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376 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
or three years begin to bear fruit. This is particularly noticeablein | 
the villages, where thousands of trees are seen on vacant lots and 
uncultivated places. Until quite recently but little attention has. 
been paid to the planting of budded trees, because many of the 
seedlings are really good, and they cover the season from June to 
November; but growers are beginning to realize that it pays best to 
grow only the best and that mixed lots do not take well in the mar- 
ket. Thecrop this past year was the greatest ever known, and those 
who had orchards of budded varieties, like Elberta, have realized 
such profits from them that greater attention will hereafter be 
shown to the growing of the best budded kinds, and it will undoubt- 
edly soon become the great peach region of the world. Both early 
and late varieties will be planted; the early to catch the markets of 
the north and the late for the south. This year the peach ship- 
ments amounted to about 200 carloads, divided between four or five 
shipping points. Within five years it is expected to exceed 5,000 car- 
loads. 
The industry of apple growing has already assumed much greater. 
proportions than we had expected. Nearly every farmer in the 
counties of Benton and Washington has his orchard, and some of 
them are quite extensive. While we were there, the towns of Ben- 
tonville, Springdale, Fayetteville and other shipping stations were 
virtually turned over to the apple growers. The sidewalks were 
blockaded with apple barrels and long lines of wagons loaded with 
apples were waiting in the streets for their turn to unload, and you 
may well believe that one northerner enjoyed the show and was 
happy. Careful estimates placed the surplus of merchantable fruit 
of these two counties at 1,600 car loads, in addition to the large quan_ 
tities that are canned and evaporated,and that it would net the farm- 
ers and fruit growers more than one-half million dollars. This (1897) 
has been an exceptional or bonanza year for them, owing to their 
own remarkably good crop and the partial failure of the crops over 
a greater part of the country. It cannot be expected that such 
results will be obtained every year, or that every man who engages 
in the business will meet with such marked success as most of 
them have this year. 
The country is equally well adapted to the production of straw- 
berries and other small fruits. Itis but a few years since some one 
discovered that strawberries could be grown there with phenomenal 
success and that they could be put into the markets a few hours’ 
ride northward two or three weeks ahead of their home product, and 
now the industry is assuming gigantic proportions, and plantations 
are being made of from ten to fifty acres. A good method, too, is in 
operation there for the distribution of the fruit. It consists of local 
and county associations as branches of a central association with 
headquarters at Springfield, Mo. This central organization is to be 
kept posted on the condition and quantity of the crops through 
correspondence with the secretaries of the different associations ; 
also, on the state of the markets in different parts of the country 
through local agents; also to secure favorable transportation rates, 
negotiate sales, etc., which is expected to ina greatygmeasure prevent 
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