44 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY [1911-12 



chusetts were still handled aloi g the old lines, with the result 

 that the great bulk of our apples were put upon the market in 

 a condition to absolutely repel purchasers — undersized, of 

 poor color and shape, worm eaten, bruised and otherwise inferior. 



With this condition the apple growers of Oregon and Colorado 

 had an easy task in gathering the cream of the New England 

 trade and in driving even our best producers to accept low 

 prices for their goods. 



To the gentlemen who organized the New England Fruit 

 Show this situation was most distasteful. They felt that such 

 an exposition would be of immense value in bringing really 

 good home grown fruit to the attention of the consuming public. 

 Those who attended that Show last October certainly went 

 away with the firm conviction that the West had nothing that 

 could compare with what was shown in the halls of the Mass- 

 achusetts Horticultural Society. The first prize barrel of Bald- 

 wins exhibited at the Show were sold to a Boston dealer for 

 six dollars. He in turn sold them to a Boston consumer for 

 ten dollars, and the purchaser has been to him this fall asking 

 for another barrel of the same quality at the same price. This 

 instance shows the effect of the Fruit Show on one man who 

 attended it. It made him a firm admirer of New England 

 grown fruit and willing to pay any price to secure the best in 

 the market. That it had a similar effect on the great consuming 

 public is without question. The prices paid for apples in our 

 Massachusetts orchards this year show that New England 

 fruit is at last coming into its own with New England consumers, 

 and a large part of this change of sentiment may properly be 

 credited to the New England Fruit Show and what the public 

 learned there. 



The second great effect of the Show on Massachusetts was to 

 improve the quality of the crop as a whole. The farmers and 

 others owning orchards who attended that exhibition had a 

 splendid demonstration of what intelligent care would do in 

 improving and developing the apple crop. The great banks of 

 splendid fruit, the barrels and boxes shown for prizes, the 

 individual plates of carefully selected specimens, all had their 



