STATE POMOLOGICAI. SOCIETY, 6^ 



man was at my house the other day who took them last year and 

 the year before and he said to me, " Why, they are in as good 

 cold storage here as any place in Boston," Ain't going to be fit 

 to eat till along in April and May, and when we get at them 

 they are good easy eating, I can tell you that. 



Now here we are in the State of Maine with most of the apples 

 growing wild like a beechnut. Beechnuts grow wild and they 

 bear once in five or six years. Now I get a crop of Northern 

 Spies every year. They are surer than corn. Most of the 

 farmers don't deserve any apples and don't have any faith that 

 they are going to get any apples, and haven't got faith enough 

 to provide themselves with barrels. But today in the State of 

 Maine we are getting more out of the apples than we are out of 

 the corn, and sweet corn, — more in our town, and all of the 

 towns where there are sweet corn factories, — get more out of 

 the apples than out of the sweet corn — and when they all grow 

 wild. What in the devil we are thinking about I don't know. 

 They grow wild so well I suppose they think they will get them 

 any way. But now let me tell you that if you will go into your 

 orchards and cultivate your orchards as you do your corn fields, 

 you will have no trouble about this bad packing, not the least 

 mite of it. Cultivate the ground. The ground don't want to be 

 over rich. A ground that will bear good corn is all right. The 

 Northern Spy won't grow wild so well as some other kinds will ; 

 hut it will stand culture. You may cultivate it as much as you 

 are a mind to. There are more trees die of starvation than 

 there are die with belly ache. Let them die if they want to, 

 they will die in a good cause. If I pick ten or twelve barrels of 

 apples ofif a Northern Spy tree, if that tree dies it dies in a good 

 cause. My Northern Spies are better and hardier than anything 

 else — grow well — grow right along. 



Here we are finding fault with the packers, but don't go back 

 to where the real trouble is. Now we want to educate the 

 people. Perhaps your legislation may be all right, but we want 

 education with elbow grease. You want to let the farmers 

 understand that they can afford to put work into their orchards 

 and have their apple trees clean, not lei. any witch-grass nor 

 v.-eeds nor anything else grow. Keep the harrow a going and 

 you will be surprised. 



