FRUIT CULTUEE. 47 



fruit trees, because the nurseryman comes round and shows 

 them his line pictures and induces them to buy his trees. 

 They think it will be a very nice thing to have fruit in their 

 gardens, and it will be ; but when they have set out the trees 

 they know no more about taking care of them than they do 

 about tending a steam-engine, — and very few know any- 

 thing about that. But when the time comes that a man will 

 make it a business, and set out an orchard and take care of 

 it, he can get somebody from Boston or somebody from New 

 York who will be ready to buy his fruit. Why ? Because 

 they seek the best. When a man goes on to some mountain 

 and sets out an orchard, and then lets his yoked-up oxen 

 into it, to push his trees over and scrape off the bark, if a 

 man comes from Boston to buy his fruit, although he may 

 have forty or fifty acres of apple orchard, the man will look 

 it over and say, " Those apples will not sell in the market ; 

 they are not what I want." A man came to our place from 

 Boston this past season and wanted to buy our apples. He 

 went into an orchard of about ten acres, looked the trees 

 over, and said, "Well, Richard, what is the price of those 

 apples done up in barrels and delivered at your station?" 

 I gave him my price. He said no more until about the time 

 of his departure and then said, " I will give you within five 

 cents a barrel of what you ask. You ask |1.80 and I will 

 give you $1.75." Now, my friends and neighbors have 

 been glad to get $1.50 or even $1.25 a barrel for apples. 

 That orchard had been well taken care of and this was the 

 result. 



One thing that has been spoken of to-day, and a very 

 important thing, is in regard to marketing fruit. This man 

 to whom I refer has had our apples once befoi e and when I 

 sent them to him I said, "I will never hear another word 

 from those apples after they are delivered at the depot ; " 

 and sure enough I never did, except that he sent a check to 

 pay for them. I said this year, " I am going to put those 

 apples up so that there will be no fault found with them," 

 and th(!re never was until the man found that somebody 

 would let him have apples for $1.15, $1.20 or $1.25 a bar- 

 rel, — a little less than I offered them for ; but he said, " The 

 apples are very good and I am going to stand it." 



