NINTH ANNUAL MEETING. 39 



same was $2,506,812.38, and now we have but very little 

 use for Malaga, Valencia and other kinds for foreign raisins 

 which only a few years ago were supplying our markets. 



Now we will come nearer home, but let me say before 

 leaving the State of California, that the opinion 

 formed by myself on a recent visit to that State, is that 

 California is setting an example in the raising, handling 

 and marketing of her products which we here in the East 

 will do well to follow. 



Eight thousand car ' loads of grapes shipped from one 

 county in the western part of New York State in one sea- 

 son. Add to this the large quantities grown in other parts 

 of the State and the quantity would astonish any of us. 

 The large amount of apples grown in this country is esti- 

 mated as high as 30,000,000 barrels some seasons; but I will 

 not go farther in this line, for I trust you will agree with 

 me that we have great country and although there is an 

 immense amount of fruit growth at the present time, still 

 the fruit industry is in its infancy and that in ten years' 

 time the increase will equal or exceed that for the past 

 ten years. 



Come, now, back to our own New England States, and 

 we can safely say that the fruit industry is greatly on the 

 increase. Still there is a great chance here right in your 

 own State of Connecticut. Fortunes can be made in the 

 fruit business just as well as to go to California, and you 

 will not have to pay the railroad company one-half or two- 

 thirds of what you get for your products in order to get 

 them to market, as you have the advantage of being near 

 markets, and the very best ones at that. If you put the 

 work in your fruit orchards here that they do there, you 

 will get equally as good results. 



Now what is necessary to make a success of the fruit 

 business? 



First you must go into it to stay, and this reminds me 

 of a story which, perhaps, many of you have heard. The 

 people in a small country town or village thought they 

 would fix up the village cemetery, and raised the necessary 

 funds to do the work with, and one of the improvements 

 which they made was to erect a nice fence around it. 



