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Q^'-UAs^ 


■^•i863 


DATE  DUE                          1 

UNIVERSITY  OF  MASSACtlUSETTS 
LIBRARY 


SB 
354 

M234 
1907 


This  book  may   be  kept  out 

TWO     WEEKS 

only,  and  is  subject  to  a  fine  of  TWO 
CENTS  a  day  thereafter.  It  will  be  due  on 
the   day   indicated  below. 


^: 


-\Q13 


.  -^^^^  ^''  -i  i^i^ 


TR/\INS/\CXIOINS 


OF  THE 


Maine  State  Poniological  Society 


ROR    THE    \^E:/\R    IQOT. 


EDITED    BY    THE    SECRETARY. 

O.    H.    KINOXA/LXOIN. 


WATERVILLE 

SENTINEI<     PUBLISHING    CO. 


1908 


•  •• 


__^      -     4  3  4.  2.  0  6 

1^1 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Secretary's  Report   5 

Officers  for  1907   10 

Members — Life    11 

Annual     12 

Report  of  Executive  Committee   13 

Treasurer    16 

Business  Transactions   19 

Meetings  of  Executive  Committee   19 

Field   Meetings 21 

Annual   Meeting    21 

Program    22 

Officers  for  1908  24 

National    Apple    Day    24 

Reports  of  Committee  on  President's  Address  and  other  Papers..  26 

On   Resolutions    27 

Invocation  by  Rev.  L.  H.  Clarke    28 

Address  of  Welcome  by  Will  C.  Atkins  29 

Response  by  William  Craig   31 

Annual  Address  by  Z.  A.  Gilbert  32 

Non-Parasitic  Diseases  of  Fruit  Trees,  by  Prof.  W.  J.  Morse...  36 
Standing  of  the  Insect  Invasion  and  Condition  of  our  Orchards, 

by  Prof.  E.  F.   Hitchings    46 

Need  of  Spraying 55 

Insects,  Birds  and  Fruit,  by  Prof.  Wm.  L.  Powers  58 

Fruit  Growing  at  Oaklands,  by  Robert  H.  Gardiner,  Esq   69 

Home  Storage  for  Fruits,  by  T.  L.  Kinney  "j"] 

Maine  Fruit  as  it  Appears  to  Others,  by  A.  A.  Hixon   93 

The  Grange  Cooperative   Company    104 

The  University  of  Maine,  by  Prof.  W.  D.  Hurd  no 

The  Size  of  the  Apple  Package,  by  F.  H.  Morse 114 

By  F.  D.   Cummings    114 

The  Apple  Box,  by  E.  L.  Lincoln  118 

A  Maine  Cranberry  Bog,  by  G.  D.  Libbey 123 

Remarks  by  Hon.  A.  W.  Gilman   125 


30696 


4  CONTENTS. 

Grading  and  Packing  of  Fruit :  page 

Report  of  Special  Committee,  by  Dr.  Geo.  M.  Twitchell..  126 

Remarks  by  Wilfrid  Wheeler 132 

by  John  W.  Clark  139 

by  T,  L.  Kinney  143 

by  Mr.  Elliott 150 

by   Dr.   Twitchell    154 

Opportunities  for  Young  People,  by  Prof.  Fred  W.  Card  157 

Tid-Bits  from  the  Gardiner  Banquet : 

President   Gilbert    168 

Mayor  Will  C.  Atkins   171 

Mr.  Whitmore    172 

Secretary    Knowlton    173 

T.  L.  Kinney    175 

A.  A.  Hixon  176 

Edwin  H.  Burlingame  177 

John  W.  Clark    178 

Wilfrid  Wheeler  180 

Robert   H.   Gardiner    181 

B.  F.  W.  Thorpe  '. 182 

Dr.  C.  D.  Woods   183 


SECRETARY'S   REPORT. 


INJURED  FRUIT  TREES. 
It  might  not  seem  necessary  to  mention  the  past  winter  in  con- 
nection with  fruit  growing  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  the 
winter  is  blamed  by  many  for  the  injury  suffered  by  our 
orchards.  So  far  as  your  Secretary  is  concerned  he  does  not 
"blame  it  all  on  the  weather,"  while  the  injury  is  more  serious 
than  most  of  our  fruit  growers  realize,  there  are  other  conditions 
that  should  be  recognized.  The  Baldwin  and  Ben  Davis  suf- 
fered the  most.  Those  varieties  are  both  free  bearers,  and  the 
growers  look  upon  the  tree  hanging  full  of  beautiful  fruit  and 
rejoice  over  the  magnificent  crop  of  fruit  promised.  I  do  not 
know  of  a  fruit  grower  in  Maine  who  has  to  any  great  extent 
felt  it  necessary  to  relieve  the  trees  of  the  heavy  burdens  they 
were  bearing.  In  one  case  the  jDresent  season  a  prominent 
grower  told  me  he  had  used  over  1,500  stakes  to  prevent  the 
trees  from  breaking  down.  In  a  canvass  covering  a  large  num- 
ber of  orchards  this  fall  a  conspicuous  fact  appears :  the  dead 
and  injured  trees  are  almost  without  exception  trees  that  bore 
heavily  the  year  before.  In  other  words  the  trees  have  been 
so  weakened  by  overbearing  that  they  have  not  had. the  power 
to  resist  the  cold.  Many  trees  that  have  borne  heavily  this  year 
I  found  seriously  injured,  and  it  will  be  strange  if  there  are  not 
many  more  dead  trees  next  spring  than  the  last.  The  Secretary 
suggests  whether  it  would  not  be  wiser  to  pick  off  some  fruit 
and  burn  up  the  stakes.  The  extent  of  this  injury  was  shown 
by  speakers  at  our  meeting,  who  have  been  investigating  orchard 
conditions  in  the  State.  Yet  notwithstanding  this  unfavorable 
condition,  the  New  England  Homestead  reports  the  crop  in 
]\Iaine  this  year  at  1,700,000  barrels,  and  in  an  editorial  upon  the 
fruit  situation    remarks  that    ^Maine  has    now  come    to  be    an 


6  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

important  factor  in  measuring  up  the  apple  situation  in  the 
United  States.  This  is  the  largest  crop  thus  far  credited  to 
Maine. 

LARGER    ORCHARDS    AND    BETTER    CARE. 

In  going  about  among  the  fruit  growers  of  the  State  several 
facts  are  noted.  One  is  the  increase  in  the  size  of  the  orchards. 
Twenty-five  years  ago  a  man  with  a  thousand  apple  trees  was 
called  an  "Apple  King."  Today  there  are  many  orchards^  in  the 
State  that  contain  many  more  trees  than  that,  and  quantities  of 
farmers  have  five  hundred  or  more  trees.  The  extent  of  the 
industry  is  a  genuine  surprise  to  all,  and  it  is  very  doubtful  if 
more  than  one-half  of  the  trees  have  come  into  bearing.  This 
is  indeed  significant  of  what  the  future  has  in  store  for  us. 

Another  fact  to  which  attention  was  called  in  the  last  report 
of  the  Secretary  is  the  better  care  the  orchards  are  receiving. 
It  is  apparent  in  all  parts  of  the  State,  that  the  trees  are  better 
fed,  better  pruned,  and  it  will  not  be  many  years  when  our 
growers  will  not  permit  their  trees  to  bear  themselves  to  death. 

OUTGROWN    THE    CAPACITY    OF    THE    GROWERS. 

Another  interesting  and  astonishing  fact  is  that  the  industry 
seems  to  have  outgrown  the  capacity  of  the  growers  to  handle 
the  fruit  economically.  As  a  result  of  this  one  finds  thousands 
of  barrels  of  fruit  unpicked  and  ruined  by  the  cold.  The  cellars 
and  store  rooms  are  full  of  fruit  and  thousands  of  barrels  of 
apples  are  today  stored  in  open  sheds  and  outbuildings,  and  the 
slump  in  the  market  to  no  small  degree  may  be  traced  to  the 
rush  of  the  growers  to  get  their  apples  into  the  market  before 
they  froze  at  home. 

So  far  as  conditions  in  fruit  growing  have  improved  in  the 
State  our  society  may  justly  claim  a  large  share  of  credit.  Ever 
since  its  organization  the  society  has  held  up  before  the  people 
of  the  State  the  possibilities  of  fruit  culture  that  are  being  real- 
ized today.  At  the  same  time  they  have  always  urged  a  rational 
and  kindly  treatment  of  the  apple  tree. 

They  have  advised  against  the  planting  of  nursery  freaks  and 
steadily  held  up  before  the  fruit  growers  the  best  and  most 
reliable  of  varieties.  Alas,  in  many  cases  the  oily,  polished 
words  of  the  tree  agent  have  overshadowed  all  this,  and  not  a 
few  growers  have  come  to  grief  in  consequence. 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  7 

MEETINGS    OF    EXECUTIVE    COMMITTEE. 

Only  two  meetings  of  the  committee  were  held  during  the  year, 
both  in  Augusta.  The  President  and  Secretary  were  instructed 
to  appear  before  the  Agricultural  Committee  in  fruit  matters 
calling  for  legislation.  The  purchase  of  an  experiment  farm  for 
fruit  purposes  for  the  Experiment  Station  was  referred  to  the 
next  legislature.  It  did  not  seem  necessary  for  them  to  attend 
the  hearing  on  the  insect  legislation,  and  it  seemed  inexpedient 
to  ask  for  an  increase  in  the  stipend  at  this  time. 

FIELD  MEETINGS. 
Two  field  meetings  were  held,  one  in  Monmouth  and  one  in 
Wilton.  At  these  meetings  the  general  subject  of  spraying  was 
presented.  No  extended  report  of  these  meetings  appear,  but 
in  this  connection  attention  is  called  to  the  letter  of  Mr.  M.  B. 
Waite  of  the  Agricultural  Department  at  Washington  which 
appears  in  another  part  of  the  transactions.  The  meeting  at 
Monmouth  was  held  in  Grange  Hall  and  a  model  grange  dinner 
was  served  by  Monmouth  Grange.  It  was  largely  attended. 
At  Wilton  the  attendance  was  smaller,  but  good  results  have 
followed  both  meetings. 

NEW    ENGLAND    HORTICULTURAL    SOCIETIES    COME    TOGETHER. 

The  year  the  Canadian  Fruit  Marks  Act  became  a  law  the 
Secretary  called  the  attention  of  the  society  to  the  desirability 
of  such  a  law  for  Maine  fruit  growers,  and  in  one  form  or 
another  the  subject  matter  has  been  before  the  society  since. 
At  the  Canton  meeting  in  1905,  Dr.  G.  M.  Twitchell  was  made 
a  special  committee  to  take  up  the  matter  of  national  legislation 
along  the  line  of  this  act.  The  committee  was  continued  in 
1Q06  at  Harrison  and  through  Dr.  Twitchell's  influence  a  meet- 
ing of  delegates  from  the  New  England  Horticultural  Societies 
was  arranged  for  under  the  auspices  of  the  Massachusetts  Fruit 
Growers  Association  in  Worcester.  All  the  societies  were  rep- 
resented and  at  the  instance  of  President  Gilbert  I  had  the  pleas- 
ure of  attending  the  meeting.  There  was  such  a  delightfully 
sympathetic  feeling  among  the  delegates,  your  Secretary  felt 
that  nothing  but  good  could  come  from  more  similar  meetings 
in  the  future.     We  are  in  close  touch  with  one  another  geograph- 


8  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

ically.  We  have  the  same  markets,  and  cHmatic  conditions  are 
similar  to  a  large  extent.  With  the  hope  of  bringing  about  more 
intimate  relations,  your  Secretary  invited  the  several  societies 
represented  to  send  delegates  to  our  annual  meeting.  The 
proposition  met  with  a  cordial  response,  and  as  a  result  we  had 
with  us  delegates  from  the  several  societies  in  New  England. 

