75 



ing fruit, else we should not have adopted horticulture as a 

 profession; and personally I believe that there is no better 

 country in the world than right here in Massachusetts in 

 which to engage in the business. 



In the first place, Massachusetts can grow fruit of the 

 very highest quality. We can't grow as good Ben Davis as 

 they can in Colorado and Missouri (and personally I wish 

 that we would stop trying to), but no country in the world 

 can beat us on Baldwins and Greenings and Hubbardslons 

 and a dozen other similar varieties, if we will only take care 

 of our orchards. And while in the past anything has sold 

 that was red and had the shape of an apple, yet as competi- 

 tion increases, and as people become educated up to an appre- 

 ciation of what an apple ought to be, quality is going to count 

 more and more, and Massachusetts will have more and more 

 advantage, if she will only take it. 



In the second place, we are right in the midst of the best 

 markets in the world. There are 23,000,000 people within a 

 radius of 300 miles from the spot where we now stand, and 

 no equal number of people anywhere on the globe has a 

 larger proportion who spend money freely for just such nec- 

 essary luxuries as fruit. 



But this nearness to markets is both an advantage and a 

 disadvantage. It is an advantage, because we can get our 

 fruit to market cheaply and quickly, and when we come to 

 compete with Oregon, we ought to have the difference in 

 freight and express as a lever on our side. But it is also 

 a disadvantage, because we are so close to those markets 

 that every man in Massachusetts who has a barrel of windfall 

 apples sends them to market, in the hope of getting something 

 for them; and though he usually realizes on this hope, yet 

 sometimes he doesn't. And in any case, whether he gets any- 

 thing out of it or not, he gives a " black eye " to Massachu- 

 setts fruit in general which it is often difficult to overcome. 

 One of our greatest needs at the present time is to devise 

 some scheme to keep poor fruit out of the market. Of course 

 the ideal remedy for this is not to grow poor fruit, but until 

 we arrive there, what are we to do ? 



