133 



the age at which we are able to bring trees into bearing at 

 the present. I think it would be better to start a young or- 

 chard and have trees you know are right. I think one mis- 

 take that is being made by a good many of the growlers is 

 wanting a tree to bear too young. I myself would rather a 

 tree would make a good healthy wood growth and then go to 

 work bearing fruit. I knew from experience that a tree al- 

 lowed to bear too young and allowed to bear too heavy will 

 become stunted and will never become a money maker. Tt 

 may bear every year but the fruit will be ?mall and an in- 

 ferior grade. I should not Vv-ant a tree of mine to bear much 

 of a crop under five or six years. I saw a good many treos 

 here in New England last fall that were bearing very heavy 

 at three and four years. 



The question of over production is a problem that ^*s 

 worrying a good many people who are thinking of starting 

 in the apple business, but I hardly believe there will be an 

 overproduction of fancy fruit. There is already an over 

 production of poor fruit. The large acreage of apple trees 

 being planted, does not signify so much, as a large per cent, 

 of the trees being set are not on apple land and also a large 

 number who make the start are doomed to disappointment 

 and will go out of the business. A person who does make 

 the start and makes a success of it will have to work and 

 work hard. Those of you who have been thinking of going 

 into the business don't get the idea into your head that all 

 you have to do is to plant the tree and in five or sis years 

 pick twenty dollar gold pieces from them, because you 

 won't, even though a lot of the literature that is being sent 

 into this section says it can be done. There are thousands 

 of acres being planted in every section of the United States 

 to catch the sucker who is looking for something easy. Hon- 

 estly it is like taking milk away from a baby to see how the 

 people will bite at some of these orchard schemes. 



The Orchard business is a business by itself and needs 

 attention the same as any other line of business. Nobody 

 ever saw a business of any kind that would take care of it- 

 self. Your Apple Show at Boston last fall proved to you as 

 it did to me, and also the Land Show at New York, and Pert- 

 land and Augusta, Maine, shows that New England is going 

 to make a new start in the apple industry, your apple show 

 and vegetable exhibit at ohe New York Land Show was the 

 finest there. 



Very few of the people who figure on going to the West 



