38 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



don't know why they could not grow pedigreed stock as well as any- 

 thing else. That is about all I have to say. 



PRESIDENT JEFFREY. How are you going to get the vast ma- 

 jority of tree planters to pay the price ? 



MR. MARKLEY. I don't think it would cost much more. I have 

 sold trees a little, and I don't know why it would cost me any more to 

 raise a tree from a pedigreed tree than any other. 



PRESIDENT JEFFREY. A nurseryman must be paid a price for 

 that skill. How are you going to get the average grower to support him 

 in that work? 



MR. MARKLEY. The average fruit-grower is as intelligent as the 

 average horse-grower. They have been educated up to that. I believe 

 you could educate them up to it. (Applause.) 



MR. DARGITZ. Mr. Chairman, I believe that I would like to add a 

 point toward the question that the Chairman has just raised about the 

 expense of getting pedigreed stock in this way. I think the customary 

 price for budding that nurserymen pay the orchardists who cut them 

 for them is something like $2.50 for a thousand buds. Take it for 

 granted that the thousand buds will produce 500 trees — I think it 

 ought to do that — that makes about one half cent per tree per bud. 

 Suppose that for these pedigreed buds the nurseryman had to pay ten 

 dollars per thousand buds: I think he could get them for that, and 

 on the same ratio of production it would make the buds for his trees 

 cost two cents per tree instead of one half cent, The added expense, 

 therefore, is only one and one half cents per tree, and if there is any 

 nurseryman that can't stand an average of one and one half cents for 

 producing trees that will outrank all other nursery trees produced, let 

 him add a cent and a half or even three cents to the price of his trees, 

 and he will have no trouble to sell them, providing he can convince the 

 buyer that he is giving him just this kind of stock. It is a fact that can 

 not be successfully disputed that in any orchard and any variety of 

 trees, with the same care, from the same nursery and the same time of 

 budding and all, there will be a difference among those trees in the 

 productiveness. There will be also a difference in the quality of the 

 fruit, You will find trees here and there in the orchard that will pro- 

 duce more fruit and better fruit than their neighbors, the other trees 

 alongside of them that have had an equally good chance. Now then, 

 if we want to bring up the productiveness of our orchards, doesn't it 

 stand to reason that those trees should be marked just as indicated and 

 that the buds for propagation should be taken from those identical 

 marked trees! If we will do that we will build up the productiveness 

 of our orchards. The same principle prevails exactly that prevails 

 among animals, and where is the man who is going into the stock busi- 

 ness to grow cattle or horses or hogs or sheep, if he followed out the hit- 

 and-miss, haphazard manner of selecting his breeding stock that we fol- 

 low in selecting our stock in planting orchards, would not come to grief 

 very promptly? If he did not he would deserve to. There is no oppor- 

 tunity for success in the stock business unless a man uses exceedingly 

 great care in the selection of his breeders, and there is no reason why we 

 should expect great results, satisfactory results in the development of 

 our orchards and the productiveness of our orchards unless we use the 

 same good common sense in the selection of the buds for the propagation 



