34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



way." " Set out currants where apples in Belmont and vicin- 

 ity control the market! How can we expect to compete? " 



The trouble, my friends, it seems to me, is that we in New 

 England have looked at this fruit business from too nar- 

 row a point of view. We have allowed our markets to slip 

 away from us, and given the public the impression that the 

 " big red apple " of the west is the only apple for it to buy. 

 We have got into the habit ourselves of thinking that Xew 

 England used to raise good fruit, before so many insect ene- 

 mies and fungous diseases came, but that now the struggle 

 is too unequal. If it had not been for these pests and diseases 

 I shudder to think of the condition fruit growing would be in 

 now. It has been a blessing in disguise. We have to fight 

 for what we get, and nothing is worth having that docs not 

 represent effort and skill. 



Let us briefly consider some of the specific advantages New 

 England offers. Think what our near-by markets mean to us. 

 Within several hundred miles of Boston are twenty or more 

 millions of people, the great majority of whom are consumers, 

 not producers. Wealth to a great extent is concentrated here. 

 People of means generally buy the liest the market affords. 

 It is to these same people that the Pacific coast fruit growers, 

 three thousand miles or so away, are catering; but think what 

 a handicap they are under. It costs them about 50 cents 

 freight to place a box of apples on the market, while with us 

 it is only a fraction of this. We should be able to take advan- 

 tage of local conditions, but they are often unable to ship 

 their fruit in time for a rapid rise in price. 



When I was in Hood River, Ore., last November, the 

 Union was shipping only a few cars of apples daily, when 

 they should have been shipping fifteen or twenty, but they 

 could not get the refrigerator cars, they did not have adequate 

 facilities for storing, and much of the fruit went down. On 

 account of the danger of freezing in crossing the Rockies, it 

 is almost essential that fruit be shipped from there before 

 December 1. 



This shows how absolutely dependent they are on the rail- 

 roads, their only means of reaching the eastern market, while 

 we may be far more independent of them. It is seldom neces- 