It  was  an  altogether  pleasant  and  novel  feature  of  the  meeting, 
and  it  is  a  pleasure  to  note,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  transactions, 
that  the  invitation  of  the  Connecticut  Pomological  Society  to 
meet  with  them  at  Hartford  at  their  annual  meeting  in  February 
was  accepted. 

THE    ANNUAE    MEETING. 

The  cordial  reception  given  to  the  society  and  its  visitors  by 
the  Gardiner  Board  of  Trade  and  the  citizens  generally  was  the 
pleasantest  feature  of  the  meeting.  It  is  pleasant  and  helpful  m 
this  work  to  be  among  one's  friends.  Appreciation  and  courtesy 
.are  great  stimulants  in  all  our  efforts  in  this  world,  which  is  too 
often  indifferent  to  the  best  things. 

The  papers  and  discussions  were  timely  and  helpful  and  it  is 
with  pleasure  they  are  now  submitted  to  the  fruit  growers  of 
the  State. 

IN    CONCLUSION. 

The  fruit  growers  of  the  State  are  expecting  much  from  the 
society  and  it  is  right  they  should,  for  that  is  just  what  the 
society  was  organized  for.  There  are  thousands  of  fruit  grower^ 
in  the  State,  but  since  the  organization  only  a  handful,  so  to 
speak,  of  the  most  enthusiastic  fruit  growers  have  united  with 
the  society.  Is  there  any  good  reason  why  so  many  for  their 
own  assistance  should  expect  so  much  from  so  few  enthusiasts? 
What  the  society  now  needs  is  the  hearty  support  and  active 
membership  of  the  fruit  growers  of  I^Iaine.  This  would  enable 
the  society  to  do  work  that  it  has  never  before  undertaken. 

This  report  will  close  a  long  term  of  official  life  in  connection 
with  the  society.  While  there  has  been  an  increasing  amount  of 
labor  with  each  successive  year,  the  service  has  been  cheerfully 
given.  The  results  have  made  a  good  showing  for  the  society. 
Personally  I  wish  to  thank  the  members  for  their  continued  con- 
fidence in  placing  the  duties  of  the  office  in  my  charge.  I  also 
wish  especially  to  thank  my  official  associates  for  their  assistance 


STATE    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY.  9 

and  cordial  cooperation  in  conducting  the  affairs  of  the  society, 
for  this  more  than  all  besides  has  been  the  means  upon  which  I 
have  relied  to  carry  on  the  work.  They  have  freely  given 
their  time  to  the  cause,  and  the  value  of  their  services  should  not 
be  overlooked. 

My  interest  in  the  work  of  the  society  will  be  no  less  as  a 
member,  and  I  shall  esteem  it  a  pleasure  to  assist  in  any  way  I 
may  to  carry  on  its  work  in  the  future. 

D.   H.   KNOWLTON, 

Secretary. 


OFFICERS   FOR   1907. 


President. 
Z.  A.  Gilbert,  North  Greene. 

Vice  Presidents. 
D.  P.  True,  Leeds  Center. 
Edward  L.  White,  Bowdoinham. 

Secretary. 
D.  H.  KnowIvTon,  Farmington. 

Treasurer. 
E.  L.  Lincoln,  Wayne. 

Bxecutive  Committee. 
The  President  and  Secretar)%  ex-officio;  Will  E.  Leland,  East 
Sangerville ;    V.  P.  DeCoster,  Buckfield ;    Charles  E.  Wheeler, 
Chesterville. 

Trustees.  t 

Androscoggin  county,  A.  C.  Day,  South  Turner. 

Aroostook  county,  Edward  Tarr,  Mapleton. 

Cumberland  county,  John  W.  True,  New  Gloucester. 

Franklin  county,  E.  E.  Hardy,  Farmington. 

Hancock  county,  Chas.  G.  Atkins,  Bucksport. 

Kennebec  county,  E.  R.  Mayo,  Hallowell. 

Knox  county,  Alonzo  Butler,  Union. 

Lincoln  county,  H.  J.  A.  Simmons,  Waldoboro. 

Oxford  county,  F.  H.  Morse,  Waterford. 

Penobscot  county,  W.  M.  Munson,  Orono. 

Piscataquis  county,  C.  C.  Dunham,  Foxcroft. 

Sagadahoc  county, 

Somerset  county,  Frank  E.  Nowell,  Fairfield. 

Waldo  county,  Fred  Atwood,  Winterport. 

Washington  county,  D.  W.  Campbell,  Cherryfield. 

York  county,  J.  Merrill  Lord,  Kezar  Falls. 

Member  Experiment  Station  Council. 
Charles  S.  Pope,  Manchester. 


MEMBERS   OF  THE   SOCIETY. 


Note. — Any  errors  or  changes  of  residence  should  be  promptly  reported  to  the 
Secretary.  Members  wall  also  confer  a  favor  by  furnishing  the  Secretary  with  their 
full  Christian  names  where  initials  only  are  given. 


LIFE  MEMBERS. 


Allen,  Wm.  H Buckfield 

Andrews,    A.    Emery Gardiner 

Andrews,  Charles  E Auburn 

Arnold,    C.    A Arnold 

Atherto.i,  Wm.  P Hallow;ll 

Atkins,  Charles  G Bucksport 

Atwood,   Fred Winterport 

Averill,  David  C Temple 

Bailey,     W.     G Freeport 

Bennoch,  John  E Orono 

Bickford,    Lewis    I Dixmont   Center 

Bisbee,   George  E Auburn 

Blanchard,    Mrs.   E.   M Lewi.ston 

Blossom,  L.  H Turner  Center 

Boardman,  Samuel  L Bangor 

Briggs,     John Turner 

Burr,     John Freeport 

Butler,  Alonzo Union 

Chad  bourne,   C.   L North  Bridgton 

Chandler,  Mrs.  Lucy  A Freeport 

Chase,  Henry  M.,103  Federal  St.,  Portland 

Corbett,  Herman Farmington 

Craig,  William Auburn 

Crowell,  Mrs.  Ella  H Skowhegan 

Crowell,  John  H Farmington 

Dana,   Woodbury  S Portland 

Dawes,   S.   H Harrison 

DeCoster,  Virgil  P Buckfield 

Denison,  Mrs.  Cora  M Harrison 

DeRocher,  Peter Bradentown,  Fla. 

Dirwanger,  Joseph  A Portland 

Dunham,    W.   W North  Paris 

Dyer,   Milton Cape  Elizabeth 

Emerson,    Charles    L South  Turner 

Farnsworth,    B.    B Portland 

Frost,  Oscar  F Monmouth 

Gardiner,    Robert    H Gardiner 

George,  C.  H Hebron 

Gilbert,    Z.    A North  Greene 

Goddard,  Lewis  C Woodfords 

Grover,  Franklin  D Bean 

GuUey,    Alfred   G Storrs,   Conn. 

Hackett,  E.  C West  Gloucester 

Hall,  Mrs.  H.  A Brewer 

Hanscom,    John Saco 

Hardy,  E.  E Farmington 

Harris,  William  M Auburn 

Hixon,    A.    A Worcester,    Mass. 

Hoyt,  Mrs.  Francis Winthrop 

Jackson,     F.    A Winthrop 

*Jones,  J.  H Mercer 

Keene,  Charles  S Turner 

Knowlton,  D.  H Farmington 

Lapham,   E,  A Pittston 


Leland,   Will  E East  Sangerville 

Lincoln,     E.     L Wayne 

Litchfield,    J.    H Auburn 

Litchfield,  Mrs.  L.  K Lewiston 

Lombard,     Thurston    M Auburn 

Lord,  J.  Merrill Kezar  Falls 

Luce,    Willis   A Columbia   Falls 

Macaulay,    T.    B Montreal,    Can. 

McAllister,    Zaccheus West    Lovell 

McCabe,  George  L North  Bangor 

McLaughlin,    Henry Bangor 

McManus,   John Brunswick 

Merrill,    Oliver  F Gardiner 

Mitchell,  Frederick  H Turner 

Moody,  Charles  H Turner 

Moore,    William   G Monmouth 

Moor,    F.    A Waterville 

Morse,   F.  H Waterford 

Morton,    J.    A Bethel 

Munson,    W.   M Morgantown,  W.  Va. 

Page,    F.    W Augusta 

Palmer,    George    L South    Livermore 

Parsons,    Howard    G Turner   Center 

Pope,   Charles  S Manchester 

Prince,    Edward    M West    Farmington 

Pulsifer,  D.  W Poland 

Purington,  E.  F Farmington 

Richards,    John    T Gardiner 

Ricker,  A.  S Turner 

Roak,    George    M Auburn 

Sanborn,  Miss  G.  P Augusta 

Sawyer,    Andrew    S Cape    Elizabeth 

Seavy,  Mrs.  G.  M Auburn 

Simmons,   H.  J.  A Waldobora 

Skillings,  C.  W North  Auburn 

Smith,    Henry   S Monmouth 

Snow,   Mary  S Bangor 

Stanley,   H.  O Winthrop 

Staples, Geo. W., 904  Main  St., Hartford, Conn 

Starrttt,   L.   F Warren 

Stetson,   Henry Auburn 

Stilphen,    Asbury  C Gardiner 

Taylor,  Miss  L.  L (Lakeside)  Belgrade 

Thomas,    William  W Portland 

Thomas,    D.    S North    Auburn 

Thurston,    Edwin West   Farmington 

Tilton,   William  S Boston,   Mass. 

Townsend,  Mrs.  B.  T Freeport 

True,  Davis  P Leeds  Center 

Tnie,  John  W New  Gloucester 

Turner,  E.  P New  Vineyard 

TwitchoU,  Geo.  M Auburn 

Vickery,     James Portland 

Vickery,     John Auburn 


*D  eceased. 


12 


state:  pomological  society. 


LIFE  MEMBERS— Concluded. 

Wade,    Patrick Portland     Weston,    Joseph Gardiner 

Walker,  Charles  S Peni     Wheeler,    Charles    E Chesterville 

Walker,    Elmer   V Oxford     WTiite,    Edward    L Bowdoinham 


Waterman,    Willard    H East   Auburn 

W'augh,    F.   A Amherst,   Mass. 


AVoods,   Chas.    D Orono 

Yeaton,  Samuel  F West  Fai"mingtoa 


ANNUAL     MEMBERS,   1905. 


Abbott,    S.   E Bethel 

Bass,  Mary  A Wilton 

Berry,    W.    F Canton 

Briggs,    Arthur   B Canton 

Bryant,    C.   A Livermore   Center 

Campbell,  D.  W Cherryfield 

Chase,     Solon Chase's     Mills 

Craig,     William Auburn 

DeCoster,  Mrs.  V.  P Buckfield 

Ellis,   Mrs.  Kate  B Fairfield 

Fairbanks,  A.  E North  Monmouth 

Goodale,  G.  C Winthrop 

Greenleaf,   A.  C Farmington 

Hardy,    E.   E Farmington 

Hitchings,    E.    F Waterville 

Leland,    Will    E East    Sangerville 

Lincoln,  Mrs.  E.  L Wayne 

Mavo,   E.   R Hallowell 

McLatchey,  R.E.  .  .  .46  Clinton  St.,  Boston 


Mendell,  Mrs.  C.  E Hartford 

Merchant,   S.   L Winthrop 

Nowell,    F.    E Fairfield 

Perley,    F.   B Vassalboro 

Scales,    Lilla   M Temple 

Shurtleff,  S.  G South  Livermore 

Smith,  Mrs.  F.  A Canton 

Spaulding,    .Stephen North    Buckfield 

Staples,   George  W Temple 

Stetson,  T.  B.  W Canton 

Toothaker,  L.  P. Etna 

Tucker,  Benjamin Norway 

Virgin,    G.   H Canton 

Virgin.  Mrs.  G.  H Canton 

Walker,  Mrs.  F.  L Canton 

Wallingford,      John Auburn 

Washburn,  C.  C Mechanic  Falls 

White,  Edward  L Bowdoinham 

Whittemore,  F.  H Livermore  Falls 


ANNUAL     MEMBERS,   1908. 


