SIXTPJINTII ANNUAL MEETING. r,7 



A Member: 13o you use fertilizers? 



AIk. Cox: Nothing but sod mulch, manure and straw. 

 Professor Green says it will pay better to bu}- straw ratljer 

 than manure. 



A Member : Do you prune your apple trees nuicli? 



jMr. Cox: Not like we used to. I suppose if Mr. Hale 

 should see my trees, he would say those trees were the worst 

 he ever saw. I don't head in usually, although there are sev- 

 eral reasons whv you should keep the trees low ;■ one is to keep 

 the wind from blowing them over or breaking ofif, another is 

 to keep the ground moist underneath them, and the apples 

 from being whipped oft' in a heavy wind. 



A Member: How early do they commence to bear? 



Mr. Cox : ^^'hen they are four years old I have seen some 

 trees have a barrel of apples to a tree; others not until they are 

 six and seven years old or older. 



I want to talk a little about politics before I get through. 

 Not republican politics nor democratic politics, but farmers' 

 and fruit growers' politics. We want to talk about laws that 

 are needed to protect us in our business and for the general 

 good of the country and oppose legislation for special classes 

 or privileges. If monopolists take undue advantage of us w-e 

 want to have the privilege of getting redress in some way. I 

 want to say that I am heartily in favor of the parcels post and 

 we should have it. We pay the express companies too much 

 for their services and Uncle Sam can do much of the work for 

 less than half of what the express companies charge. I re- 

 cently heard Mr. Lupton of Virginia state that the publisher 

 w'raps up his papers one in a package and Uncle Sam takes 

 them to any part of this country and delivers them for one 

 cent per pound, or he may take a large bundle of them and 

 send to any post office and the postmaster opens the package 

 and delivers a paper in a place for one cent per pound. What 

 would happen to the fruit grower and his customers if he could 

 send some apples through the mail at one cent per pound, or 

 could send a box to the postmaster and he would open it and 

 find the name on each apple and he should deliver them one or 

 more in a place for one cent per pound? (Laughter.) Of 

 course that is an extreme case, but there can be a happy 

 medium. 



