STATit POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. yi 



People were told that they could get twelve per cent for their 

 money by building up western towns and farms and they saved 

 every dollar to send there for investment. Much of it was lost. 



If the Yankees of New England had been wise enough and 

 shrewd enough to invest every dollar of that money in New 

 England, I tell 3^ou New England would be a grander place than 

 it is. 



Now why are these men coming back from the west? Why 

 is the tide changed to New England ? There must be a reason 

 for all this. In the first place the people say there are better 

 chances near the coast. There are two things which enter into 

 the job of making a living ; the cost of producing and the cost of 

 selling. It takes so much money in Maine to produce a barrel 

 of apples, and so much in Kansas to produce another barrel. 

 The Kansas barrel is probably cheaply. You can probably pro- 

 duce them for less money in Kansas than in Maine but how 

 about the markets? If you will draw a line twenty-five miles 

 west of New York and run that line right, through Eake Cham- 

 plain and then stop and see what you have got, you will find that 

 you enclose the homes of eight or ten million of people. It is 

 the best market on the face of the earth. You will find more 

 people who demand every fresh dainty and delicacy, than you 

 will in any other place of equal area on the face of the earth ! I 

 say a man who is right here inside this area has the advantage 

 of the market over a man i,ooo miles away. They find they 

 can produce almost everything in the west at a lower price than 

 they can on the New England hills, but when it comes to selling, 

 what then? The western farmer is suporting three families. 

 His own family on the farm, and the families of two other men 

 that stand between his farm and the consumer, but who pay 

 absolutely nothing toward handling the crops which he produces 

 on his farm. These men who went to Nebraska and Kansas 

 and even farther west say that it cost so much more to market 

 their crops that they are receiving less for their labor than the 

 New England man. 



These men say if they were back on these old hills they would 

 at least be in "God's country." ''If I were only back in God's 

 country !" I have had people tell me that many times in the west. 

 ''If I could see the Hudson, if I were only back in God's coun- 



