3t6 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



in; but people have long ago found out to their cost that the fellow who 

 wears the goods or cousumes them, pays all the cost every time. 



There is another thing against the barrel. Cold storage tests lliat 

 have been made show that it is almost impossible to get tlie interior ol .1 

 barrel of apples as cold as the outside. Many pacliages. when opened 

 up, show that the outside layers are sound while in the center or' Ihe 

 barrel the apples are more or less weak or perhaps rotten, beciUise they 

 are in a sweat box in there. The cold storage plant is a very great factor 

 in the successful handling of fruit. We have euougli cold storage houses 

 in the country, if we used them properly. Th;^ trouble is that we have 

 been keeping our apples until they were ready to spoil and then pu;ting 

 them in cold storage and getting poor results. I should like to have my 

 fruit in cold storage the day it is picked from the tree, if that were 

 possible. 



Now, as to the sale of your fruit. That, of course, is a local question 

 with each of you, but as a rule, each one should settle upon some regular 

 market. Go to this market and get in touch with the best commission men 

 there, get acquainted with them and have them get acquainted with you. 

 Get them to visit your orchards and let them see how you are growing tlie 

 fruit. Let them have a thorough knowledge of every detail of your busi- 

 ness. If you are doing it well, they will have faith in you, and if you are 

 not doing it well, they will not have faith in you, and the sooner you find 

 that out the better. If you are gi-owing and packing your fruit properly 

 they will go home and say, "I have some apples or peaches from such 

 and such a man, and they are all right. 1 know they are all right, be- 

 cause I have seen him take care of them." The customer may say, "Oh. 

 yes, but the dealer across the street has some fruit that looks just as 

 good, and he asks twenty per cent, less for them." "Yes," the dealer may 

 say, "but I know this is all right." and in the end he gets the price for 

 them. Get your commission man to believe in you. but first have a lirm 

 •belief in yourself. We have heard a good deal of talk about the commis- 

 sion men robbing us right and left. 1 do not think that is true. The com- 

 mission man can not afford to do it. Of course, there are some men in 

 every business that are not straight, but there are more honest men tlian 

 crooked men among them, and you must remember that you can find 

 some awfully crooked fruit growers if you will begin to look for them. 



Now, I have traveled along on this snl)joct far enough, and said enough 

 to stimulate you to ask questions. I don't know all about the business, oi' 

 a very small part of it, and I have been making mistakes all my life. 1 

 do know, in the bottom of my heart, that the fruit business in America 

 to-day is the best business in sight for brains and energy and capital. I 

 believe in Indiana to-day the soil conditions, the climatic conditions and 

 the market conditions, located as you are in the very center of this wealthy 

 United States of America, make the opportunities along horticultural 

 lines greater than in any other direction. Those who are fitting them- 



