STATE POAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 59 



the last few years has been simply from the good reports that 

 have come to the growers here from that section in the middle 

 West, and perhaps some sections in the South, where it does bear 

 wonderfully well. It is of a beautiful appearance as you know, 

 and it has more quality in some other sections than can be put 

 into it here in Maine. By the way, that is not saying very much. 

 I do not know but what Jonathan might be relatively as poor in 

 Maine as the Ben Davis is. But still there may be some evi- 

 dences to the contrary — some of you may have it and know that 

 it does do very well. I want to say incidentally, that a plate of 

 apples on the exhibit table down stairs labeled "Jonathan" is 

 not this variety at all. 



Another thing which would impress a New England Yankee 

 out in that section, is the relative size of the young trees. At 

 six or eight years of age they are often as large as trees nearly 

 twice that age in many sections. The oldest commercial orchards 

 are only i6 or i8 years of age. so you will understand that the 

 apple industry here is really in its infancy, and none of the 

 orchards have yet come into full bearing ; many of them have not 

 yet borne their first crop of fruit. 



HOW ORCHARDS ARE FINANCED AND OPERATED. 



Just a word in regard to how some of these great enterprises 

 are financed might be of interest. I do not suppose that any 

 two of them are financed in exactly the same way, but, of course, 

 it costs an immense amount of money to get that land and to get 

 an orchard into bearing condition, especially if the land has to be 

 cleared for this purpose, as is often the case. Many of these 

 large enterprises are stock companies, with a comparatively small 

 number of shareholders ; many, too, are merely partnerships and 

 some are purely individual efforts. I will take one specific 

 instance that I have in mind. It is one of the largest companies, 

 ■operating the most extensive orchards in that whole Ozark terri- 

 tory. They have planted in three different places something like 

 2,500 acres. The company has a general manager. The man- 

 ager goes to the orchards as often as he thinks it is necessary, 

 perhaps once a week, perhaps once in two weeks, the frequency 

 of his visits depending largely upon the season of the year. At 