Arnold,    F.   A Arnold 

Bennett,   Elizabeth  A Harrison 

Breed,    W.    O Harrison 

Burnell,  R.  A West  Baldwin 

Chadbourne,   J.   A North   Bridgton 

Chadbourne,  W.  C North  Bridgton 

Cobb,  W.  F Turner  Center 

Craig,  William Auburn 

Dorsey,   Maxwell  J Orono 

Dunham,    C.    C Foxcroft 

Flint,  Mrs.  John  B Harrison 

Frost,  H.  F Wayne 

Goodale,    G.  C.  &  W.  E Winthrop 

Cireene,   J.   L Harrison 

Guptill,  Florence Topsham 

Hobart,     O.    R Auburn 


Leavitt,    L.   C Kezas   Falls 

Mayo,  E.  R Hallowell 

Merchant,   S.   L Winthrop 

Nowell,    Frank    E Fairfield 

O'Neil,  Joshua  H Portland 

Pike,  Albert  J Wayne 

Pike,    J.   M Wayne 

ShurtlefT,   S.  G South  Livermore 

Tarr,  Edward Mapleton 

Thorpe,  B.  F.  W Augu.sta 

Tucker,  Benjamin Norway 

Warren,    Jessie    B Harrison 

Washburn,   C.   C Mechanic    Falls 

Waterman.  L.  C Buckfield 

Watson,     Bernice Gardiner 

Wilbur,    Georgine    V Phillips 


ANNUAL     MEMBERS,   1907. 


Arnold,    F.   A Arnold 

Beckenstrater,   Herman Orono 

Bird,  L.  M West  Gardiner 

Caldwess,  Mrs.  G.  H Gardiner 

Carter,  Mrs.  Wesley  A.  .  .Gardiner,  R.  F.  D. 

Clarke,  L.  H Gardiner 

Clements,   D.   S Winthrop 

Cobb,  W.  F Turner  Center 

Cobb,  Mrs.  W.  F Turner  Center 

Danforth,    Geo.    R Gardiner 

Frost,  H.  T Wayne 

Fuller,  Winslow Livermore  Falls 

Guptill,    F.    B Cornish 

Hitchings,  E.  F Waterville 

Hurd,  W.  D Orono 

Johnston,  Mrs.  Arthur  E Washington 

Jones,    Fred    R Mercer 

King,    John    H Bowdoinham 

Lancaster,  Mrs.  L.  M C5ardiner 


Leavitt,    L.    C North    Parsonsfield 

Libbey,    G.    D Gardiner 

Look,  Mrs.  J.  W Gardiner 

Lovely,      Lillian Gardiner 

Merchant,   S.   L Winthrop 

Miller,    William Bar   Harbor 

Morse,  W.  J Orono 

Nowell,   F.  E Fairfield 

Paine,  Horace  M Jay 

Patch,    Edith    M Orono 

*Perley,    F.   B Vassalboro 

Pike,   Albert  J Wayne 

Ricker,    W.   J Turner 

Searles,  Ida Gardiner,  R.  F.  D. 

Shaw,  Silas  A Aidiurn 

Tarr,  Edward Mapleton 

Taylor,    Frank Winthrop 

Thorpe,    B.    F.   W Augusta 

Waterman,   L.  C Buckfield 


ANNUAL     MEMBERS,   1908. 
Bowers,  John  W., 327  Congress  St. .Portland 


REPORT  OF  THE  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE. 


A  comprehensive  view  of  the  general  work  of  the  society  for 
the  past  year  may  be  gained  by  the  reading  of  the  reports  of  the 
officers  and  the  numerous  i^apers  and  discussions  offered  at  the 
meetings  held  by  the  society. 

Two  meetings  of  the  executive  have  been  held  during  the  year, 
the  necessary  business  outside  of  these  meetings  being  transacted 
when  the  officers  were  attending  the  general  meetings  of  the 
society. 

The  results  show  that  it  has  been  a  prosperous  year  for  the 
society,  though  it  is  the  regret  of  all  that  fruit  growers  in  the 
State,  while  looking  to  the  society  for  the  promotion  of  the  fruit 
industry  in  the  State,  are  indifferent  to  our  appeals  to  unite  with 
and  join  hands  in  the  work.  This  year  we  have  received  seven 
life  members  and  thirty-nine  annual  members,  and  the  larger 
part  of  these  have  been  made  members  by  way  of  premiums. 
There  never  was  so  much  work  for  the  society  as  at  the  present 
time,  and  never  so  much  expected  from  it. 

As  to  the  finances  of  the  society  we  are  glad  to  report  them  in 
good  condition.  During  the  year  we  have  purchased  two  $500 
first  mortgage  bonds  of  the  Stockton  Springs  Water  Company, 
bearing  4i%,  at  a  cost  of  $970. 

We  have  examined  the  treasurer's  accounts  and  find  them 
vouched  for  and  well  kept.  The  summary  following  will  show 
the  purposes  for  which  the  money  of  the  society  has  been 
expended  and  the  present  condition  of  its  financial  affairs. 


14  STATE    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY. 

RECEIPTS. 

Cash  in  treasury  January  i,  1907 $          15 

State  stipend  for  1907 1,000  00 

Interest  on  permanent  fund 64  07 

Interest  on  deposit • 4  72 

Interest  accrued  on  bonds 14  25 

Cash  from  permanent    fund  withdrawn    for    bond 

purchase 970  00 

Membership  fees — Hfe 70  00 

Membership  fees — annual 39  00 

Overdrawn 80  87 

$2,243  06 

EXPENDITURES. 

Executive  committee  expense $92  08 

Treasurer's  expense   6  00 

Salary  of  secretary 150  00 

Salary  of  treasurer 25  00 

Speakers 21  40 

Judges   15  75 

Postage 28  98 

Premiums  for  1907 301  75 

Local  expenses  annual  meeting 41  24 

Binding  transactions 28  65 

Printing  and  stationery • 87  69 

Hotel  bills — officers 71   75 

Hotel  bills — speakers 55  40 

Hotel  bills — judges 22  00 

Hotel  bills — assistants 12  50 

Stenographic  report  of  the  annual  meeting 54  50 

Freight,  express  and  telephone 6  54 

Badges 6  40 

Sundries   12   18 

Banquet  tickets  for  guests 7  50 

Sprayer  at  field  meeting 6  00 

Special  committee 5  5° 

Bonds  for  permanent  fund 970  00 

Accrued  interest  on  bonds 14  25 

Permanent  fund — life  membership  fees  to  date. . . .  200  00 

$2,243  06 


state;  pomoi^ogicai,  society.  15 

resources. 

Due  from  State  for  1908 $1,000  00 

Permanent  fund 1,710  00 

$2,710  00 
LIABILITIES. 

Overdrawn $80  87 

Net  resources 2,629  13 

$2,710  00 

PERMANENT    FUND. 

National  bank  stock $400  00 

Bonds,  Stockton  Springs  Water  Co.,  at  cost 970  00 

On  deposit 340  00 

$1,710  00 

Respectfully  submitted. 

Z.   A.   GILBERT, 
D.  H.  KNOWLTON, 
WILL  E.  LELAND, 
V.   P.   DeCOSTER, 
CHAS.  E.  WHEELER, 

Executive  Comnuitce. 


REPORT   OF  TREASURER. 


Ellis  L.  Lincoln,  Treasurer,  in  account  with  the  Maine  State 
Pomological  Society  for  the  year  1907. 


January  1, 


April     4, 

20, 
May  8, 
July  1, 


October  28 
November 


13, 
14, 


To  balance  brought  forward  from  1906 $       15 

To  received  from  First  Natl.  Bank,  Farmington,  Interest  on 

stock     12  00 

Received  from  the  Augusta  Trust  Co.,  Winthrop  Branch. 

Cash  withdrawn 54  00 

Received  from  State  stipend 1 ,000  00 

Received  from  Augusta  Trust  Co.,  cash  withdrawn 362  65 

Received  from  First  Natl.  Bank,  Farmington,  interest  on  stock  12  00 

Received  from  Stockton  Springs  Water  Co.,  interest  on  bonds  /  14  26 

accrued    \  8  25 

Received  from  H.  T.  Frost,  Wayne,  annual  fee 1  00 

Received  from  the  Livermore  Falls  Trust  and  Banking  Co., 

interest  of  certificate  of  deposit 4  72 

Received  from  Albert  J.  Pike,  Wayne,  annual  fee 1  00 

December     9,    Received  from  Augusta  Savings  Bank,  cash  withdrawn 430  00 

Received  from  Augusta  Sa-\angs  Bank,  interest 22  41 

Received  from  George  W.  Staples,  Temple  Life  Member  fee.  .  .  10  00 

Received  from  F.  A.  Arnold,  Carmel,  annual  fee 1  00 

Received  from  L.  M.  Bird,  West  Gardiner,  annual  fee 1   00 

Received  from  Mrs.  G.  H.  Caldness,  Gardiner,  annual  fee 1  00 

Received  from  Ida  Searles,  Chelsea,  annual  fee 1  00 

Received  from  L.  H.  Clark,  Gardiner,  annual  fee 1   00 

Received  from  Mrs.  Wesley  A.  Curtis,  Gardiner,  annual  fee.  ..  .  1   00 

Received  from  Geo.  R.  Danforth,  Gardiner,  annual  fee 1  00 

Received  from  Fred  R.  Jones,  Mercer,  annual  fee 1  00 

Received  from  Mrs.  L.  M.  Lancaster,  Gardiner,  annual  fee.  ...  1  00 

Received  from  Mrs.  J.  W.  Lash,  Gardiner,  annual  fee 1   00 

Received  from  L.  C.  Leavitt,  North  Parsonsfield,  annual  fee.  .  1   00 

Received  from  G.  D.  Libby,  Gardiner,  annual  fee 1  00 

Received  from  Mrs.  Lillian  Loveley,  Gardiner,  annual  fee.  ...  1   00 

Received  from  S.  L.  Merchant,  Winthrop,  annual  fee 1   00 

Received  from  F.  B.  Perley,  Vassalboro,  annual  fee 1  00 

Received  from  Edward  Tarr,  Mapleton,  annual  fee 1   00 

Received  from  L.  C.  Waterman,  Buckfield,  annual  fee 1   00 

Received  from  D.  H.  Knowlton,  the  following  life  members: 

Joseph     Weston,     Gardiner 10  00 

Oliver  F.  Merrill,  Gardiner 10  00 

W.  H.  Allen,  Buckfield 10  00 

A.  A.  Hixon,  Worcester,  Mass 10  00 

Chas.  D.  Woods,  Orono 10  00 

Received  from  D.H.  Knowlton,  the  following  annual  members: 

F.  B.  Guptill,  Cornish 1  00 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  \y 

December  14,     F.  E.  Merrill,  Fairfield j   00 

W.  F.  Cobb,  Turner  Center 1   00 

Mrs.  W.   F.  Cobb,  Turner  Center 1   00 

W.  J.  Ricker,  Turner 1  00 

Arthur  E.  Johnston,   Washington 1   00 

John  H.  King,  Bowdoinham 1  00 

B.  F.  W.  Thorpe,  Augusta 1  00 

W.  J.  Morse,  Orono \  qo 

W.  D.  Hurd,  Orono- 1   00 

Winslow  Fuller,  Livermore  Falls 1   00 

Herman  Beckenstrater,  Orono 1   00 

William   Miller,    Buckfield 1   00 

Horace  M.  Paine,  Jay 1  00 

E.  F.  Hitchings,  Waterville 1  00 

E.  M.  Patch,  Orono 1  00 

Silas  A.  Shaw,  Auburn 1  00 

D.  S.  Clement,  Winthrop 1  00 

Frank  Taylor,  Winthrop 1  00 

To  received  from  D.  H.  Knowlton  in  favor  of  Wm.  Craig,  life 

member    fee 10  00 

To  received  cash 130  00 

To    received    interest    on    deposit 2   10 

To  received  interest  on  deposit 66 

To  annual  fee,  J.  D.  Lincoln 1   00 

Balance  due  treasurer,  Jan.  1,  1906 SO  87 


$2,243  06 


3 

00 

12 

50 

21 

51 

12 

00 

9 

10 

3 

90 

3 

70 

Ck. 

