46 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The varieties which are peculiarly adapted to New England 

 conditions are, when well grown, of the very highest degree of 

 quality and excellence. Our markets are here in the East. Nearly 

 one-third of the population of our entire land is found in the Eastern 

 section of the country. New England apples, if of good quality, 

 find a ready market in the chief cities of our great Middle West, 

 mid even the extensive orchards of Michigan do not by their nearness 

 • lose the markets of Chicago and the Northwest to New England 

 fruit. Our New England apples, particularly the Baldwin, are in 

 great favor across the water, and this already great demand can he 

 still further increased by a better business arrangement regarding 

 the sale of our product there. Much is beginning to be said 

 regarding both over-production of apples in the East and competi- 

 tion from Western box apples. I do not for a moment fear over- 

 production in the best varieties and grades which we may grow. 

 I have heard this talk, in various forms, all my life, and still the 

 demand for apples which I may grow is greater each year and the 

 average price per barrel is considerably higher this present decade 

 than it was during the past decade. Neither do I fear the competi- 

 tion of Western box apples. If there is any overplanting of apple 

 trees anywhere on our continent, and if there is to be an over- 

 production of any grade of apples which reaches our markets, it is 

 going to be, in my opinion, in Oregon and Washington, where 

 perhaps it may be said they have gone apple crazy, and it will be 

 this high-grade fruit which costs some $300 per car in transportation 

 before it is even placed in our markets. When we adopt Western 

 methods with our varieties we may be assured of all the markets 

 we can supply. We have got to have a greater confidence in our 

 soil, climate, varieties, and markets, or in other words, in this superb 

 combination of economic conditions which places us in the strongest 

 possible strategic position, and most of all faith in ourselves that we 

 may utilize all these natural forces and produce the finest apples in 

 the world. Some countenance and counsel large orchard operations 

 in New England. Large operations are all well and good for those 

 who are skilled in orchard work and in the modern methods of 

 orchard management, but I believe the interests of the apple industry 

 of New England will be best served by making the unit of orchard 

 operations reasonably small. A few hundred trees or a few acres 



