 tints of printers ink when describing their wonderful land bargains 

 and their use of superlatives is sufficient to put the advance agent of 

 the modern circus completely in the background. 



Among the many horticultural leaders that I met and conversed with 

 was the head of one of the large fruit exchanges, who seemed to take 

 as much interest in eastern fruit progress as in what was being done 

 in his own section. He was keeping a sharp eye on what his competitors 

 were trying to do and on the probable effect it would have on their 

 business. As I told him of the reviving of interest in horticulture in 

 the east, the rejuvenating of old apple orchards, etc., I said, ''What are 

 you going to do with these high-priced orchards when we get our 

 methods improved and our organizations for fine packing completed in 

 tbe east?" What do you suppose his answer was? "You will never 

 do it!" He practically told me and, through me, he tells you that the 

 Pacific coast grower relies on the lack of business of the eastern grower 

 — upon his laziness, his shiftlessness, his dishonesty, if you please. Was 

 he right? I put it up to you. Did he tell the truth or is it a libel 

 upon the manhood and womanhood of our eastern growers? Your 

 answer must come in the work that you do in the future. Acts speak 

 louder than words and if we continue to practice the slack methods of 

 the past, that man told the truth and we will deserve our fate. But 

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