rice, $1.50 per barrel to anything they could get, and sold
clear up to the Canadian line. I saw the stuff a great many times after
it reached its destination, and it was hardly fit for sale at any price.
This indiscriminate selling of nursery stock by eager salesmen and
nurserymen is doing more to hurt the commercial fruit growing industry
than any one thing. The only salvation for the grower making his living
out of the business is to produce a better article, better picked,
better packed and marketed through the proper channels. This matter just
referred to I have often discussed by the hour, and during the past
winter my views were thoroughly endorsed by prominent men in the
extension work of our state.

In conclusion will say, comparing the fruit industry in Minnesota with
that greatest of all industry, raising grain, it is so much easier (if
ordinary care be exercised) to produce a finer article, more attractive
in appearance, better packed and marketed properly, than the other
fellow does, while in growing grain this is not the case, as all the
grain is dumped into the hopper and bin, and the individuality of the
grower is forever lost. The demand for the apple has increased
wonderfully the last few years, and it is quite likely to be further
increased owing to the European demand for American apples, which for
the next fifteen or twenty years will increase by leaps and bounds,
owing to the devastating of so many of the great orchard sections in
parts of Austria and northern France. This authentic information came
through Mr. H. W. Collingwood, many years editor of the Rural New Yorker,
and according to Mr. Collingwood's idea there has been no time in the
history of the United States when the outlook for commercial orchards
was so bright. He advises the widespread planting of commercial orchards
to meet this new demand which has shown itself already in Europe and
will greatly increase after the war is over.

[Illustration: A two-acre field of Dunlap strawberries on place of A. W.
Richardson, at Howard Lake.]

Mr. Ludlow: I would like to know what you advise for that commercial
orchard, what varieties?

Mr. Richardson: Wealthys, all the time. (Applause.)

Mr. Ludlow: I would like to ask for the comparative prices you received
for the three apples you mentioned, Wealthy, Greening and Hibernal.

Mr. Richardson: The Hibernal sold for around $3.00 a barrel and the
Wealthy sold for three something. Mind you, I ne