THIRTY-THIRD BIENNIAL, SESSION 
149 
always expect, we find a gradual decline running down to the present time. 
Prices, on the other hand, have taken the opposite trend, and with their ups 
and downs gradually have risen up to the present time. Now that means, not 
that apples are going to continue to rise in price (there is no reason to be- 
lieve that apples will be permanently high any more than that other things 
will remain permanently high) ; it simply means we are on that cycle in the 
rising tide of prices; we have not yet reached the climax — that probably 
will not come for five years, possibly a little longer. But it is bound to 
come; and then will come the decline in prices. Now if a man has a good 
orchard in bearing at the present time, he has a good proposition; but 
planting orchards now may be or may not be a good proposition. I think w© 
must face the probability that prices will decline, and we must expect lower 
prices than we have been getting these recent years. I see no reason to 
suppose apples will pay better through a series of years than other crops. 
The Fruit Grower vs. Transportation. 
Now a word about transportation problems. We in the Eastern states 
have a freight protection which was discussed and compared yesterday 
with that of the Western fruit grower. We have an advantage, especially 
in the medium quality fruit, which, was emphasized the other day, and I 
want to reemphasize it — the fact that there will be one hundred barrels of 
medium-priced fruit sold to one barrel of. extra fancy. We have an ad- 
vantage here, in that the average laboring man who will buy it can eat 1 
several times as much fruit as the extra fancy man, for he may only nibble 
at a fruit now and then. The market for medium grade fruit is ours and w© 
ought to maintain it. When it comes to corn or wheat production or some- 
thing of that kind we do not have that advantage. 
Many have located orchards at distant points from their shipping station, 
where they must meet a heavy hauling charge — not only with bad country 
roads but with long distances to overcome as well. That is something 
demanding careful consideration. 
Now a word about organization problems, under the second general 
heading I mentioned at the outset. First, the fruit grower, as all other farm- 
ers, needs to consider the capital adjustment. The initial capital investment 
in fruit growing is not necessarily large; but in Pennsylvania, I think we have 
considered the matter of land value from the wrong standpoint. Many a fruit 
grower has made the mistake of going back to the inaccessible mountainside, 
and a long way from the shipping point, simply to get cheaper land. The 
difference in interest charges on land at $50 to $150 per acre is only $5 per 
year, and it takes a very little stretch of poor hilly road to far more than 
offset that. We are cheating ourselves in placing too much importance upon 
land value. On the other hand, some of our Pennsylvania farmers believe 
that they have been getting better returns starting with new land, clearing it 
and planting the fruit. Of that I can not say. 
I said the initial expense is not heavy. The cost for stock is not very 
heavy. I have been led to think that the cost for equipment is not heavy, but 
when I hear that some of you large orchardists are using tractors costing 
$1,500 apiece, it looks like a pretty serious matter — although with many of 
us it is not. 
