208 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



results since that time have been that, barring; unfavorable 

 conditions and freeze-ups and heavy storms in the South, 

 prices have invariably ruled rather low for our greenhouse 

 lettuce. This year, fortunately for the New England man, 

 and unfortunately, I suppose, for the southern grower, prices 

 have ruled much higher. New York has been buying our 

 lettuce in large quantities. Lettuce has been shipped to the 

 western part of New York state and even farther west than 

 that, and these outside demands have kept our market clean 

 and in a healthy condition, and lettuce has ruled at a good 

 price, something like the old times. But, taken as a whole, 

 the southern competition is becoming keener and keener. It 

 seems to me that the southern grower is rather outstripping 

 tis. While he started way behind us, as it has been 

 said that the western fruit grower started behind and 

 had to follow the examples of the eastern men for awhile. 

 I think we will have to admit that the western fruit 

 grower can teach us a few lessons in intensive methods and 

 perhaps in packing his stock. So it is with vegetables. A 

 few years ago the southern growers were laughed at. I think 

 it was live years ago, at a meeting of this sort, I was talking 

 on vegetable gardening, and I said we would have to look 

 ahead to southern competition, and one of the most prominent 

 market gardeners in the Boston trucking section got onto 

 his feet as soon as I was through, and he began to criticise 

 me for the statement. He said he had recently visited the 

 southern section, and they were 25 to 50 years behind us in 

 intensive methods, and there was absolutely no danger of 

 their becoming keen competitors of ours. At that time lettuce 

 was selling for $1.00 and $1.50 a bushel. It wasn't long, per- 

 haps four years after' that, when we were selling lettuce at 

 10 cents a bushel, that this same man said he thought I must 

 be a prophet, he didn't know as much about the conditions 

 as I did. But I knew of a number of eastern men down South 

 who would bear watching. xA.nd I rather suspect the reason 

 the western men are giving you eastern fruit growers such a 

 run is because they were eastern men, and the eastern man in 



