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be had at prices which will give the man starting an orchard 

 on them a tremendous advantage over the man who starts on 

 the high-priced lands of the west. If one can buy land 

 ready to set out to trees at $25 per acre, — and this can 

 be done in many parts of New England, — he has just one- 

 quarter of the capital to pay interest on which the man has 

 who uses $100 land, and his chances of paying dividends 

 are that much better. The skeptical may ask, " If this is so. 

 why have our New England lands so long gone begging ? " 

 and the writer frankly admits that he would like to ask that 

 question himself, though he certainly does not want to be 

 classed among the skeptical as to New England's possibilities 

 in orcharding. As nearly as it has been possible for the 

 writer to figure out a reply to this question, -^ which is cer- 

 tainly a legitimate one and an important one, if we are to 

 convince those intending to go into orcharding that New 

 England has distinct advantages to offer them, — the reasons 

 are about as follows : — 



1. There is the almost universal feeling that an orchard is 

 a long-time investment ; that it is going to take years before 

 any returns will be received from it ; that, while it might be 

 all right as an investment for one's children, the one who 

 planted it could not expect to get much out of it; and this 

 feeling has been heightened and strengthened here in the east 

 by the records of small family orchards, set years before the 

 orchard was thought of as a serious business proposition, and 

 without any care whatever they have taken a long time to 

 come into bearing. 



2. We are so largely a suburban community here in New 

 England that truck crops and dairying have been profitable ; 

 and once these branches were started, they naturally kept 

 in the lead, as farmers are proverbially conservative and 

 slow to change into new lines. 



3. There has been too long a feeling here in the east that 

 we could not compete with the west in any line of agricul- 

 ture. When grain crops were the main feature of farm oper- 

 ations, and when the grain States of the middle west were 

 first opened up, it ivas a one-sided fight ; and our eastern 



