H2 NEBKASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



misguided resident of Lincoln who owns some land in the Grand valley 

 in Colorado, who assures me gravely that my figures are all wrong ana 

 that we can not raise apples profitably in the state ol' Nebraska. The 

 only reply I could make was to lay the whole thing on, Mr. Marshall and 

 invite my critic to attend this meeting. I sincerely hope he is here; in 

 which case it will be my endeavor to let him hear some things that will 

 be good for what ails him. 



I scarcely think it worth while to waste time in arguing the question 

 of Nebraska's ability to raise apples of marketable value at a satisfactory 

 profit, when we have this last season, according to the reports published 

 in Better Fruit, the organ of the northwest growers, grown and marketed 

 more apples than the state of Washington. The important thing at this 

 time is that we show to the outside world as well as to our own people 

 the potential value which lies awaiting the touch of trained intelligence 

 and willing hands in the future orchards of the state of Nebraska. 



There are some things about the people of the Northwest which 

 awaken my sincere admiration. One is their public spirit. I had occa- 

 sion late last September to take a roundabout journey from Pendleton, 

 Oregon, by the way of Walla Walla, Washington, up the Columbia river 

 to Pasco, in order to catch a main line Northern Pacific train fof North 

 Yakima. A good portion of this little journey lay through the unsettled 

 country back of the Columbia river on the edge of Oregon and across the 

 river in similar country in the state of Washington. There are no moun- 

 tains there with their fascinating beauty, and a more desolate and gen- 

 erally God-forsaken country it has never been my misfortune to look 

 upon. We stopped at a flag station where an abandoned freight car 

 served for a depot. Up the slope from the railway stretched a wilder- 

 ness of sand, hub-deep to the wagons that followed the toiling horses. 

 Sage brush and grease-wood everywhere. Not a tree in sight. But along- 

 side the track was a forty-foot sign board, twenty feet high, advertising 

 "THESE CHOICE ORCHARD LANDS— $3U0.00 PER ACRE AND UP." 



And that commands my admiration. It lakes "some class" to promote 

 a patch of sand that was worth fifty cents an acre but yesterday, and to 

 sell it for $300 an acre today. 



NOT A POOR MAN'S GAME. 



I submit that the orchard industry in the Northwest is no longer a 

 poor man's game. Permit me to reproduce here a portion of one of my 

 recently published letters from this country. 



"They talk apple lingo out here in the jargon of the plutocrat. In- 

 cidentally they have some few apple trees now growing; the report of 

 Commissioner Huntley for the year 1911 shows that there are over 7,000,- 

 000 apple trees in the state of Washington, and they are still planting. 

 Presently they will have enough so we can all have an apple apiece any- 

 how. 



"If outward signs count for anything, the orchardist is not unduly 



