WORCESTER COUNTY 



HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



14th January, A. D. 1897. 

 ADDRESS 



BY 



O. B. HADWEN, President. 



Subject: — The Best Disj^osition of Fruit in Heavy- Bearing 



Years. 



The bearing of 1896 was perhaps unprecedented for the produc- 

 tion of apples, amounting to between 50,000,000 and 00,000,000 

 barrels. What to do with this tremendous product has puzzled 

 the whole apple-producing world. The home market has proved 

 utterly inadequate for the supply, and prices have been ruinously 

 low. The foreign market has been glutted, and those who have 

 sent the fruit abroad have in most cases been disappointed. 

 Apples today are as low in London as they are in Boston. Our 

 exporters have sustained severe losses, and on the whole those 

 who have sent apples to England this year have lost money. 



But now, what is the best way of disposing of our immense 

 crop? Perhaps it would be better for the grower to select the 

 very 1)est for the market and use the rest to feed to horses and 

 cattle. It is well known that apples are a nutritious food when 

 properly fed. A peck of apples over which has been scattered 

 two quarts of meal, is a good, nutritious feed, and as good 

 for cattle as apple pie or apple sauce is for man. I have fed 

 thousands of bushels to ray cattle, and I have always felt that 

 they were worth at least tifteen cents a bushel to me. If horses, 

 for instance, are fed two quarts of apples a day or even more, 



