No. 4.] FRUIT GROWING. 217 



three circumstances may be cited to prove the contention. 

 The late Charles Downing of Newburgh, New York, was an 

 authority of international reputation on fruits, and received 

 samples from all over the continent. He once wrote a letter to 

 an orchardist of Nova Scotia in which he said that from only 

 one other section did he receive fruit of as fine quality as from 

 the northeast corner of the United States and the southeast 

 corner of Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, New England 

 and New York), and that was from the mountain districts of 

 Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, where the altitude 

 gave the same general climate as the latitude did to the first- 

 mentioned section. We believe this is a common impression 

 among authorities and among consumers, and while we do not 

 want to press the comparison at all, we do believe that the 

 opinion of such a man as Mr. Downing carries great weight, 

 and that our fruit must certainly be of high quality to have 

 called forth from him such a statement. 



Another bit of evidence along the same line is the case of one 

 of the large business men's clubs of Boston. It had been their 

 custom for several years to buy their apples from a distant 

 orchard section, where fruit of beautiful appearance and good 

 quality is produced. One season a member of the club visited 

 a large fruit grower of Massachusetts, and became so enamored 

 with the Wealthy and Mcintosh apples that he saw (and ate) 

 there that he persuaded the commissary department of the club 

 to place an order for apples with this orchardist. The result 

 was that the Massachusetts apples won such favor among the 

 members of the club that they were used exclusively from that 

 time forward. 



Second, in the matter of land values there is not the shadow 

 of a doubt that Massachusetts can offer phenomenal oppor- 

 tunities. Of course as one gets close to the larger centers 

 values are high, and yet even here they are not as high as in 

 many orchard sections. Moreover, it is frequently possible to 

 find, even in these near-by sections, a somewhat isolated tract 

 of land which is admirably adapted to orcharding and yet 

 which is extremely low in price. And when one is willing to go 

 back from the larger centers the land values at once become 

 A'-ery moderate indeed. Even in some of the best orchard sec- 



