142 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898. 



soon as the price warrants it, a shortage will be made good from 

 somewhere, and this, with cold storage to carry fruits over a 

 longer period of time, prices in the future will not show such 

 extremes of variation, but will be more uniform. 



Much has been said and written in regard to the barrenness of 

 our soil and the severity of our climate, preventing us from 

 growing many of the choicer kinds of fruits. 



This may be true to a certain extent. Still, we need not get 

 discouraged, for, from what I have seen and been able to learn, 

 I am convinced that those who have suitable lauds, favorably 

 located, can, with proper care and business capacity, make the 

 growing of fruits as profitable in Massachusetts as in any other 

 part of our country. 



We hear many flattering reports of the fruits grown in differ- 

 ent parts of our country — the quantity of fruit produced, the 

 ease with which it is grown, and the money that can be made in 

 California, Florida and Georgia in growing fruit. This may 

 look well on paper, but when the plain facts are known the low 

 price which the fruit brings if sold to local dealers, and the 

 unsatisfactory returns received when the fruit is shipped on 

 commission to northern and eastern markets, it is evident we 

 have no need to envy our southern and western competitors. 

 We should always bear in mind that the nearer we are to mar- 

 kets where the population is a consuming rather than a pro- 

 ducing population, the better will be the prices obtained for our 

 products. 



We may not be able to grow fruit with as little care and ex- 

 pense as in some of the newer parts of our country ; where 

 everybody can grow with little expense a certain fruit, the price 

 of that fruit is correspondingly low, for every one wants to sell 

 and no one wishes to buy. 



We have here in Massachusetts the advantage over any other 

 portion of our land, in that we have the best markets that the 

 country affords at our very doors, and our population is a con- 

 suming and not a producing one. 



Of all the fruits grown in Massachusetts, the apple stands 

 first, and not only is it first with us, but of the fruits of the tern- 



