STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 43 



I was overwhelmed with the planting of apple orchards in 

 Missouri, where a single variety is often found in a block of 

 lOO acres; and there are orchards of i,ooo and 2,000 acres in 

 extent. In passing through these magnificent orchards the 

 question arises, what shall we do, here in the East, to offset 

 this enormous extension of orchards? As we ,?o into our mar- 

 kets we find the Pacific coast is here with us. It becomes an 

 important cjuestion, in the future, to know how we are to meet 

 competition which is forced upon us in our own markets from 

 California fruits. The attractiveness of those fruits, the man- 

 ner in which they are packed and sold, are all of vital import- 

 ance to us to understand who contemplate planting orchards in 

 New England. Because it is a fact that they are rapidly usurp- 

 ing our position in the Eastern markets. California fruits are 

 to-day leading, they are preferred by the buyers, — perhaps not 

 so much by the consumers^ — but the buyers prefer the Cali- 

 fornia fruit, and why? Because the California horticulturists 

 have learned the important lesson of not only growing fruit 

 well, of putting it up in the most attractive manner possible. 



It was my privilege to stand on the great Erie dock and see 

 a large cargo of fruit sold. It was an important lesson learned, 

 why such an enormous amount of that fruit was sold. I saw, 

 upon one occasion, over sixty different marks of fruit sold in 

 sixty seconds. That is, the different marks were put up and 

 sold and struck off every second for sixty seconds, continu- 

 ously. It was possible because the fruit was packed so that every 

 buyer knew how it was packed. They knew the quality of the 

 fruit, and when it was offered they had to bid like lightning to 

 get it. And that is the way California fruit is sold. 



This brings to us an important question as we contemplate the 

 extending of orchard planting in the Eastern States. That is 

 the question of reorganizing our entire methods. Western 

 orchards are in a high state of cultivation. We can no longer 

 compete with them, but when we plant orchards to-day, we 

 must learn from the Western growers, we must exert 

 our best efforts, our best thoughts, and bring the trees into 

 bearing in the quickest possible time. 



How, then, can we shorten the time of bringing orchards 

 into bearing? 



