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of any that he received. And the same opinion has been 

 expressed to the writer on many occasions by those who have 

 taken the pains to test the comparative merits of onr jSTew 

 England apples and those of Oregon, Colorado and other 

 western sections. Now, if this is so, the importance of this 

 one fact more than outweighs all other possible advantages 

 that the west can have over us. " Quality " ought to be our 

 motto, to be kept constantly before the attention of our 

 growers, from the time they select their varieties till the 

 ripe fruit is put in the hands of the consumer in absolutely 

 perfect condition as to growing and handling. It ought to 

 be dinged into the ears of the consumer and in every way 

 possible brought to the attention of the other senses, — par- 

 ticularly his sense of taste, — until to call for Kew England 

 apples would be not the last but the first thing that he would 

 think of doing. 



A third factor which certainly ought to stand in favor of 

 the New England orchardist is the matter of markets. If 

 he is competing on anything like equal terms with his west- 

 ern competitors in other respects, it would certainly seem 

 that the fact that he is right in the midst of the best markets 

 in the world, while his competitors are three thousand miles 

 crway from them, ought to give him the difference in the cost 

 of freight and express rates as a margin of profit, or a handi- 

 cap over his competitors. The thing to do then is to make 

 the terms equal, to so adopt up-to-date methods, — whether 

 they be western, northern, southern or eastern, — that this 

 market factor shall stand to our credit. Unfortunately, this 

 nearness to markets has in the past worked as much, if not 

 more, against as for New England fruit ; for, while the grower 

 of good fruit finds it easier to get his product into the hands 

 of the consumer, so does the man with wormy or windfall 

 apples for sale, and as at present the old, worn-out orchards 

 of New England are producing an unfortunately large 

 amount of this class of fruit, the customer is led to believe 

 that this is about all we grow here. While our western 

 friends are so far from market that no one is rash enough to 

 ship windfalls or other refuse on here, so they are spared the 