1906. 
December   28,    By  paid  Chas.  E.  ^\Tieeler,  order  No.  949,  expense  as  executive 

committee 

By  paid  Cony  House,  Augusta,  board  of  Executive  Committee, 

order  No.   948 

April    8,  By  paid  D.  H.  Knowlton,  expense  as  Secretary,  etc.,  order 

No.     954 

By  paid  Cony  House,  Augusta,  board  of  Executive  Committee, 

order  No.   953 

By  paid  Z.  A.  Gilbert,  expense  as  President  at  Augusta,  order 

No.     955 

By  paid  Will  E.  Leland,  travel  to  Augusta,  order  No.  950.  .  .  . 
By  paid  V.  P.  DeCoster,  travel  to  Augusta,  order  No.  951.  .  .  . 
By  paid  Chas.  E.  Wheeler,  travel  and  expense  at  Augusta,  No. 

952 

25,  By  paid  Mason  &  Merrill  for  Stockton  Springs  Water  Company 

bonds,  order  No.  990 

By  paid  Mason  &  Merrill  for  interest  on  bond,  3  months, 24  days 
May  10  By  paid  L.  F.  Dyke,  for  drawing  spraying  machine  at  Wilton, 

order   No.   958 

By  paid  Royal  D.  Blaisdell,  board  of  officers  at  Wilton,  order 

No.  960 

By  paid  V.  P.  DeCoster,  travel  to  and  from  Wilton  Field  Meet- 
ing, order  No.  959 

By  paid  Z.  A.  Gilbert,  travel  and  expense  at  Wilton,  order  No. 

962 

By  paid  E.  L.  Lincoln,  travel  and  expense  at  Wilton,  No.  961 
By  paid  Will  E.  Leland,  travel  and  expense  at  Monmouth, 

order   No.   956 5  29 

By  paid  D.  H.  Knowlton,  travel  and  cash  paid  for  board  at 

Field  Meeting  at  Wilton  and  Monmouth,  No.  957 15  21 

By  paid  D.  H.  Knowlton,  for  postage  for  future  use.  No.  963. .  10  00 


970 

00 

14 

25 

6 

00 

8 

00 

3 

00 

1 

70 

2 

00 

i8 


state;  pomological  society. 


September  28,    By  paid  D.  H.  Knowlton,  for  salary  as  Secretary  in  part  for 

1907,  order  No.  964 $50  00 

November  29,    By  paid  Smith  &  Reid,  binding  Pomological  Report,   1906, 

order  No.   965 28  65 

By  paid  Whitehead  &  Hoag  Co.,  No.  966 6  40 

By  paid  Hall  &  Cole  for  one  box  apples  on  exhibition  at  Gar- 
diner, order  No.  967 3  25 

By  paid  J.  W.  Carsley,  for  bill,  order  No.  968 5  60 

By  paid  G.  M.  Twitchell,  expense  attending  meeting  at  Wor- 
cester, order  No.  969 5  50 

By  paid  C.  E.  Robinson,  expense  at  Gardiner,  order  No.  971 .  .  4  00 

By  paid  A.  A.  Hixon,  expense  at  Gardiner,  order  No.  970.  ...  10  00 

By  paid  T.  L.  Kenney,  for  expense  at  Gardiner,  order  No.  972.  21  40 

By  paid  Gardiner  Publishing  Co.,  order  No   973 9  50 

By  paid  S.  G.  Shurtleff,  for  service  as  judging  fruit  at  Gar- 
diner, order  No.  974 5  75 

By  paid  A.  E.  Andrews,  for  15  complimentary  tickets,  order 

No.  975 7  50 

December   14,    By  paid  Fred  R.  Jones,  order  No.  978 1  00 

By  paid  John  W.  Clarlc,  order  No.  988 11   00 

By  paid  E.  L.  Lincoln,  Treasurer,  premiums  at  Gardiner.order 

No.  989 301  75 

By  paid  V.  P.  DeCoster,  order  No.  984 3  65 

By  paid  E.  L.  Lincoln,  for  cash  paid  Janitor  at  Gardiner,  order 

No.  985 4  50 

By  paid  C.  H.  Douglass,  order  No.  986 9  00 

By  paid  Z.  A.  Gilbert,  expense  at  Gardiner,  order  No.  976.  ...  3  06 

By  paid  Will  E.  Leland,  expense  at  Gardiner,  order  No.  977 ...  4  55 

By  paid  D.  H.  Knowlton,  order    No.  978 15   13 

By  paid  D.  H.  Knowlton,  order   No.  979 15  05 

By  paid  Chas.  E.  Wheeler,  expense  at  Gardiner,  order  No.  980  .  4  35 

By  paid  A.  E.  Andrews,  order  No.  981 32  74 

By  paid  C.  H.  Douglass,  hotel  expense,  order  No.  982 109   15 

By  paid  E.  L.  Lincoln,  travel  and  expense  at  Gardiner 4  00 

January  17,         By  paid  Knowlton  &  McLeary  Co.,  order  No.  991 76  07 

By  paid  E.  L.  Lincoln,  Treas.,  order  No.  992 25  00 

By  paid  D.  H.  Knowlton,  Secretary,  order  No.  993 100  00 

By  paid  Miss  L.  B.  Raynes,  No.  944 54  50 

By  paid  D.  H.  Knowlton,  order  No.  995 4  78 

By  paid  V.  P.  DeCoster,  order  No.  996 2  32 

By  paid  E.  L.  Lincoln,  Treas.,  transfer  of  Life  Members  from 
General  Fund  to  Permanent  Fund  for  the  years  1905-06  and 

'07 200  00 

$2243  06 
PERMANENT  FUND  FOR  THE  YEAR  1907. 

December  31,   By  members  as  reported  for  the  year  1906 $1  ,640  00 

Fees  received  for  the  year  1907: 

Geo.  W.  Staples $10  00 

Oliver  F.  Merrill 10  00 

Josh    Weston 10  00 

W.   H.   Allen 10  00 

A.   A.   Hixon 10  00 

Chas.  D.  Woods 10  00 

Wm.  Craig 10  00 

$1  ,710  00 

Permanent  fund  invested  as  follows: 

Four  shares  stock  First  National  Bank  of  Farmington $400  00 

Two  bonds  Stockton  Springs  Water  Co.,  first  mortgage  at  cost 970  00 

Deposit  in  Savings  Banks 340  00 

SI  ,710  00 

Treasurer. 


Respectfully  submitted, 

ELLIS  L.  LINCOLN, 


BUSINESS   TRANSACTIONS. 


me;e;tings  o^  executive  committee. 

Augusta,  December  2"/,  1907. 

Session  to  close  up  affairs  for  1906  and  lay  out  plans  for  1907. 

Commissioner  A.  W.  Oilman  and  Prof.  E.  F.  Hitchings 
appeared  before  the  committee  and  informed  the  members  of  the 
situation  with  reference  to  the  brown-tail  and  gypsy  moths  in  the 
State.  Later  Capt.  E.  E.  Philbrook  of  Portland  and  Mr.  D.  M. 
Rogers,  the  government  agent  for  the  suppression  of  the  gypsy 
moth,  came  in  and  gave  information  concerning  the  work  carried 
on  b}^  the  general  government. 

The  Secretary  presented  a  letter  from  Air.  H.  D.  Eaton,  presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Trade  of  Waterville,  inviting  the  society 
to  hold  its  next  annual  meeting  in  the  city  of  Waterville.  Mr. 
E.  P.  Mayo  represented  the  Board  of  Trade  and  called  attention 
to  the  attractions  of  Waterville  as  a  place  of  meeting. 

Voted,  To  refer  the  location  of  the  next  annual  meeting  to 
President  Gilbert,  and  that  he  be  asked  to  visit  Waterville  and 
look  over  the  situation  there. 

Voted,  To  refer  the  time  and  location  of  holding  a  summer 
meeting  to  the  Secretary. 

As  to  the  purchase  of  a  farm  by  the  State  for  experimental 
work. 

Voted,  That  the  President  and  Secretary  be  instructed  to 
cooperate  with  representatives  from  other  societies  in  presenting 
the  matter  to  the  legislature. 

The  matter  of  legislation  providing  for  measures  to  suppress 
the  brown-tail  and  gypsy  moths  and  other  injurious  insects  was 
considered  and  the  following  action  taken: 


20  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

Voted,  That  the  President  and  Secretary  of  this  society  be 
instructed  to  ask  the  legislature  for  an  approi^riation  of  $10,000 
for  1907  and  $10,000  for  1908,  for  the  purposes  set  forth  in  the 
resolution  passed  at  the  annual  meeting,  also  to  ask  such  addi- 
tional legislation  as  the  situation  may  call  for. 

As  to  asking  the  State  for  an  increased  appropriation  for 
carrying  forward  the  work  of  the  society  the  following  motion 
was  passed : 

Voted,  That  the  President  and  Secretary  be  requested  to  ask 
the  legislature  for  an  additional  appropriation  of  $500. 

The  treasurer  presented  his  bond  and  it  was  approved. 

Augusta,  March  28,  1907. 

President  Gilbert  announced  an  invitation  from  the  Gardiner 
Board  of  Trade  and  other  organizations  and  citizens  to  hold  the 
annual  meeting  in  the  city  of  Gardiner. 

President  Gilbert  reported  his  visit  to  Waterville  in  connection 
with  the  invitation  from  the  Board  of  Trade  there. 

President  Gilbert,  Mr.  Wheeler  and  the  Secretary  visited 
Gardiner  to  look  over  the  situation  there,  and  on  their  report 
it  was 

Voted,  To  hold  the  annual  meeting  there  on  the  week  of 
November  nth. 

The  Secretary  reported  his  visit  to  the  meeting  of  delegates 
from  the  several  New  England  Horticultural  Societies  held  in 
Worcester  under  the  auspices  of  the  Massachusetts  Fruit 
Growers  Association. 

Voted,  That  the  Executive  Committee  assembled  in  Augusta 
this  28th  day  of  March,  1907.  approve  the  action  of  the  society's 
representatives  in  inviting  other  New  England  Horticultural 
Societies  to  unite  with  them  in  holding  a  meeting  for  the  consid- 
eration of  matters  of  common  interest  to  New  England  fruit 
growers,  said  meeting  to  be  held  in  the  city  of  Gardiner  in 
November  next  as  above  stated. 

The  Secretary  was  designated  as  the  delegate  or  representa- 
tive of  this  society  to  attend  such  meeting. 

Voted,  That  one  of  the  officers  be  sent  to  one  or  more  horti- 
cultural meetings  in  New  England. 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  21 

In  view  of  the  proposed  investment  of  Si, coo  of  the  perma- 
nent fund  in  water  bonds  and  the  temporary  use  of  the  money 
received  from  the  State, 

Voted,  That  the  treasurer  be  authorized  to  withdraw  the 
society's  deposits  from  the  \\'inthrop  Branch  of  the  Augusta 
Trust  Company  and  the  Augusta  Trust  Company,  as  needed,  to 
meet  current  expenses. 

Voted,  That  the  Secretary  be  instructed  to  arrange  for  two 
summer  or  field  meetings  if  satisfactory  arrangements  can  be 
made. 

Voted,  That  the  President  and  Secretar}^  provide  judges  for 
annual  meeting. 

April  30th  the  Treasurer  reported  the  purchase  of  two 
$500  bonds,  Nos.  31  and  32  of  the  Stockton  Springs  Water 
Company,  for  permanent  fund. 

FIEED    MEETINGS. 

