WINTER MEETING AT LEBANON. 251 



because a good share of the time he will be engaged in hiding out from 

 his creditors. But m order to more fully point out the reasonable 

 prospects of those who would engage in this industry, I will present a 

 few estimates in detail of what may be expected from the culture of 

 our most staple fruits ; and I would say here that the standard objection 

 of the doubtful Thomases, over-production, is one I have heard for 

 twenty-five years, and I presume was heard twenty-five years before I 

 heard it, and will be heard long years after we are all forgotten. Yet 

 overproduction has never overtaken this industry, and never will of 

 those fruits that are in popular demand, if well grown and placed on 

 the markets in attractive shape. 



That there are varieties and grades of fruit which may not be pro- 

 fitable to grow and market, I do not deny; as instance the peach crop 

 of the past season, when thousands of bushels rotted in the orchard — 

 some before ripening, some after — because they would not pay to ship ; 

 and yet peaches have sold in the market this season as high as six dol- 

 lars per bushel. The unprofitable result to the one was through ignor- 

 ance of the proper variety to suit the market he would supply, perhaps 

 much of it to his method of culture ; to the other it was the reward of 

 intelligence and industry. The better methods of peach culture are so 

 well known that it is almost useless to repeat them, and I defy any one 

 to point out an instance where they have not brought success to the 

 planters who located in a district where climatic conditions were reason- 

 ably suitable to the growth of this fruit, and he had ordinary facilities 

 for marketing the product. To sum up in a few words, it requires con- 

 stant and thorough cultivation, heavy pruning and the thinning of the 

 fruit to the capacity of the tree to fully develop. This is the price of 

 success in peach culture — no more, no less. Of course there are insect 

 enemies to fight, but insect enemies and diseases are enemies or friends; 

 it depends on how you look at it. My neighbor destroys these pests 

 and protects his crop. I fail to do so, and my crop is destroyed. The 

 law of supply and demand rewards my neighbor with the price both 

 our crops would have brought ; this he could not have secured if it had 

 not been for his insect allies working on my crop. So with the apple. 

 Of the hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of apple trees that have 

 been planted in Missouri, perhaps not one-half have ever come into 

 bearing, because of the carelessness and neglect of the planter ; not 

 one in ten perhaps were of varieties that were profitable. Then is it 

 any wonder that the impression is held by many that apple-growing is 

 not profitable"? Now let us look into this matter and make a few com- 

 parisons. An apple tree given ample room occupies four square rods 

 of land, or about the same amount as is required to grow one bushel of 



