STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 229 



THE COMPETITION 



in the market as to fruits is frequently a serious question. Large 

 stocks are shipped here from a distance just at the time when 

 home-grown fruits are ripe, and hence we come in competition 

 with the foreign shipper; the prices are reduced in consequence, 

 the profits are confined to narrow limits, if actual loss indeed is 

 not sustained. We cite, in this connection, the experience of a 

 small fruit grower at Rochester, in this State, who raised this 

 season 35,000 quarts of strawberries, some of his grounds pro- 

 ducing more than three hundred bushels to the acre. With this 

 enormous yield he finds the business hardly pays a fair return, 

 in consequence of foreign competition. We can not hope to cut 

 off competition wholly, but may we not be able to control the 

 market, more or less, by striving to produce and offering for 

 sale the very best and choicest stock! A first-class article is in 

 demand and always brings the highest price. If we can grow 

 the finest fruit why should we not receive the highest price? 



THE APPLE QUESTION. 



Perhaps no subject is presented at our annual sessions posess- 

 ing greater interest than this, or one more calculated to provoke 

 the liveliest discussion. There is in fact no more important sub- 

 ject for consideration at our hands, because the question of our 

 ultimate success is still so problemetical. And hence the sub- 

 ject will in various aspects be considered at this meeting. 



The seedling question has received attention from those com- 

 posing the commission chosen for the purpose of making per- 

 sonal inspection of hardy, seedling trees, and their reports will 

 prove most valuable to all who seek for information as to native 

 seedling fruits, as well as other matters dwelt upon. 



Prof. J. L. Budd, in his last annual report, as secretary of the 

 Iowa State Horticultural Society, says: ''On ordinary prairie 

 soils over an extent of the West equal to half a dozen of the 

 small kingdoms of Europe, the home and commercial orchards 

 are killed, or hopelessly crippled, to an extent not known in the 

 history of this country or any other. Timber soils have not sus- 

 tained their reputation as favorable orchard sites in Iowa, In- 

 diana, Wisconsin or Illinois. Even so far south and east as La- 

 fayette, Ind., the fine young orchard on the grounds of Purdue 

 University has been grubbed without the reservation of a single 



