EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 33 



So much for our disadvantages. Now, let us look at 

 some of the advantages. 



One of the first and by all odds the most important, is that 

 we can grow fruit of the highest quality. We don't always do 

 it ; for quite often we do quite the reverse. But we can if we 

 will. One of the famous apples of Nova Scotia — perhaps the 

 one which is the favorite, is the Gravenstein. They can grow 

 them to perfection. Yet I have seen in Massachusetts as fine 

 Gravensteins as were ever grown in Nova Scotia. And other 

 varieties the same way. New England Baldwins and Rhode 

 Island Greenings and Hubbardstons and Wealthys are the 

 equal of any grown anywhere. 



While in Nova Scotia I was greatly interested in reading 

 some letters that an old friend of mine had received from the 

 late Charles Downing. One which interested me particularly 

 was where Mr. Downing said that from only one other sec- 

 tion had he received as high-class fruit as he had from Nova 

 Scotia, and that was from the Tennessee and North Carolina 

 mountains. And he attributed the excellence of the fruit to 

 the high altitude in the one case and the high latitude in the 

 other. We ought to adopt "Quality" as our slogan. And we 

 ought to advertise the fact that our apples are of the highest 

 quality! Insist on it, in season and out of season, that we 

 have the best grown. 



Second, there is no question but that we have the finest 

 markets in the world right around us, and if such a thing 

 should happen as that we should produce more than our mar- 

 kets could take care of, we have the European markets to fall 

 back on. Nova Scotia depends on them altogether, and her 

 fruit growers were always trying to get freight rates equal to 

 the freight rates out of Boston, but could never do so. Cer- 

 tainly we have a distinct advantage in getting into the English 

 markets in the matter of freight rates. 



The next general advantage is in the matter of labor. 



In our operations at Amherst we have had practically no 

 difficulty in getting first-class labor at reasonable rates, and 

 when our plantation becomes established I believe we shall 

 have still less difficulty. It is a further advantage to the fruit 



