Some Things to Think About 



The first thing any fruit-grower is interested in is the future of his business. The man who has a bearing 

 orchard wants to know this because he must decide what part of his attention should be given to fruit; and 

 the man who is just at the point of planting an orchard, or who has young trees coming on, wants to know 



Fruit 

 Profits 



Market 

 Demand 



because the success of his whole investment and all his work depends on the profits to be made 

 from fruit in the future. 



In the fall of 191 1 we said in our advertisements that by 1920 the wealthy farmers would be 

 the fruit-growers. There will be other wealthy farmers, for thrift during many years always will 

 bring its reward;' but no farmers will get wealth so easily or so quickly as those who grow fruit. It is a 

 part of nineteenth-century progress. Every man who has land, and every man who can get land, should open 

 his eyes to the fact that fruit-growing is now the best-paying business in America, and that it is getting better 

 year by year. There are sound reasons for this state of affairs, reasons that have sprung into being during 

 the last ten or twenty years. Fruit-growing is no more a passing fad than is wheat-growing or coal-mining. 

 Up to within the last fifteen years fruit was thought to have little real food value. It was considered a 

 light dessert, to be eaten when you wanted something that tasted good. It never was considered to have 

 much nutritive value, though a few people thought that it was health-giving and medicinal. Now all this 

 is changed. Apples, for instance, are now known to contain more actual food, pound for pound, 

 than potatoes. Fruit has come to be recognized universally as the safest food to eat, and when 

 eaten at the right times and in proper amounts will help the body to get in good condition and 



stay so. 



These facts are mentioned here to show why the present demand exists. Knowledge of the food- value 

 of fruit will become ingrained in every man, woman and child, more and more, as time passes. That this is 

 taking place, is shown by the fact that families who formerly were satisfied with a bushel of apples, a few 

 peaches at ripening time, and a couple of quarts of berries, now buy and use fruit half the year. Foreigners 

 nearly always are fruit-eaters before they come across the water, and they want fruit when they come here. 

 The movement for more fruit takes in every class. There are more fruit-eaters, and every one of them eats 

 a bigger share of fruit than formerly. A few years ago it was almost impossible to go to a city market and 

 buy apples or any other fruit that was not badly bruised. With apples the barrel never was a good market 

 package. Every specimen packed in a barrel is a damaged specimen when it comes out. With peaches and 

 other fruits it was the same — the effort of the grower ended when he got a package that 

 would hold together a bushel or so. He didn't care much how the consumer found the fruit. 

 Methods Now the apple-box is replacing the barrel for all the better grades, peach-baskets in car- 



riers deliver peaches to consumers in a condition almost as perfect as when they left the 



orchard; cherries, plums and quinces that have been shipped 3,000 miles, with never a bruise, are to be 

 bought on all the markets. 



In orchards, similar revolutions have taken place. Good orchardists no longer use props some years 

 and have empty trees other years. They thin their fruit, and grow larger, finer specimens. It is pure care- 

 lessness to have wormy fruit, as proper spraying will control codling moth, just the same as it controls 

 scales and other fruit and tree enemies. Pruning, cultivating and fertilizing have their place in producing 

 fine fruit — fruit that sells on any market, when packed right, for twice and even five times what were high- 

 est prices a few years ago. Even at that, consumers are getting more for their money, for all the fruit 

 they buy is perfect, and there is no waste. So the orchardist who will take proper care in producing his 

 fruit, and then pack it right, always will find markets at prices that pay all expenses and leave at least 

 enough to make 10 per cent interest on a valuation of $1,000 an acre for his orchard. 



This brings up another point. There are tens of thousands of acres of land over the East which 

 are not paying wages of $1 per day to the workers, let alone interest on the money invested. Such 

 farms can be bought very cheaply — some for as low as $5 per acre, and any number for $10, $15, or 



$20 per acre, including the buildings. Even where the farm will sell today for $50 or more an acre 



1~ it will pay to consider the following: The amount of returns paid by well-managed fruit-farms is 

 getting to be so well known that there are plenty of buyers eager to purchase bearing orchards for very high 

 prices. Three hundred dollars an acre seems to be about the lowest price paid, and $500 and up to |i,ooo 

 frequently are reported. We are planting orchards with a view to selling them as soon as they begin bearing. 



Improved 



Fruit 

 Land 



Left— Five-year tree bearing 188 apples. Right— Six-year tree with 250 apples. That's how your orchard should average 



1 



