The trouble, my friends, it seems to me, is that we in ISIew 

 England have looked at this fruit business from a too narrow 

 point of view. We have allowed our markets to slip away 

 from us, and given the public the impression that the " big 

 red apple " of the west is the only apple for it to buy. We 

 have got into the habit ourselves of thinking that New Eng- 

 land used to raise good fruit, before so many insect enemies 

 and fungous diseases came, but that now the struggle is too 

 unequal. If it had not been for these pests and diseases I 

 shudder to think of the condition fruit growing would be in 

 now. It has been a blessing in disguise. We have to fight 

 for what we get, and nothing is worth having that does not 

 represent effort and skill. 



Let us briefly consider some of the specific advantages New 

 England offers. Think what our near-by markets mean to 

 us. 'Within several hundred miles of Boston are twenty or 

 more millions of people, the great majority of whom are con- 

 sumers, not producers. / Wealth to a great extent is concen- 

 trated here. People of means generally buy the best the mar- 

 ket affords. It is to these same people that the Pacific coast 

 fruit growers, three thousand miles or so away, are catering; 

 but think what a handicap they are under. It costs them 

 about 50 cents freight to place a box of apples on the market, 

 while with us it is only a fraction of this. We should be able 

 to take advantage of local conditions, but they are often unable 

 to ship their fruit in time for a rapid rise in price. 



When I was in Hood River, Ore., last November, the 

 Union was shipping only a few cars of apples daily, when 

 they should have been shipping fifteen or twenty, but they 

 could not get the refrigerator cars, they did not have adequate 

 facilities for storing, and much of the fruit went down. On 

 account of the danger of freezing in crossing the Rockies, it 

 is almost essential that fruit be shipped from there before 

 December 1. 



This shows how absolutely dependent they are on the rail- 

 roads, their only means of reaching the eastern market, while 

 we may be far more independent of them./ It is seldom neces- 

 sary to ship in refrigerator cars, and, moreover, manv mar- 



