TWENTIETH ANNUAL MEETING. 103 



quarts that are worth from 8 cents to 10 cents a quart, or 

 $240 to $400 an acre, as ai^ainst the $80 or $90 in Vineland. 

 And as for grapes, that wonderful Mneland will yield over a 

 couple of tons to the acre, and they are worth $40 a ton, $80 

 an acre, and the abandoned side hill on the abandoned farm 

 in Connecticut, if planted with vines, are g'ettino- 4 to 5 tons 

 an acre, which are worth $50 to $60 a ton, three times as 

 much. 



Now^ what about Delaware, selling out and going to Del- 

 aware to grow peaches? What has happened? Only four full 

 crops in the state of Delaware in the last 15 years, and those 

 have averaged less than 500 baskets per acre, worth 40 cents 

 a basket. 



Connecticut in the same time has had 12 full crops, and 

 we get from 700 to 800 baskets an acre, and they are worth 

 60 cents a basket. That is the story of the stay-at-home and 

 the runaway. 



Then Florida, what has happened in Florida? The 

 freezes have taken up every orchard, and they haven't had 

 nuich to do but scratch fleas all the year 'round, those that had 

 money enough, and those that didn't, could scratch for money 

 to live. Get crops in four years, and sell for less money to-day 

 in the markets of Florida, or the markets of the world, than 

 the apples that grow on the deserted hills that the fellows de- 

 serted to go to Florida and get rich growing oranges. 

 (Applause.) 



Go- on further to the land of the Ozarks, where they were 

 going to get rich. What has happened? They have had a 

 few splendid crops of inferior apples. Their average price 

 in the last ten years wasn't $2.50 a barrel, their trees live to 

 be 15 to 18 years old, many of the orchards of ten years ago 

 are things of the past to-day. They get a good crop about 

 once in three years, and their apples average about half the 

 price of apples on the markets that good Xew England apples 

 do to-day. Those who have stayed behind, who have filled up 

 this society from those 17 members to more than 700 at the 

 present time, they are responsible, in a large way. for the dis- 



