No. 4.] FRUITS FOR LOCAL MARKETS. 75 



the country to the city, ])ut back to the soil. You will grow 

 better apples on that farm in Michigan than on any land in 

 Massachusetts or New England. It isn't a quarter as good 

 for it, — and you know it, — but God bless you, you are 

 going to try and do it there, and you will succeed. 



Mr. E. P. Williams (of Ashfield). How tall should we 

 allow a tree to grow ? 



Mr. Hale. I wouldn't want a tree, when bending with 

 fruit, to be more than 12 feet to the top, and would rather 

 it would be not more than 8 feet. 



Mr. Williams. Well, how will you get any fruit close 

 to the ground ? 



Mr. Hale. You go up on the hills and you will be able 

 to, away above this low ground. Get up into the pure air ; 

 climb the hills, I want my tree close to the ground, and 

 for the other advantages I get I am willing to risk the loss 

 of some fruit on lowest branches. 



Mr. Williams. The Ioav limbs is where we get all the 

 second-quality apples. I don't want an apple tree too high, 

 l)ut I like a tree that it takes a twenty-foot ladder to pick. 



Mr. Hale. I can't aftbrd to fool with that kind of tree. 

 It costs too much to prune, spray, thin fruit and finally har- 

 vest it. 



Mr. Williams. You can't get good apples if you go to 

 the top of the mountain, — if you have those low-head trees. 



Mr. Hale. That doctrine has made the majority of the 

 people of New England say that apple growing doesn't pay. 

 'Now, you are a good, honest brother, and I know you mean 

 it, — but it isn't so, just the same. 



Mr. Williams. How many apples do you get off that 

 tree? 



Mr. Hale. I didn't get heavy into apples until within the 

 last ten or fifteen years. If I had known what I do now 

 when I was a boy, it would be the millennium for me now, 

 I have some old, high-headed trees, though, and the yield is 

 8 to 12 barrels per tree. 



Mr. Williams. I want to find out what 3^ou get ; I 

 wouldn't give a cent for a tree that wouldn't bear more than 

 10 or 15 barrels of apples. 