In  accordance  with  the  vote  of  the  Executive  Committee  the 
Secretary  arranged  for  two  field  meetings,  one  with  Alonmouth 
Grange.  -Monmouth,  and  one  at  Wilton,  May  8th  and  loth 
respectively. 

The  general  subject  considered  at  these  meetings  was  "Inju- 
rious Insects :  How  to  Destroy  Them."  In  detail  the  matter 
taken  up  was : 

Orchard  conditions  with  reference  to  insects  and  injurious 
fungi. 

The  remedies  and  known  results  from  spraying. 

The  insecticides  and  the  means  of  applying. 

Aside  from  the  officers  of  the  society  Prof.  W.  M.  Munson 
of  Orono  and  Miss  Thompson  of  the  Agricultural  Department 
assisted. 

Several  manufacturers  of  sprayers  and  insecticides  were  rep- 
resented at  the  meetings. 

THE    ANNUAL    MEETING. 

The  annual  meeting  was  held  in  the  Johnson  Opera  House, 
Gardiner,  November  12-14.  There  was  in  connection  with  the 
meeting  a  large  and  attractive  exhibition  of  fruits.  The  pro- 
gram for  the  meeting  follows  : 


22  state  poaiologicai,  society, 

Program. 

Tuesday  Evening^  November  12 — Opening  session  at  7.30. 
Invocation,  Rev.  L.  H.  Clarke,  Gardiner;  Address  of  Welcome, 
Mayor  Will  C.  Atkins,  Gardiner;  Response,  Wm.  Craig  of 
Auburn;  Address  of  President,  Z.  A.  Gilbert,  North  Greene; 
Reports  of  Officers :  Secretary,  Treasurer,  Executive  Commit- 
tee; ]\Iember  of  Experiment  Station  Council,  Chas.  S.  Pope, 
Manchester. 

Wednesday  Forenoon — Standing  of  the  Insect  Invasion  and 
Condition  of  our  Orchards,  Prof.  E.  F.  Hitchings,  State  Ento- 
mologist; Discussion;  Non-Parasitic  Diseases  of  Fruit  Trees, 
Prof.  W.  J.  Morse,  Orono ;  Discussion. 

Wednesday  Afternoon — Fruit  Growing  at  Oaklands,  Robert 
H.  Gardiner,  Esq.,  Gardiner;  Home  Storage  for  Fruit,  T.  L. 
Kinney,  South  Hero,  Vt. ;  Discussion ;  Maine  Fruit  as  It 
Appears  to  Others,  A.  A.  Hixon,  Secretary  Worcester  County 
Hort.  Society,  Worcester,  Mass. ;   Discussion. 

Wednesday  Evening — Banquet,  A.  O.  U.  W.  Hall,  opposite 
Johnson  House,  8  o'clock. 

Thursday  Morning — Election  of  Officers;  Reception  Meet- 
ing; The  State  Agricultural  Department,  Hon.  A.  W.  Gilman, 
Commissioner  of  Agriculture,  Augusta;  The  Grange  Co-opera- 
tive Company,  W.  T.  Guptill,  Topsham,  Treasurer.  Others  are 
expected  to  be  present  representing  other  horticultural  societies 
and  kindred  organizations. 

Round  Table — The  Size  of  the  Apple  Package :  The  Barrel, 
F.  H.  Morse,  Waterford ;  Discussion  opened  by  F.  D.  Cum- 
mings,  Portland ;  The  Box,  Discussion  opened  by  E.  L.  Lincoln, 
Wayne;  A  Maine  Cranberry  Bog,  G.  D.  Libbey,  Gardiner. 

Thursday  Afternoon — Delegates'  Meeting;  Resolve  passed 
at  the  Annual  Meeting  in  1905  : 

That  this  Society,  recognizing  the  substantial  growth  of  our 
fruit  industry  and  realizing  the  necessity  for  a  more  critical 
grading  of  the  stock,  for  the  protection  of  the  grower,  declares 
in  favor  of  national  legislation  looking  to  a  Fruit  Marks  Act, 
and  authorizes  the  appointment  of  a  committee  whose  duty  it 
shall  be  to  correspond  with  the  officers  of  the  Fruit  Growers' 
Associations  in  the  several  states,  and  if  a  general  sentiment  is 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  23 

found  favoring  such  action  to  arrange  a  conference  for  the  pur- 
pose of  outhning  national  legislation,  said  committee  to  be 
authorized  to  expend  a  sum  not  to  exceed  fifty  dollars  for  post- 
age and  necessary  printing  and  expenses,  a  full  report  to  be  made 
at  the  next  annual  session  of  this  Society. 
Resolve  passed  at  Annual  Meeting  in  1906: 

That  this  Society  recognizing  the  importance  of  the  proposed 
measures  looking  to  legislation  which  will  insure  more  uniform 
sorting,  grading  and  packing  of  our  fruit  crops,  and  the  work  of 
the  special  committee  appointed  last  year,  hereby  declares  in 
favor  of  continuing  said  committee  another  year  in  the  hope  that 
national  legislation  may  be  made  certain. 

Report  of  Committee  on  above  Resolutions,  Dr.  Geo.  M. 
Twitchell,  Auburn,  Committee;  Discussion,  Wilfrid  Wheeler, 
Concord,  Mass.,  Chairman,  Committee  on  Fruits,  Mass.  Hort. 
Society;  T.  L.  Kenney,  South  Hero,  Vt.,  President  of  Vermont 
Horticultural  Society;  A.  A.  Hixon,  Worcester,  Mass.,  Secre- 
tary Worcester  County  Horticultural  Society;  Edwin  H. 
Burlingame,  Providence,  R.  I.,  representing  R.  I.  Horticultural 
Society;  John  W.  Clark,  North  Hadley,  Mass.,  representing 
Mass.  Fruit  Growers  Association. 

Thursday  Evening — Music;  Opportunities  for  Young  Peo- 
ple, Prof.  Fred  W.  Card,  Pennsylvania ;  Music ;  Insects,  Birds 
and  Fruits,  Prin.  W.  L.  Powers,  Gardiner;   Music. 

The  local  committee  representing  the  Board  of  Trade  con- 
sisted of  the  following  named  gentlemen:  Mayor  Will  C. 
Atkins,  C.  A.  Knight,  E.  L.  Bussell,  F.  E.  Boston,  R.  H.  Gard- 
iner, Guy  A.  Hildreth. 

Before  the  close  of  the  opening  session  the  following  com- 
mittees were  appointed  by  the  President : 

On  President's  address  and  other  papers :  William  Craig, 
Dr.  E.  P.  Turner  and  R.  H.  Gardiner. 

On  resolutions:  S.  G.  Shurtleff,  Charles  S.  Pope  and  J. 
Merrill  Lord. 

At  the  annual  business  meeting  the  President  appointed 
Charles  S.  Phinney,  W.  J.  Ricker  and  Will  E.  Leland  a  com- 
mittee to  receive,  assort  and  count  the  ballots  for  the  several 
•officers. 


24  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

Balloted  and  made  choice  of  the  following  officers  for  1908 : 

William  Craig,  Auburn,  president;    Edward  L.  White,  Bow- 

doinham,  and  F.  H.  Morse,  Waterford,  vice-presidents ;  William 

J.  Ricker,  Turner,  secretary;   E.  L.  Lincoln,  Wayne,  treasurer; 

W' ill  E.  Leland,  member  of  executive  committee  for  three  years. 

TRUSTEES, 

Androscoggin  county — Silas  A  Shaw,  Auburn. 

Aroostook  county — Edward  Tarr,  Mapleton. 

Cumberland  county — John  W.  True,  New  Gloucester. 

-Franklin  county — E.  E.  Hardy,  Farmington,  R.  F.  D. 

Hancock  county — William  H.  Miller,  Bar  Harbor. 

Kennebec  county — E.  R.  Mayo,  Hallowell. 

Knox  county — Alonzo  Butler,  Union. 

Lincoln  county — H.  J.  A.  Simmons,  Waldoboro. 

Oxford  county — W.  H.  Allen,  Buckfield. 

Penobscot  county — Samuel  L.  Boardman,  Bangor. 

Piscataquis  county — C.  C.  Dunham,  Foxcroft. 

Sagadahoc  county — J.  H.  King,  Bowdoinham. 

Somerset  county — Frank  E.  Nowell,  Fairfield. 

Waldo  county — Fred  Atwood,  Winterport. 

Washington  county — D.  W.  Campbell,  Cherryfield. 

York  county — J.  Merrill  Lord,  Kezar  Falls. 

Chas.  S.  Pope,  Manchester,  member  of  Experiment  Station 
Council. 

Voted,  That  our  delegate  to  the  coming  conference  be 
requested  to  ask  the  delegates  to  consider  and  agree  if  possible, 
upon  an  apple  box  of  uniform  style  for  the  New  England  States. 

NATIONAL    APPLE    DAY. 

The  following  letter  from  Mr.  James  Handly,  secretary  of 
the  ^Mississippi  Valley  Apple  Growers  Association  was  presented 
to  the  meeting  and  referred  to  the  committee  on  President's 
address  and  other  papers. 

QuiNCY,  III.,  November  11,  1907. 
To  the  Officers  and  Members  of  the  Maine  State  Pomological 

Society: 

Gentlemen  : — As  a  representative  of  one  of  the  largest  and 
most  prominent  fruit  growers'  organization  in  the  Middle  West 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  25 

I  desire  to  waft  my  heartiest  congratulations  to  your  annual 
meeting  and  exhibition,  hoping  both  will  be  highly  successful, 
not  only  very  profitable  to  all  in  attendance,  but  that  the  light 
of  information  gained  on  the  occasion  may  be  radiated  to  the 
advantage  of  fruit  growers  in  all  parts  of  your  state. 

It  can  not  be  claimed  that  I  appear  as  a  guest  unbidden  to  your 
feast  of  good  things,  as  through  the  courtesy  of  your  secretary 
I  received  an  invitation  to  the  meeting,  and  have  only  the  sin- 
cerest  regrets  that  circumstances  over  which  I  have  no  control 
prevent  my  attendance.  I  beg  your  indulgence,  however,  in 
submitting  a  proposition  by  letter,  which  I  am  prevented  from 
presenting  in  person,  relating  to  my  favorite  topic  National 
Apple  Day.  It  has  not  been  quite  three  years  since  this  move- 
ment was  placed  before  the  people,  but  in  that  short  while  it  has 
made  its  force  felt  in  all  of  the  apple  producing  regions  in  the 
country.  California,  which  was  inclined  to  make  light  of  the 
measure  at  the  start,  having  witnessed  its  good  effect,  has 
imitated  the  measure  by  starting  a  National  Orange  Day,  to  be 
observed  on  the  ist  day  of  March  each  year. 

The  reception  given  to  National  Apple  Day  in  the  New  Eng- 
land States  has  been  most  gratifying.  There  has  been  an  intelli- 
gent spirit  manifested  towards  the  event  there,  which  has  made 
me  feel  quite  proud  of  the  honor  of  having  been  born  in  New 
England.  !My  object  in  addressing  you  at  the  present  time  is  to 
ascertain  if  you  have  taken  formal  action  in  placing  it  on  record 
that  you  heartily  approved  of  the  third  Tuesday  in  October  to 
be  observed  annually  and  perpetually  as  National  Apple  Day. 

So  far  as  I  have  learned,  all  of  the  New  England  States,  with 
perhaps  the  exception  of  Maine,  have  taken  this  formal  action 
through  their  horticultural  societies  and  kindred  organizations, 
and  possibly  your  state  may  have  done  so.  If,  perchance,  you 
have  not,  we  of  the  Middle  West,  and  other  parts  of  the  Union, 
who  have  taken  the  stand  referred  to,  would  be  greatly  obliged 
if  you  would  adopt  a  simple  resolution  of  having  the  third  Tues- 
day in  October  observed  annually  and  perpetually  as  National 
Apple  Day.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  during  the  coming  year  we 
can  have  the  day  placed  on  the  calendar  to  be  generally  observed. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  say  that  there  is  not  the  slightest  intention 
of  making  a  new  holiday,  the  purpose  being  to  have  the  day  as 
an  occasion    for  concentrated    thought  and  action  all    over  the 


26  STATE    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY, 

country  in  the  promotion  of  the  apple  industry.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  such  means  will  lighten  the  way  to  the  preventing 
serious  mistakes  of  the  past,  and  for  developing  greater  possi- 
bilities, than  have  yet  been  conceived,  for  the  future. 

