72 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



is it best that we should ? But, as farmers are situated at 

 the present time, and as they may be situated for some 

 centuries, perhaps most of them will " go it alone." Many 

 fruit orowers will "go it alone " also : but it is for the fruit 

 grower who is going it alone to study the situation pretty 

 closely. There are opportunities for him to study the 

 scientific side of it, that is, the side of plant nutrition 

 and cultivation, the question of the insects and fungi that 

 work injury to fruit. There are wonderful opportunities 

 through the work of our experiment stations and our agricult- 

 ural colleges to obtain information, which is free to every 

 one who will ask it, and it does not cost much to send a 

 postal card ; so that there is no reason why an individual 

 fruit grower cannot be well informed, if he will only take a 

 little trouble. The people of New England have far greater 

 opportunities for supplying the markets at home and saving 

 the profits which go to the railroads from the fruit products 

 brought here from the South and West than the people in 

 any other section of the country. It is an added advantage 

 that you can daily or weekly go into the markets and study 

 them. That must be done if you would be successful. Study 

 the markets ; see how the fruit arrives there, see why certain 

 varieties sell better than others, and see why at certain 

 seasons certain packages among a number sell for more 

 money than the others. But after studying and knowing 

 all these things, even then I Ijelieve that the man, instead of 

 undertaking to grow a great variety of fruits, should as far 

 as possiljle have a specialty, and produce only one or two 

 varieties, aim to produce them better than anybody else, 

 make a name for his fruit, make a name for himself, and 

 he can get a great deal more for every barrel, basket or 

 package that he sends to market. There is a wonderful 

 deal of profit in a good name. 



Some one asked me at the hotel to go into detail this 

 afternoon in regard to the methods of preparation of the 

 soil and the feeding of the soil for these different fruits, and 

 the general methods of planting. It seems to me that in a 

 single afternoon, especially in view of all that has l)een 

 published and is continually being published in all the 

 agricultural and horticultural papers, and the al)undant 



