82 STATE POMOLOOICAL SOCIETr. 



the orchard. The solution of the problem is not to see how much can be 

 gathered from our trees without giving auj-thing in return, but rather 

 how great expenditure of time, money, and generous intelligent care can 

 be made profitable. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Hale. The subject of this paper by the ex-president of the 

 society is of great importance. We farmers and land owners generally 

 put too much stress, however, upon the mere matter of production. It 

 is one thing to jjroduce a crop, it is another thing to sell it. We farmers 

 and land owners perforce of circumstances are capitalists, laborers and 

 business men all combined. Xine-tenths of us forget that we are any- 

 thing else but laborers. We work too hard and think and plan 

 too little. We have capital invested in our business, and we put 

 labor on top of the capital ; and if we have put brains to work with 

 it we get good results. When we get good apples we are only half- 

 way along the road to success. The business man's end of selling them 

 is a big end. We should study first what the markets want, not what 

 some tree agents tells us we want; and as a rule it is big, red apples. 

 And you will find out, as Mr. Pope has found out, that the highest prices 

 are paid for the fruit that reaches the market in the finest order. They 

 pa}' for style, weight and honest packing all the way through. Then 

 find a commission man who appreciates that kind of goods. Well grown 

 and well packed fruit is half the battle ; then put in the hands of the 

 right man in the right market at the right time and it brings the dollars. 

 Apples may be produced for fifty cents a barrel. The question whether 

 you sell them at fifty cents or three dollars a barrel lies s^erj- largely 

 Avith yourself. If you produce fifty cent apples j'^ou will find somebody 

 that will take them. If you produce three dollar apples you will find 

 somebodj' that wants them. When the market breaks it is the low 

 grade goods that hang fire and sell slowly. The high grade ones always 

 command a good price. 



I do certainly believe that commercial orchards of good, red winter 

 apples, varieties that suit your locality and your soil would be a source 

 of great profit to you. You cannot raise the Baldwin or Southern 

 Beauty, but there are some varieties that j'^ou can raise. I have said since 

 I came into the hall that I would have a hundred acre orchard of the 

 Dudley's Winter or my name would be something else besides Hale. I 

 believe if some of you farmers here who have 100 or 200 acres of good 

 land would have the gimp to plant 100 acres to apples they would call 

 you bloated bondholders, j'^our profits would be so great from that 

 orchard. But do not do it unless you like apples and like trees. If you 

 love potatoes and would rather pick up potatoes than apples, keep on 

 with the potatoes, and you will probably make something out of them. 

 But if you enjoy seeing a tree grow and enjoy handling fine fruit, you 

 will not only get great fun but ten times as much money out of it. Tlie 

 greater quantity you grow the easier you can sell them. When >ou have 



