BOARD OP HORTICULTURE, MONTANA. 31 



Taken as a whole I consider the orchard industry in this part of the 

 state to be in a very satisfactory condition, and with the proper care and 

 oversight of the State Board of Horticulture and its inspectors there is no 

 good reason why it should not continue so. 



Its growth in the past five or six years is enormous and at the present 

 rate of increase will in a very few years be one of the most important in- 

 dustries of the state. 



That it is well worthy the fostering care of our state government is be- 

 yond dispute. 



Not only are the interests of the producers concerned but of the con- 

 sumers also, who are entitled to their money's worth of good, clean, whole- 

 some fruit, free from worms or poisonous fungi. Respectfully submitted, 



W. B. HARLAN, 

 Como. Inspector Fourth District 



That inspection is necessary is clearly demonstrated by result of the 

 last year. Butte receives and distributes about eighty per cent, of the fruit 

 shipped into the state, in which is contained an average of fifteen to twenty 

 per cent infection. By proper and constant inspection, and adoption of 

 proper measures, this infected stock can be confined to districts in which 

 there are no orchards, and at the same time avoid working a hardship on 

 the shippers. 



Inspection has also proven a benefit to the consumer — in keeping out 

 of market wormy fruit, and placing a good sound stock on sale. As a proof, 

 it is claimed by a prominent commission company in Butte, that the benefit 

 is not only the consumers' but also the dealers'; that in the fall of 1898 

 the market was glutted with a lot of wormy fruit which so kept down the 

 price of good fruit, that there was hardly a living profit to be had, but by the 

 introduction of inspection this class of fruit was kept out of the market in 

 1899 either through condemnation or fear of shippers to court destruction 

 and loss. 



Much discord has been raised unjustly among shippers by the false 

 and malicious misrepresentations of some unscrupulous dealers in this dis- 

 trict; facts were misrepresented, and action of inspector distorted to the 

 detriment of good work, and to cover unfair dealing of consignee. 



One instance in particular is that of a commission house in Butte writ- 

 ing to a shipper in Oregon that so long as inspection was enforced at 

 Butte he (shipper) should not ship to this point, that it was impossible to 

 ship any fruit which would not be condemned. '. o another, a shipper in 

 Washington, the statement was made that he would have no trouble if he 

 shipped to this particular house; that they "stood in" with the inspector, 

 and that no fruit shipped them would be condemned. These statements 

 were made for two reasons — first, to keep out some stock, thus shortening 

 the market and making better prices for the stock on hand, and the other 