May  I  ask  your  indulgence  still  further  for  calling  your  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  there  is  a  general  movement  now  sweeping 
all  over  the  country  in  favor  of  adopting  the  apple  blossom  as 
our  national  flower.  We  believe  that  this  beautiful  blossom 
would  adorn  the  position  as  a  national  emblem,  and  would  form 
a  binding  union  wherever  it  would  be  recognized,  in  bringing 
a  vast  multitude  of  people  together,  who  come  in  touch  or  con- 
tact in  some  of  the  diversified  circles  of  the  apple  industry.  The 
blossom  as  an  emblem  would  represent  not  only  the  fruits  of  the 
orchard,  but  the  fruits  of  our  commerce,  and  the  fruits  of  labor 
in  diversified  and  far  reaching  spheres  of  industry. 

Many  national  organizations  have  pronounced  decidedly  in 
favor  of  this  choice  for  our  national  emblem,  and  many  states, 
including  your  sister  Connecticut,  have  heartily  concurred  in 
such  expressions.  Again  expressing  my  best  wishes  for  your 
society,  I  beg  to  remain. 

Yours  truly, 

JAMES    HANDLY,   Secretary. 

REPORTS    OE    COMMITTEES. 

On  President's  Address  and  Other  Papers. 

First,  that  we  endorse  and  emphasize  the  idea  of  cold  storage 
so  that  the  farmers  may  not  be  forced  to  sell  their  product 
before  markets  are  in  a  satisfactory  condition. 

Second,  the  absolute  necessity  of  more  cultivation  in  order  to 
produce  a  higher  and  superior  class  of  fruit.  We  also  sustain 
him  in  his  assertion  that  more  care  be  exercised  in  the  selection 
of  the  highest  grade  of  best  flavored  fruit,  such  as  IMcIntosh 
rather  than  the  Ben  Davis. 

We  the  undersigned  comprising  the  committee  on  resolutions 
express  our  regret  that  Mr.  James  Handly,  secretary  Mississippi 
Valley  Apple  Growers  Association,  was  unable  to  be  with  us  at 
this  meeting  and  take  occasion  to  endorse  his  suggestion  of  hav- 
ing a  National  Apple  Day  in  Maine.  Not  as  a  national  holiday 
but  as  an  occasion  for  concentrated  thought  and  action  all  over 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  27 

the  country  in  the  promotion  of  the  apple  industry.  The  idea 
also  of  substituting  the  apple  blossom  for  the  goldenrod  we 
believe  to  be  a  good  one  and  strongly  advise  an  adoption  to  such 
a  motion. 

WM.    CRAIG, 

DR.   E.   P.  TURNER, 

R.   H.   GARDINER. 

Committee. 

On  Resolutions. 

Resolved,  That  the  jMaine  Pomological  Society  desires  to 
extend  their  thanks  to  the  Gardiner  Board  of  Trade  for  their 
cordial  invitation  to  hold  the  j^resent  annual  session  in  this  city. 
This  society  in  particular  desires  to  express  its  appreciation  of 
the  services  of  Mr.  A.  E,  Andrews  for  his  indefatigable  services 
in  contributing  in  many  ways  to  the  success  of  this  meeting; 
also  to  ]\Iayor  Atkins,  to  Air.  F.  H.  Goodrich,  and  the  proprietor 
of  the  Johnson  House  for  their  efforts  to  make  our  stay  in  this 
place  exceedingly  pleasant. 

Resolved,  That  this  society,  recognizing  the  life-long  services 
of  retiring  President  Z.  A.  Gilbert  and  retiring  Secretary  D.  H. 
Knowlton  both  as  individuals  and  officials,  their  devotion  to  our 
fruit  interests  and  their  labors  for  the  advancement  of  those 
interests,  desires  to  express  in  the  most  emphatic  manner  appre- 
ciation of  their  services,  and  that  the  society  here  and  now  would 
record  its  sense  of  obligation  for  the  great  good  resulting  from 
their  devoted  toil  and  sacrifice. 

S.   G.   SHURTLEFF, 

CHAS.  S.  POPE, 

Committee. 


PAPERS,  ADDRESSES  AND  DISCUSSIONS  OFFERED 
AT  VARIOUS  MEETINGS  OF  THE   SOCIETY. 


INVOCATION. 

Rev.  L.  H.  Clarke,  Gardiner. 

Our  Heavenly  Father,  we  ask  Thy  blessing  upon  this  gather- 
ing. As  we  come  together  bringing  with  us  the  first  fruits  of  the 
fields  may  it  be  that  these  shall  fill  our  minds  with  holy  sugges- 
tions, may  they  be  to  us  as  a  sweet  song  which  awakens  the  high- 
est emotions  of  the  heart,  by  their  perfection  of  beauty,  sweetness 
of  fragrance  and  richness  of  substance,  teaching  us  of  Thy 
unbounded  resource  of  worth  and  glory,  power  and  love.  While 
we  consider  the  principles  and  methods  of  agriculture  may  we 
feel  Thy  presence  among  us.  We  pray  that  this  presence  of 
Thine  may  inspire  us  to  recognize  the  true  place  which  the 
husbandman  should  occupy  in  society.  Alay  we  feel  that  in  this 
age  of  wonderful  development  agriculture  is  still  as  in  the  days 
gone  by  the  basic  pursuit  of  mankind  and  that  it  demands  of 
men  the  highest  degree  of  culture  of  mind,  purity  of  heart  and 
earnestness  of  endeavor  to  hold  it  in  its  enthroned  position. 
May  it  be  a  call  of  God  to  the  farmer  not  only  to  produce  boun- 
tiful harvests  but  to  discover  the  untold  wealth  of  new  harvests, 
to  reveal  new  products,  bringing  out  of  God's  treasure  house 
things  new  as  well  as  old.  To  this  end  may  Thy  blessing  be 
upon  the  Pomological  Society  of  the  State.  Quicken  this  organ- 
ization that  it  may  be  Thy  servant,  that  it  may  bless  society, 
that  it  may  make  the  husbandman  a  prince  of  God,  a  man  not 
only  endowed  with  the  power  to  produce  wealth  but  a  man  of 
highest  moral  and  spiritual  strength,  one  sufficient  to  sustain 
society  with  the  sustaining  harvests  from  the  broad  fields  and 
vineyards,  as  well  as  one  able  to  instill  into  the  decaying  elements 


STATE    POMOLOGICAIv    SOCIETY.  29 

of  society  new  life  and  vigor.  Help  us  to  know  that  if  the  call 
of  husbandry  is  to  be  heard  and  heeded  in  this  present  time,  as 
an  occupation  it  must  be  adorned  with  becoming  attractiveness, 
aye,  with  more  becoming  attractiveness  than  other  occupations 
for  the  occupation  is  more  than  other  occupations  and  means 
more  to  society.  Let  the  farmer  recognize  his  true  privilege 
in  society  and  thus  worthily  deport  himself.  Help  him  to  feel, 
O,  God,  that  he  is  a  fellow  worker  with  Thee,  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  Thy  purposes  in  the  earth.  Help  him  to  feel  that 
the  country  is  the  hearthstone  of  God  and  that  here  must  be 
purity,  culture,  grace  and  strength.  Help  him  to  aspire  to  exert 
these  virtues  through  society  as  a  whole,  so  that  the  remotest 
regions  may  feel  their  quickening  impulse. 

May  the  avenues  through  which  these  virtues  shall  flow  be 
those  expressions  of  our  common  citizenship  which  elevate  men 
and  free  them  from  oppression  or  handicap.  }tlay  the  busy 
marts  of  trade  feel  that  the  husbandman,  strong,  refined,  intelli- 
gent and  just  insists  upon  equal  rights  for  all.  Bless  to  Thine 
own  glorious  ends  the  deliberations  of  this  convention  and  Thine 
shall  be  the  glory  and  the  honor  forever.     Amen. 


ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME. 

By  ]\Iayor  Will  C.  Atkins. 

It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  L  as  the  chief  executive  of  this 
city,  greet  the  members  and  friends  of  this,  the  oldest  society  in 
existence.  H  history  serves  me  right  and  my  memory  be  not 
faulty,  Adam  and  Eve  were  the  original  promoters  of  the 
parent  organization,  and  the  place  of  meeting  was  in  the  Garden 
of  Eden.  Those  two  people  were  much  interested  in  the  dispo- 
sition if  not  the  cultivation  of  fruits  and  while  at  that  time  the 
product  of  the  trees  might  be  bartered  or  sold,  it  could  not  be 
eaten.  I  understand  that  the  ban  against  eating  has  been 
removed  by  this  society,  in  fact  that  the  society  not  only  permits 
eating,  but  especially  encourages  it  particularly  when  the  crop  is 
large.  ]\Iy  mother  being  the  daughter  of  a  farmer  and  fiuit 
grower,  makes  me  a  half  ])omologist  by  descent,  so  that  I  ^rve 
a  verv  kindly  feeling  for  this  society. 


30  STATE    POMOLOGICAIv    SOCIETY. 

Possibly  this  may  be  the  first  visit  of  many  of  you  to  Gardiner, 
and  that  being  the  case,  perhaps  a  few  words  of  description  may 
not  be  amiss.  Gardiner  was  founded  in  the  year  1754  by  Dr, 
Sylvester  Gardiner  from  whom  the  place  takes  its  name.  Direct 
descendants  of  the  first  family  have  lived  with  us  ever  since. 
'The  beautiful  jjark  or  common  as  we  call  it,  was  given  to  us  by 
Mr.  Gardiner,  and  if  you  desire  to  see  one  of  the  finest  estates 
in  New  England,  I  would  advise  you  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
Gardiner  Mansion,  its  orchards  and  grounds. 

The  city  now  has  a  population  of  about  6,000,  is  at  the  head  of 
navigation  on  the  Kennebec,  and  one  of  the  busiest  manufactur- 
ing places  in  the  State.  The  principal  industries  are  paper  and 
shoe  making  and  the  manufacture  of  lumber.  If  any  of  you  feel 
interested  in  either  of  these  branches  of  business,  I  am  sure  the 
different  concerns  will  feel  honored  with  a  visit  and  will  see  that 
you  have  opportunity  to  inspect  the  entire  plants. 

Gardiner  has  many  churches,  and  they  might  all  be  worthy 
of  inspection,  but  you  ought  not  to  go  away  until  you  have  seen 
Christ  Episcopal  Church  and  the  new  Christian  Science  Church. 
The  first  should  be  observed  on  account  of  its  construction,  age 
and  history,  and  the  latter  because  it  is  the  first  Christian  Science 
Church  erected  in  this  State. 

The  National  Home  at  Togus  is  but  twenty  minutes  ride  from 
Randolph,  across  the  bridge,  and  there  will  be  seen  between  two 
and  three  thousand  of  the  nation's  former  defenders.  The 
governor  of  the  Home  is  Gen.  Richards,  a  citizen  of  Gardiner. 

