FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 6i 



bcfcirc plantiiii;- an apple orchard. Until one has gone through 

 tlie trials and paid the expense of g-ro\vino- an apple orchard. 

 they fail to realize what it means. I have a friend who is an 

 apple grower. He planted an orchard seven years ago of 35 

 acres. He estimates that it has cost him, up to date, more 

 than $225.00 per acre, and he has not picked a crop yet. This 

 man will make his fortune from this orchard in time, as it is 

 admirably situated, has had the best of care, is planted with 

 three of the best and most profitable varieties for his locality, 

 and, above all, he is an expert apple grower. How many in 

 this audience would have the capital, patience and ability to 

 develop such an orchard as that ? 



I do not wish to be pessimistic on this subject, as I am a 

 firm believer in the future of the apple business for those who 

 are willing to care for their trees in the proper manner, and 

 who know how and where to sell the fruit to the best advan- 

 tage;- but I know there are thousands of men who would be 

 better ofi:' financially to-day if they had not planted any apple 

 orchards. As an illustration, one of my nearest neighbors 

 twenty years ago planted about five hundred apple trees, 

 largely Baldwins. He struggled along, hoping against hope 

 to get some proper return, but he was growing to be an old 

 man, and the tide seemed to be against him, and finally two 

 years ago the farm was sold under the mortgage to another 

 man. Xow, the man who planted the trees thought, as many 

 others do, that it would be a waste of good land not to save 

 the hay that grew under those trees, and he, for years, had 

 been getting good crops of hay, but he wondered why his 

 apples did not grow more and better. The new owner mowed 

 the grass and let it go down, and the second year he had fifteen 

 hundred barrels of as fine fruit as I ever saw. The orchard 

 has now gone into the hands of the right man, and he will 

 make money from it. That is one side of the picture. On 

 the other hand, if one has land which is adapted to the pro- 

 duction of apples, and is able to grow the trees up to a bearing 

 age as they should be grown, and above all and beyond ?\\ is 

 up in the little details that go with the business, T say by all 

 means plant apple trees, and you will receive a rich reward 



