328 State llo)ticnUitnil Society. 



million trees. Orchards of two or three hundred acres are not uncom- 

 mon in the west. A few years ag^o the production of cantelou])e melons 

 was restricted to scattering- local patches of an acre or a little more; 

 now there are whole counties almost given over to melon production, 

 and some of the greatest sources of supply are 2,000 miles or more from 

 the people who consume them. This last season between 5,000 and 

 6,000 carloads of melons were produced east of the Rocky Mountains. 

 There seems to be a constantly increasing demand for fruit and flowers. 

 Why, in one country town in Missouri they. ship 50 carloads of straw- 

 berries a day for two weeks. ' The increase in consumption of fruit is 

 out of all proportions with the increase of population. The fruit sales 

 multiply ten-fold, while the population increases less than one. Towns 

 that half a dozen years ago used $1,000 worth now get away with 

 $10,000 worth. In his trip he was asked repeatedly why eastern people 

 did not supply their own markets, instead of permitting growers thou- 

 sands of miles away to ship to them. He believed the reason was be- 

 cause the eastern people were not as wide-awake and enterprising. These 

 westerners are looking up this matter, and some of them are moving 

 to the east and buying up abandoned farms, and are going to be com- 

 petitiors right at home and put western energy and skill to bear on New 

 England soil. He would advise small growers to combine, to unite in 

 shipping and marketing. What the fruit growers of Central New York, 

 and in fact all over the country need is not brains, but the use of them. 

 He thought co-operation and even corporate organization might be just 

 as good in fruit growing as in making tin or glass, or selling hardware. 

 One man excelled in growing, another in packing, and a third in selling. 

 A partnership of the three would make a complete firm capable of coping 

 with difficulties all along the line, from the planter to the consumer. 

 Better business methods must be adopted. There is much of crudeness 

 in the producing, and especially in the packing and selling of fruit. 



There are factors besides nearness of market to favor the eastern 

 grower. In the middle west, trees are short-lived. Fifteen to twenty 

 years is considered the limit in Kansas of an apple-tree's usefulness. 

 Here they produce abundantly for three or four times as long. We need 

 not produce more bushels than we do now to double or treble our receipts. 

 Put more care and brains into the growing and selling. Apples from the 

 Pacific coast are selling in New York at 25 cents each, $1.50 per dozen, 

 and at 7 cents each per one-bushel box. They spray all summer, and 

 each apple is sprayed and kept covered with Bordeaux, and when the 

 fruit is ripe each apple is carefully wiped. It looks like a good deal 

 of drudgery to wipe every apple, but the difference between 25 cents 

 apiece and 25 cents per bushel will pay for a whole lot of wiping. The 



