rWENTY-FlRST ANNUAL MEETING. 221 



however, to get such net returns before the other fellow came 

 on the ground, and it was not long- before instead of getting a 

 dollar and a half a basket, with the competition of the other 

 fellow, the price began to fall ofif until we got down to sixty 

 to seventy-five cents, and some growers are lucky to get that. 

 Now, understand me, I am not objecting to it. I am perfectly 

 willing the other fellow should have as good a show as my- 

 self. I am not objecting to the other fellow — any more than I 

 am to the San Jose Scale. Not a bit. I am glad he is here. 

 He is having some fun. He is adding to the gaiety of nations, 

 and making the peach business more interesting, but the truth 

 is that the other fellow keeps coming. Why, a very few vears 

 ago — not over five or six years ago — there were only three or 

 four growers of any consequence around Hartford. Xow there 

 are seventy-five, and they all pile in here with their peaches, 

 in this one market, until they have absolutely swamped it, not 

 only for themselves, but for everybody else almost. By-and-by 

 when we get together through some co-operative scheme, or in 

 some other way w^e will get up some plan to balance the mar- 

 ket, and conditions will be better. 



So the greatest foes, Mr. Chairman, that you cannot con- 

 trol are the frost and the retail dealers. The other things we 

 are learning how to control, and in time I think we will get 

 together with the "other fellow" and be able to overcome that 

 difficulty. 



I thank you. 



A Member : Professor Cummings, speaking about the 

 preservation of peach trees in winter, says that he would stack 

 corn fodder around the trees. I liave tried it this winter, but I 

 expect that the corn stalks will make such a good house for the 

 mice that there will not be very much bark left on those trees 

 by spring. Whether anybody else has tried the experiment or 

 not, I do not know. I just speak of it because if there is any 

 one who has tried it I would like to know what the result was. 



President Rogers : We will skip the next three numbers 

 on our program for the present, and take up "Spraying to 



