24 



lieve. Not everybody is planting trees or expects to do so, and 

 many of the trees planted so lately as 1900 are dead as they can 

 be. Certainly many of those planted earlier are gone. It is the 

 exception to see even in Adams conntv a thrifty kitchen orchard 

 or farmer's orchard. 



One argnment and a good strong one why the eastern orchards 

 are going to sncceed is that the best markets are within easy reach; 

 are right at onr doors, in fact. Observe the eightieth meridian 

 passing through Pittsburg and Charleston and see what our eastern 

 home markets are. East of this are to be found two of the great- 

 est cities in the world ; eight others, each with a population in ex- 

 cess, of 250,000. Three of the eight have nearly 600,000 each. 

 Of fifty American cities with 100,000 or more, almost the half are 

 here. Of one hundred seventy-eight cities with less than 100,000 

 and more than 25,000 nearly the half are here. AMiile the little - 

 cities and the big boroughs are too many to name. These great 

 cities, these big cities and the lesser cities, boroughs and towns are 

 not only here and are ours to supply, but the census reports also 

 show that they grow, and are growing generally faster than those 

 of the AA'est and ]\Iiddle West. 



Let us plant more orchards and plan to keep them. A\^e are 

 the best placed geographically. Our land is relatively cheap, and 

 there are no charges for water, and as to water control, all we need 

 do is to plant the slopes and upland. The matter of irrigating the 

 orchard requires the skill of the expert, and already there is some- 

 thing wrong ^^ith many of the western irrigated orchards. We 

 are slower in production of crops but we will be here when the 

 other fellow is out. 



And while we have the whip hand on the western grower in 

 the matter of haulage and freights vet the railways wnth the "short 

 haul" and "long haul" idea are keeping in the way of our having 

 reasonable freight rates, making up in part what they lose in dis- 

 tance by higher local rates. The express companies are their will- 

 ing allies. cannot send small packages of fruit by express 

 profitably. If I send a single basket to Harrisburg it is the mini- 

 mum charge of 35 cents. If I send it by the Adams Company, 

 it is twice the minimum or the usual selling price of the product. 

 I could not ship a large quantity of peaches by express to popu- 

 lous Rhode Island unless in a year of very high prices and make 

 a profit. . Let us use our congressmen in getting after the express 

 companies . by w^av of a parcels post. We possiblv could not de- 

 liver fruit bv mail but a general oarcels post would work havoc 

 with the present too high rate of the expressman. 



We need a proper storage place for our increasing apple crops. 

 As it is we now or very soon must sell from the orchard at the buy- 

 er's price, because the cold storage warehouse is either bought up in 

 advance or is too far away. Can we not build a local plant and 

 manage it locally? It would remove the necessity of selling at 

 picking time. It would pay and would give to the grower a choice 

 betw^een selling and storing which is necessary to give him a fair 

 share. 



