132 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



ADVERTISING THE APPLE. 

 Frank G. Odell, Lincoln. 



I am like the congressman, I always have leave to print, and the 

 crowd can get it afterwards. I am sure that I need not make any apology 

 to this audience because of my somewhat hurried state this week, and the 

 fact that this paper is incomplete. After I shall have read what I have 

 written and have said all that is in my mind, and in my heart to say con- 

 cerning this subject, I think you will have had enough. 



The title .of this paper is sufficiently novel to attract attention in a 

 Nebraska audience, whatever its merit as to subject matter. Two years 

 ago one would have been regarded as foolish had he publicly favored 

 advertising one of Nebraska's chief products; today there is no news 

 item more eagerly sought and printed than that which deals with the in- 

 teresting fact of Nebraska's present high rank as an apple state and her 

 assured future preeminence. 



I use the term "assured future preeminence" with some ground for 

 the faith which is within me — permit me to say frankly that I am not an 

 expert horticulturist; it would be a matter of some difficulty for me to 

 readily identify more than a dozen varieties of apples; bugs and scales 

 and crown galls and cankers are not my famliar acquaintances; but when 

 I see fruit such as glorifies yonder auditorium and realize that there are 

 not less than four million acres in eastern Nebraska which will pro- 

 duce its equal under skilful attendance, it is not presumptuous to speak of 

 the future of Nebraska orcharding as assuredly preeminent. 



I presume that your capable secretary asked me to prepare this paper 

 for a reason which is known to most of you; about four years since, my 

 first visit was made to the highly exploited fruit growing sections of the 

 Northwest; the Irresistible fascination of artistically displayed fruit in the 

 Tnass took strong hold of my imaginative faculty and like most visitors to 

 that country I was captivated by v/hat seemed to me to be its possibilities. 

 For weeks I was brought into hourly contact with the infectious atmos- 

 phere which pervades the personality of every citzen in that progressive 

 country. The spell of the mountain and lake, coupled with the genial in- 

 fluence of the ubiquitous land boomer laid strong hold on the senses; I 

 frankly confess that had I then been free to invest, it would have been 

 an easy task to get what little money was in my possession in exchange 

 for a few acres of desert; now it is different, I know better. 



Since that time it has been my privilege to make several other jour- 

 neys into "the land of the apple," so called, and with unusual opportuni- 

 ties for observation, I have been able to learn some things exceedingly 

 profitable to me, and, I trust not without profit to the state which we love. 

 It is concerning these things which have been revealed to me that I desire 

 to talk with you briefly on this occasion: 