We  have  always  been  the  legitimate  rival  to  Augusta  and 
while  we  do  not  equal  her  in  population  or  wealth,  we  are  some- 
what like  a  little  man  out  in  New  York  state.  In  that  state, 
when  a  woman  signs  a  deed  releasing  her  right  of  dower  in  real 
estate,  she  is  taken  into  a  room  separate  from  her  husband  and 
there  the  magistrate  asks  her  if  she  signs  the  deed  of  her  own 
free  will  and  accord  and  without  fear  of  bodily  harm  from  hei* 
husband.  I  happened  to  be  in  one  of  the  offices  of  a  lawyer 
there  when  in  came  a  rather  peculiar  couple,  evidently  man  and 
wife.  The  man  weighed  about  100  and  the  woman  about  300. 
They  made  known  their  business,  which  was  that  of  executing 
a  deed,  and  after  the  man  had  signed,  the  magistrate  took  the 
wife  into  a  side  room  but  with  the  door  open.  He  asked  her  if 
she  signed  the  deed  of  her  own  free  will  and  accord  and  without 


state;  pomological  society.  31 

fear  of  bodily  harm  from  her  husband,  and  she  said,  "What,  that 
httle  cuss  over  there?"  And  that  is  pretty  much  our  relation 
with  the  Capitol  city. 

We  give  you  a  hearty  welcome  to  our  city.  We  do  not  as  in 
the  time  honored  custom,  give  you  the  keys,  but  we  have 
unlocked  the  doors  and  thrown  the  keys  away.  But  one  condi- 
tion is  attached  to  our  hospitality,  and  that  is,  you  must  promise 
to  come  again. 

Take  a  good  look  around  and  when  you  come  again  in  three, 
five  or  ten  years  from  now,  as  sure  as  large  aches  from  little 
toe-corns  grow,  we  will  show  you  a  greater  and  a  grander 
Gardiner. 

In  closing,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  wish  to  express  to  you  my  regret 
that  ]\Ir.  Patten,  former  president  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  and 
by  whose  invitation  you  are  here,  was  taken  from  this  life  in 
September.  He  was  most  interested  in  your  visit  and  would 
have  enjoyed  meeting  you  as  I  know  you  would  have  been  glad 
to  meet  him.  He  was  big  hearted,  generous,  and  endowed  with 
the  finest  disposition  imaginable.  He  would  have  tried  to  do 
much  more  for  your  entertainment  than  we  have  been  able  to  do. 

RESPONSE  TO  ADDRESS  OF  WELCO^IE. 
By  WiiviviAM  Craig  of  Auburn. 

I  have  had  the  wind  knocked  out  of  me  by  being  asked  to 
respond  to  this  address  of  welcome.  For  a  rustic  farmer,  who 
has  been  accustomed  to  milking  cows  and  working  on  stone  piles 
and  doing  manual  labor,  it  is  a  pretty  difficult  thing,  without 
warning,  to  be  called  upon  to  respond  to  an  address  of  that  kind. 

I  congratulate  the  city  on  possessing  a  mayor  with  such  good 
looks,  and  who  has  given  us  such  a  warm  welcome  that  we  can- 
not help  but  feel  at  home  and  look  forward  to  a  profitable  and 
interesting  convention. 

I  commend  the  idea  of  opening  a  convention  of  this  kind  with 
prayer.  And  I  would  also  suggest  that  we  mix  more  sentiment 
in  with  our  work  along  these  horticultural  lines.  A  man 
embued  with  a  love  for  his  calling,  realizing  the  extreme 
delicacy  of  what  we  might  call  a  real  ball  of  cells,  will  handle 
fruit  very  carefully,  instead  of  throwing  it  into  the  baskets  as 
is  usually  done. 

I  would  again  thank  the  mayor  for  his  welcome. 


2^2  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 


ANNUAL  ADDRESS. 

By  Hon.  Z.  A.  Gilbert,  North  Greene,  President  of  ]\Iaine 
State  Pomological  Society. 

The  State  Pomological  Society  was  organized  in  1873.  A 
society  of  long  standing,  like  a  man  of  advanced  years,  can  look 
back  over  the  field  of  its  activity,  and  pass  in  review  the  steps 
of  progress  in  its  pathway  as  the  impressions  have  been  left 
along  the  passing  years  of  its  labors.  It  was  the  privilege  of 
your  present  executive  head  to  be  "in  at  the  bornin'  "  of  this 
society,  and  it  has  been  his  pleasure  to  keep  in  touch  with  every 
step  of  its  work,  and  note  every  milestone  of  advancement  it 
has  set  up  along  its  way  to  the  present  time. 

Great  changes  in  the  condition  and  standing  of  the  fruit  indus- 
try of  our  State  have  taken  place  in  the  years  represented  by  the 
life  of  this  society,  in  all  of  which  the  society  has  had  a  part. 
At  the  time  of  our  organization  the  export  outlet  for  fruit  had 
just  begun  to  attract  the  attention  of  fruit  growers  in  York  state. 
Our  trade  was  chiefly  confined  to  our  own  cities  and  occasional 
small  shipments  to  Boston.  A  few  individuals  could  see  greater 
things  for  the  fruit  industry  of  our  State.  It  is  distinctly 
remembered  that  an  optimistic  member  of  the  executive  board 
of  this  society  publicly  expressed  his  belief  that  if  the  fruit 
production  of  the  State  could  be  quadrupled  the  demand  for  the 
same  would  be  sharper  than  for  the  fruit  then  being  grown,  and 
in  their  deliberations  the  officers  queried  whether  the  business 
could  ever  become  extensive  enough  to  attract  representatives 
of  those  foreign  business  houses  engaged  in  the  fruit  trade  to 
our  own  orchards.  Such  ideas,  then  only  dreams,  have  come 
to  be  realities,  so  that  now  there  is  hardly  a  neighborhood  of 
fruit  growers  in  the  State  but  is  annually  canvassed  by  agents 
from  Liverpool  and  Glasgow  in  the  interests  of  the  foreign  trade 
in  our  Maine  grown  fruit.  These  conditions  fittingly  represent 
the  increase  in  fruit  growing  in  our  State  since  this  society  was 
organized  in  its  aid,  and  in  the  development  of  which  it  has  held 
an  active  part.  Yes,  and  this  society  is  clearly  seeing  the  oppor- 
tunity for  a  still  greater  development  of  the  industry  in  the  near 
future  than  has  been  its  history  in  the  past. 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  33 

COLD    STORAGE. 

The  orchards  in  our  State  have  already  outgrown  the  i^rovi- 
sions  for  caring  for  and  handhng  the  fruit  after  grown.  The 
crop  of  marketable  apples  just  harvested  in  our  State  is  esti- 
mated to  exceed  two  million  barrels.  In  a  single  town  it  exceeds 
fifty  thousand  barrels,  a  single  county  approximates  a  half 
million  barrels,  and  individual  orchards  have  reached  the  plural 
thousand.  These  quantities  call  for  room  after  taken  from  the 
trees.  Yet  there  is  not  a  rental  storage  house  in  the  State,  and 
the  private  store-rooms  constructed  for  this  purpose  can  be 
numbered  by  the  digits  on  one  hand  with  the  fingers  uncounted. 
Thousands  of  barrels  of  this  choice  fruit  was  of  necessity  tem- 
porarily stored  in  barns,  sheds  and  other  outbuildings,  and  thou- 
sands hastened  to  market  on  reduced  values,  and  still  others 
frozen  on  the  trees  and  lost,  all  for  the  want  of  provisions  for 
quick  and  safe  storage  facilities.  This  must  not  continue  if  we 
would  encourage  the  further  planting  of  trees.  What  the  busi- 
ness now  first  of  all  calls  for  is  a  cold  storage  warehouse  at 
Portland  to  which  fruit  can  be  forwarded  direct  from  the 
■orchard,  and  held  till  called  for  by  market  demand.  Possibly 
cold  storage  and  shipping  centers  on  the  line  of  the  railroads 
may  meet  the  demand  of  the  business,  and  it  needs  no  argument 
to  show  that  private  facilities  for  temporary  storage  are  a  neces- 
sity on  every  fruit  farm. 

This  is  a  matter  calling  for  action  rather  than  recommendation. 
This  society  can  at  this  stage  of  conditions  surrounding  our  fruit 
interest  do  no  better  service  than  to  aid  in  establishing  storage 
facilities  adequate  to  the  needs  of  the  fruit  crop.  Fruit  inter- 
ests have  reached  a  stage  where  something  difl^erent  is  called  for 
other  than  planting  more  trees. 

CULTURE. 

For  several  years  this  society  has  been  doing  valiant  service 
to  the  fruit  interests  of  the  State  through  its  urgent  appeals  for 
better  care  and  culture  of  the  trees.  One  has  only  to  go  through 
any  fruit  growing  section  of  the  State  to  find  the  evidence  that 
this  teaching  has  been  heeded  in  goodly  measure.  Indeed  no 
small  measure  of  the  bounty  of  the  crop  just  harvested  was  due 
to  the  influence  sent  abroad  through  the  agency  of  this  society. 


34  STATE    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY. 

But  the  call  for  further  work  is  still  abroad.  There  are  still 
more  trees  than  fruit  in  the  State.  Your  President  has  gained 
some  lessons  in  the  last  three  years  that  had  he  learned  them 
earlier  in  life  would  have  been  greatly  to  his  advantage.  Others 
need  these  lessons.  It  is  not  the  purpose  at  this  time  to  discuss 
how  this  needed  culture  is  best  applied,  but  to  urge  continued 
attention  to  this  important  feature  of  successful  fruit  growing. 
In  the  25ast  years  good  crops  of  fruit  have  been  realized  when 
nature  got  into  a  friendly  mood  and  gave  us  the  benefit  of  her 
good  fellowship.  In  the  late  harvest  note  what  the  "tender"' 
Baldwin  has  given,  in  return  for  intelligent  care  bestowed,  in 
scores  and  hundreds  of  orchards,  following  one  of  the  coldest 
winters  on  record ;  the  fruit  on  a  short  acre  of  Northern  Spy 
trees,  sold  on  the  trees  for  six  hundred  dollars ;  fail  not  to  take 
into  account  the  scores  of  other  bountiful  crops  you  will  learn 
of  at  this  gathering,  and  then  remember  we  have  but  just  begun 
to  realize  the  opportunity  open  to  us  in  our  goodly  State  for 
continued  successful  fruit  production.  \A'hile  we  have  made 
vast  strides,  as  a  society,  the  hand  of  possibilities  is  beckoning  to 
us  even  more  earnestly  today  than  when  we  first  took  the 
responsibility  into  our  hands  to  lead  the  way  to  the  still  greater 
achievements  now  plainly  within  our  reach. 

VARIETIES. 

The  question  of  varieties  to  plant  will  not  down  with  the  bid- 
ding so  long  as  there  are  continuous  enlistments  of  new  recruits 
to  the  ranks  of  tree  planters.  This  is  today,  as  in  the  past,  a 
matter  of  vital  importance  to  the  industry.  Your  President  is 
on  record  in  claiming  that  superior  quality  of  the  fruit  is  the 
leading  factor  of  value  and  therefore  never  should  be  omitted 
from  the  calculation  in  deciding  the  question  of  variety  to  plant. 
We  have  had  a  Ben  Davis  lesson  the  past  winter.  Another 
chapter  will  be  given  at  this  meeting.  The  present  system  of 
selling  trees  has  a  possible  trend  toward  misleading  in  this  dom- 
inant factor  of  quality.  The  business  of  the  tree  salesman  is 
to  sell  trees.  It  is  as  natural  as  breathing  that  a  salesman  will 
fall  into  line  in  recommending  the  kind  that  is  selling  freely. 
Usually  this  is  a  variety  the  genuine  merits  of  which  are  little 
known.  Thus  it  is  that  good,  old  fashioned  varieties  that  have 
formerly  proved  their  merits  in  our  own  State  get  overlooked. 


?^ 


< 


STATE    POMOI.OGICAI,    SOCIETY.  35 

and  the  new  generation  of  buyers  and  planters  know  nothing  of 
them.  A  grower  in  our  State  of  the  old  and  almost  forgotten 
Williams  Early  has  been  selling  them  the  past  summer  at  three 
dollars  the  bushel  box.  Another  grower  has  been  selling  the 
Gravenstein  in  quantity  at  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  a  box. 
This  society  has  yet  a' responsibility  on  its  hands  of  dissem- 
inating information  in  regard  to  varieties  of  apples  to  grow. 
The  influence  of  the  tree  agent  is  too  prominent. 

