NINTH ANNUAL MEETING. 35 



trust. Still, they will do better if they know we have one 

 of our own men there, looking into the way they are doinjif 

 business, and keeping them posted as to what is coming 

 along from the orchards. While this Society, as a whole, 

 cannot go into the business of marketing a great peach 

 crop, it would be advisable for those of us who have 

 orchards to form some sort of combination and hire some 

 one good man for each of the principle cities of New 

 England, and let them look after the market end of our 

 business. We shall have enough to do at home in caring 

 for our orchards and in the gathering of our fruit. 



Mr. Innis suggested the formation of a committee to 

 look up the amount of fruit likely to be coming into the 

 markets this year. 



President Hale said: Such a committee could spend a 

 thousand dollars or more to very good advantage and get 

 excellent results. I am very seriously of the opinion that 

 with the present prospect the Connecticut peach crop 

 of 1900 can be made to bring several hundred thousand 

 dollars more by organization, especially among the small 

 growers, than it will without, and to do that would cost 

 less than $5,000. It would be a pretty good investment, if 

 you are willing to join hands and do it. The larger 

 orchardists are in better position to take care of them- 

 selves, for experience has taught them that they cannot 

 depend upon local markets alone, and they already have 

 outside business connections, always shipping their surplus, 

 and in some instances their entire crop, to outside markets. 

 There are a great many owners of small lots of trees — any- 

 where from one hundred to five hundred — who will market 

 fruit for the first time this year. Every one of these men 

 have planted with the idea of selling that fruit within 

 twenty-five miles of home; they have planted with this 

 idea; they have cultivated with this idea, and they will 

 come up to the time of gathering the fruit with this idea, 

 and they will go into the market and meet there many 

 more who have had the same idea. If things go on as 

 they now promise, Connecticut's local markets are going 

 to be "busted wide open." The crop will be sold for less 

 than half what it is worth, yet within three hundred miles of 



