THE KANSAS PEACH. 45 



Michigan State Horticultural Society. As an institute lecturer he is 

 without a peer in the state. Possessed of a fund of practical infor- 

 mation, he is able to stand on the platform and pointedly answer or 

 give an intelligent opinion of any question which may come up, and 

 so it is not strange that lecture engagements come to him thick and 

 fast at a large per diem. 



Mr. Morrill began life as a poor boy, and, while now scarcely passed 

 the meridian of life, he has amassed what most of us would regard as a 

 comfortable fortune, but the day will never come when he will be an 

 idler. He finds too much pleasure in his berry fields. 



He has some 400 acres of the best land, in the great lake-shore 

 fruit belt. There are about 100 acres in peaches, only half of which 

 are now in bearing. The raspberry fields usually average from forty 

 to sixty acres : blackberries about forty acres, and some ten acres of 

 currants and a vast amount of other fruits. He is famous as a growler 

 of Little Gem melons, usually having about sixty acres of them. 



His reputation gives everything appearing in market under his 

 well-known trade-mark a special value, and he never strikes a glutted 

 market or receives returns of dull sales. It has been a common thing 

 in other years for returns from his commission house to show double 

 the price of what other fruits of the same varieties sold for. 



Yesterday, while at the Michigan state fair — by the way, one of the 

 largest exhibits the state has had for many years — I ran square 

 against Mr. Morrill, and at once determined to give him a vigorous 

 pumping for the benefit of the readers of the Wester?i Fruit-grower, 

 and so I locked arms with him and started him toward the magnifi- 

 cent fruit exhibit, which I knew would warm him up so he would 

 unbosom himself freely. I finally got him cornered and fired ques- 

 tions at him as follows : 



"What was the amount of your peach sales this year?"' 



"Oh, something over 12,000 bushels from the old orchard (about 

 fifty acres)." 



"I understand you received over seven dollars a bushel for a large 

 quantity of this fruit." 



Here Mr. Morrill shied efP. He said he did not like to answer that 

 question, because so many people did not understand his method of 

 marketing or quality of fruit and were not willing to accept such 

 statements. Fortunately I had. seen the original returns from his 

 commission house, in which large sales had been effected at that price, 

 and when asked if there were not other sales as good, he timidly ad- 

 mitted there were, and would not deny that the cash sales for the or- 

 chard exceed $35,000. 



"Where did you find a market which would take this fruit at such 

 fancy prices?" - 



