26 



one in believing tliat we liave only to take hold of the in- 

 dustry in a business-like way to make it the equal of orchard- 

 ing in any other section. 



Let us briefly review the situation with the western apple 

 growers and see what factors have contributed to their suc- 

 cess. To begin with, their orchards are most of them young, 

 many of them right in their prime and others just coming 

 into bearing, so that the fruit which they are producing there 

 at present is the very best that many of these orchards will 

 ever produce. I do not believe that the importance of this 

 factor is half appreciated by our ISTew England orchardists, 

 who are trying to compete against this class of fruit with 

 fruit from orchards long past their prime. Until we get 

 orchards on a par with the west as tO' age, we shall not be 

 competing with them on anything like an equal footing. 



In the second place, the orchard business is a great indus- 

 try with them. Whole districts do little else than grow ap- 

 ples, and with this immense capital at stake, and with every 

 man in the section talking and thinking and even dreaming 

 of nothing but apples, the industry is bound to forge ahead. 

 This is a well-recognized principle in any industry, yet one 

 which we have systematically neglected here in l^ew Eng- 

 land. If Denmark had had only a handful of men scattered 

 over the country who were engaged in dairying, it would 

 never have become the leading dairy country of the world. 

 And if we are to put the orchard industry of New England 

 on a satisfactory footing, one of the first steps that must be 

 taken is to get more people engaged in it. I have repeatedly 

 urged the importance of this, for I believe that too much 

 stress cannot be laid upon it. 



The third factor which has certainly contributed to the 

 success of the western fruit is the fertility question. Their 

 lands are new, virgin soils, full of all the elements of plant 

 food, and the fruit grown on them has all the raw materials 

 at its disposal which it can possibly use at any stage of its 

 development. "We here in New England are growing the 

 fruit which we expect to compete with it on lands which are 

 many of them already worn out with constant cropping, and 



