INDIANA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 191 



real wealth, and to give any real aid to those contemplating large plant- 

 ings I can only present to you brief outlines of our experience embracing 

 both successes and failures. 



Commencing at earliest recollection of rowing a sliiff twenty miles 

 against the current of the Ohio River with our day's picking of peaches, 

 about twenty bushels, to reach the market of Madison, Indiana, we 

 gradually increased our business till we found it necessary to charter a 

 steamboat at $50 a day in order to get our daily shipments of one to 

 two thousand bushels to the railroad, after which, we have paid as high 

 as $300 per car expressage to reach our own commission house in Chicago. 

 Even then we had left a profit until the acreage of orchards in our 

 vicinity became so large that prices were reduced so as to make these 

 high rates of transportation prohibitory. Seeking to lower these rates we 

 were compelled to use refrigerator and later ventilated cars and slower 

 transportation, necessitating the picking the fruit greener, at a serious loss 

 in size and a terrible loss in quality of fruit. As there is no fruit that 

 suffers greater loss of quality by being picked too green, this acted as a 

 means of lessening the demand and causing a further reduction of prices. 

 As the river freight to Cincinnati was much cheaper than to northern 

 markets, growers were forced to throw the bulk of their shipments into 

 that city until that market was so congested that profits were obliterated 

 and failure inevitable. 



Now, the principal points to be deducted from this are not only to 

 select favorable location but also best market facilities, and then keep 

 a high standard of quality by a thorough system of cultivation, pruning, 

 thinning, and picking only thoroughly ripened fruit, as the difference 

 between first class and poor stock often varies two hundred per cent.— 

 the best always selling first, and these being carefully followed. I can 

 say that I believe the outlook for profits are better than for ten years 

 past, and that Indiana can and does grow as fine a quality ot peaches 

 as the earth will produce. 



President Stevens: Mr. H. W. Henry is next on the program. 



POSSIBILITIES OF PEACH GROWING IN NORTHERN INDIANA. 



BY H. W. HENRY, LAPORTE. 



We are located twelve miles from Lake Michigan, but we are on the 

 wrong side of the lake. The east side of the lalve is best for peach 

 growers, but I would say to northern Indiana farmers, plant a few peach 

 trees, because you can get a crop once in three years on an average. I 

 have a new orchard that is seven years old, sixty trees in the orchard. 

 I think now there are forty. Hard winters killed one-third of them. I 



