CENTRAL EXPKUIMENT STATION. 185 



sent to the farmers, they are thrown to one side and never 

 touched agahi. These book peddlers come around and tell 

 them what is in their books they have to sell. They tell him 

 they do not want the book, but he pays no attention to that 

 if he is a successful agent, and he begins turning the leaves 

 and telling what is in the book, and before he knows it the 

 man is interested, and the agent sells him a book. If you want 

 the people to read those bulletins, you have got to do a little 

 missionar}' work. To send them to the people, — you might 

 just as well stick them in the stove, that is where they all go 

 anyway. (Laughter). 



Mr. Somerville: It is a hard matter to distribute informa- 

 tion if the people will not receive it. There are so few peo- 

 ple that take an interest in horticulture whatever, that I do 

 not know how j'ou are going to get at it. As Mr. Harris has 

 well said, there is a large percentage that do not know there 

 is a state experiment station in the state. If we give them 

 any work on horticulture, it is laid on one side, and they hardly 

 ever look at it. They may be educated in everything else in 

 the line of farming, but horticulture receives no consideration 

 whatever. They have a good lot of hogs, they have all kinds 

 of stock, and it looks well, but they never have any fruit; they 

 will eat pork and beans the year round, and that seems to 

 satisfy a certain class of people. You ask them why they do 

 not grow fruit, and they say. ■• You can do it. but I can't do it; I 

 have not got the time, but you have nothing else to do." 

 (Laughter). 



Mr. Harris: They are like the farmer who drove up to my 

 place during the past year and wanted some apples. I had six 

 bushels sorted out to feed to my hogs. He wanted a few bush- 

 els, but when I asked him twenty-five cents a bu.shel for them, 

 he said he quessed he would take the lot. I told him I had 

 sorted them out for my hogs, but he said thoy would answer 

 very well for him, and he took the lot. (Laughter.) 



Mr. Somerville: After the hailstorm passed over my place 

 we found it had knocked off about two hundred bushels of 

 apples. We picked up the best of them and took them to the 

 Rochester market. The ground in the orchard was covered al! 

 over. There was lots of apples lying on the ground which we 

 did not pick up, and the people came in swarms for several 

 days and picked up those very apples that were hardly fit to 

 feed to the pigs. They came from a distance of eight to ten 

 miles. I asked them the question, "Why don't you raise ap- 



