109 



MR. FRASER OF NEW YORK. Yes. 

 MR. BURRITT. But of course you must rermember 

 that most of those growers inherited their orchards from 

 their fathers and we have no knowledge what it cost th'3 

 fathers. The father of this man I speak of, who had $1100 

 from one acre grew those orchards and was on the verge of 

 bankruptcy for ten years, in order to keep that orchard 

 growing, with no income coming in. He was all but sold 

 out in 1890 on his mortgages. The whole income was from 

 farm crops. About 1895 the orchard began to bear, and 

 when the man died ten years later he left upwards of 

 $5d,000, all made from a 100 acre farm. The father left that 

 orchard to his two sons, who make a big gain from that 

 farm, now, from this plant which he left them to do it with. 

 It is like going into the business of manufacturing soap, 

 where your father built the whole plant and equipped it and 

 gave it to you and you say that now you are making so much 

 money. But really, your father did it. That is the case 

 with Western New York. Most of them were grown under 

 circumstances the expense of which we have no accurate 

 knowledge. But as a general thing, I think the man who 

 has it now and takes care of it, averages about $75. 



MR. BARNES OF CONNECTICUT. In view of the 

 fact that your estimates are from Western New York which 

 therefore may not be wholly in touch with conditions here 

 m Massachusetts and Connecticut, quoting orchard land at 

 $90 and $100 and more per acre, I would like to say that in 

 our locality in Central Connecticut a very short time ago, 

 in the revaluation and classification of agricultural land for 

 the purposes of taxation, land suitable for orchard purposes 

 was finally classified and A'alued at about $50 per acre, just 

 for the land. In going about in Massachusetts and Ne^v 

 Ham-pshire — I find what appears to be much land of good 

 character that I think can be bought for very much less than 

 the values that have been mentioned here as prevailing in 

 regions further west. I would like to call your attention to 

 that. 