Thus  it  is  seen  there  is  work  still  opening  to  view  as  step  after 
step  we  advance  to  higher  standards  of  success  in  the  chosen 
work  we  have  in  hand  and  as  the  light  of  knowledge  points  the 
way.  Thus  should  it  ever  be,  as  advancing  knowledge  opens  to 
the  broader  view  a  field  of  effort  whose  limit  can  never  be 
compassed. 

GREETING. 

We  are  to  have  with  us  at  this  session  representatives  from 
kindred  organizations  throughovit  the  New  England  group  of 
states.  Situated  as  are  these  sister  states  we  are  one  in  interest, 
and  may  well  be  a  unit  of  effort  in  behalf  of  that  common  inter- 
est. This  new  movement  cannot  fail  of  a  strong  influence 
towards  centering  thought,  awakening  interest  and  arousing 
effort  in  a  warmer  love  of  nature  as  exemplified  in  fruits  and 
flowers  and  will  aid  in  embellishing  country  life  with  the  useful 
and  the  beautiful  so  lavishly  laid  before  all  who  have  eyes  cul- 
tured to  see  and  the  taste  to.  enjoy  the  entrancing  bounty.  As 
co-workers  in  our  chosen  field  of  effort  we  extend  the  glad  hand 
to  the  delegates  and  visitors  from  kindred  societies  from  other 
states,  and  assure  them  a  warm  welcome  to  our  deliberations. 

Your  President  congratulates  all  associate  fruit  growers 
wherever  located  over  the  surprising  bounty  that  has  rewarded 
their  efforts  the  past  season. 


36  STATE    POMOIvOGICAI.    SOCIETY. 


NON-PARASITIC  DISEASES  OF  FRUIT  TREES. 
By  Prof.  W.  J.  MoRSE,  Orono. 

Some  time  ago  your  secretary  wrote  me  requesting  that  I 
come  to  this  meeting  prepared  to  speak  on  the  diseases  of  trees. 
Since  it  seemed  to  me  impossible  to  do  justice  to  so  general 
a  topic  in  the  time  allotted,  I  suggested  that  the  discussion  be 
limited  to  the  non-parasitic  diseases  of  fruit  trees.  When  I 
came  to  go  over  the  matter  in  detail  I  felt  the  need  of  still  greater 
limitation.  Just  at  present  our  orchardists  are  much  interested 
in  winter  killing  of  fruit  trees,  therefore,  I  think  you  will  pardon 
me  if  I  limit  what  I  have  to  say  largely  to  those  diseases  which 
are  brought  about  by  adverse  weather  conditions,  and  particu- 
larly to  those  due  to  extremes  of  heat  and  cold  in  winter. 

Any  condition  which  interferes  with  the  normal  activities  of 
a  plant  and  renders  it  partially  or  wholly  incapable  of  responding 
to  its  environment  is  a  disease.  We  should  bear  in  mind  that 
there  is  a  sharp  distinction  between  the  cause  of  the  disease  and 
the  disease  itself.  The  fungus  in  plum  pockets  is  not  the  dis- 
ease, but  its  presence  in  the  tissues  of  the  host  stimulates  them 
to  abnormal  activities  and  the  large  bladdery  "pockets"  are 
produced  in  place  of  the  normal  fruit.  Similarly  the  hired  man 
is  not  a  disease  (though  we  sometimes  look  upon  him  as  an 
affliction)  but  by  carelessly  driving  his  team  in  the  orchard  he 
may  be  responsible  for  a  diseased  condition  resulting  from  bark- 
ing and  wounding  the  trees. 

While  some  may  object  to  my  definition  of  a  disease,  if  we 
accept  it  we  see  that  diseases  resulting  from  non-parasitic 
agencies  are  common.  These  are  largely  due  to  the  action  of 
the  non-living  environment,  such  as  conditions  of  soil,  moisture, 
atmosphere,  heat,  light,  lightning,  etc.  I  will  briefly  mention  a 
few  of  these  diseased  conditions  resulting  from  extremes  of  tem- 
perature. 

Sun  scald  is  a  trouble  which  is  apt  to  take  place  in  mid-sum- 
mer on  the  south  of  young,  thin  barked  trees,  and  is  due  to  over 
heating  and  drying  out  from  bright  sunlight.  Also  in  late  winter 
and  early  spring,  when  the  rays  of  the  sun  on  the  south  and 
southwest  sides  of  the  trees  cause  an  alternate  freezing  and 
thawing,  the  tissues  beneath  the  bark  are  killed  in  patches,  the 


STATU    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  37 

bark  sinks,  dries  out  and  finally  separates  from  the  wood  giving 
much  the  same  injury  as  in  the  summer  sun  scald.  With  some 
trees,  especially  cherries,  we  have  a  blistering  and  cracking  of 
the  bark.  It  is  more  common  west  than  in  New  England  and 
more  apt  to  occur  on  high  headed  trees  with  exposed  trunks. 
The  remedy  is  to  protect  the  trunks  of  susceptible  trees  by 
shading. 

Low  temperatures,  or,  rather  more  frequently,  alternately 
freezing  and  thawing  is  responsible  for  more  injuries  to  fruit 
trees  than  high  temperature.  Late  frosts  in  the  spring  may  pro- 
duce a  blistering  of  the  leaves,  and  very  frequently  cause  what 
is  called  "frost  band"  of  apples  and  pears.  This  latter  is  very 
frequent  in  some  parts  of  New  England.  A  late  frost  catches 
the  young  fruit  soon  after  it  is  set  but  does  not  injure  it  enough 
to  cause  it  to  fall.  When  the  fruit  enlarges  there  is  a  distinct 
and  often  very  marked  russeted  band  around  it  half  way  between 
the  stem  and  blossom  ends.  Bordeaux  mixture  may  also  cause 
a  russeting  of  the  fruit  but  this  occurs  in  blotches  and  patches, 
and  not  in  well  marked  rings. 

Frost  cracks  are  more  common  on  the  trunks  of  certain  forest 
trees  than  on  fruit  trees.  Very  lov/  temperatures,  especially  if 
accompanied  by  a  cold,  dry  wind  causes  the  tissues  of  the  wood 
to  shrink.  The  wood  and  bark  split  in  long  cracks  along  the 
more  exposed  side.  Once  opened  the  crack  may  split  open 
repeatedly,  winter  after  winter,  and  yearly  attempts  to  heal  may 
result  in  a  well  defined  ridge  along  the  trunk,  called  a  frost 
ridge. 

Frost  patches  are  very  characteristic  upon  winter  killed  or 
winter  injured  trees,  more  especially  on  the  larger  and  medium 
sized  limbs.  On  badly  frosted  trees  the  bark  on  the  smaller 
limbs  is  apt  to  be  pretty  generally  killed.  These  frost  patches 
on  the  larger  limbs  can  be  seen  early  in  the  season  following  the 
injury  and  are  prominent  all  summer.  There  is  a  sharp  line  on 
the  surface  of  the  bark  marking  the  junction  of  the  dead  and  the 
living  tissues.  As  the  dead  bark  dries  out  the  tissues  contract 
and  stick  to  the  wood  below.  The  bark  very  frequently  is  of  a 
lighter  color  and  may  crack  away  ^lightly  from  the  healthy  por- 
tion. The  patches  are  of  various  sizes  but  are  generally  elon- 
gated in  shape.  If  the  tree  is  not  entirely  killed,  healing  of  the 
wound  is  started  but  instead  of  forming  a  callus  with  a  thick 


38  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

lip  on  the  margin  as  in  the  case  of  canker  or  a  mechanical  wound 
the  new  living  tissue  is  forced  with  thinned  out  edges  between 
the  wood  and  the  dead  bark.  Patches  like  these  offer  an  excel- 
lent opportunity  for  the  entrance  of  fungi.  In  fact  those 
formed  last  winter  show  today  almost  without  exception  more 
or  less  infection  and  if  one  has  not  followed  the  history  of  the 
case  there  is  considerable  chance  of  being  misled  as  to  the  cause. 
The  natural  inference  would  be  that  the  fungi  are  the  original 
and  only  causes  of  the  dead  areas.  However,  if  the  fungi  are 
allowed  to  develop  they  may  eventually  cause  the  final  destruc- 
tion of  the  trees,  therefore,  prompt  remedial  measures  should  be 
taken.  As  soon  as  the  frost  patches  are  apparent  in  the 
spring  the  bark  should  be  cut  away  till  the  healthy  margins  are 
exposed  and  the  wound  covered  with  a  coat  of  white  lead  or 
thin  grafting  wax.  In  an  orchard  where  this  has  not  been  done 
I  would  now  wait  until  just  about  the  time  growth  begins  in  the 
spring  and  make  a  pretty  thorough  job  of  getting  rid  of  all 
tissues  which  show  signs  of  decay. 

There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  how  severe  pruning 
we  should  do  on  badly  injured  trees.  Personally  I  think  I 
would  prune  rather  sparingly  the  first  season  but  during  the  next 
winter  or  early  spring  I  would  cut  out  all  dead  wood  going  well 
back  on  the  living  tissues,  to  be  sure  that  all  infesting  fungi  are 
removed.  Of  course,  this  dead  wood  should  at  once  be  burned 
to  destroy  the  fungi  contained  therein.  In  many  cases  top 
grafting  may  be  used  to  advantage. 

In  the  history  of  Maine  orcharding  we  probably  have  had  no 
other  single  season  in  which  so  many  fruit  trees  were  killed  as 
in  the  winter  of  1906-7.  This  was  due,  as  I  shall  attempt  to 
show,  to  the  severity  of  the  weather  and  the  abrupt  fluctuation 
of  temperature  from  extreme  cold  to  thawing.  However,  we 
have  good  reason  to  believe  that  many  trees  were  more  suscep- 
tible on  account  of  not  having  fully  recovered  from  the  freezing 
of  1903-4  and  1904-5,  for  I  find  the  following  statement  from 
Professor  Munson's  pen:  "The  winters  of  1903-4  and  1904-5 
were  exceptionally  severe  in  Maine,  and  as  a  result  many  com- 
plaints were  made  that  the  a])ple  orchards  had  suffered  more 
than  for  the  previous  20  years." 

The  injurious  effects  of  a  winter  like  that  of  1906-7  are  more 
easily  understood  if  we  know  something  of  the  structure  of  a, 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  39 

tree.  If  we  should  cut  a  thin  section  from  a  leaf,  a  stem  or 
root  and  examine  it  with  a  microscope  we  would  find  that 
instead  of  being  solid  it  presents  a  honeycombed  appearance. 
W'e  would  at  once  see  that  the  plant  tissues  are  made  up  of 
different  individual  units  of  various  shapes  and  sizes.  Further- 
more, in  each  separate  organ,  the  shape,  size,  structure  and 
arrangement  of  these  units  are  modified  to  serve  some  special 
purpose.  For  example,  in  the  leaf  they  have  thin  walls,  are 
more  nearly  rectangular,  and  are  arranged  with  open  spaces  like 
a  loosely  piled  stone  wall.  In  the  stem  of  woody  trees  the  dif- 
ferent elements  are  arranged  in  a  circle  and  many  of  them  are 
thick  walled,  very  long  and  tapering  with  the  ends  over-lapping 
and  fitting  tightly  together,  thus  giving  strength  to  the  tree. 
Others  have  lost  their  end  walls  and  form  tubes  or  vessels  to 
conduct  liquids  up  through  the  stem  to  the  leaves.  These  sepa- 
rate units  are  called  cells  and  each  cell  of  a  plant  is  more  or  less 
dependent  on  other  cells  for  its  life  and  well  being. 

The  simplest  form  of  a  vegetable  cell  has  a  wall  made  up  of  a 
substance  known  as  cellulose.  Chemically  this  is  practically  the 
same  as  starch  but  in  structure  it  is  in  reality  quite  dift'erent, 
as  will  be  seen  when  I  tell  you  that  the  best  filter  paper  used  by 
chemists  is  nearly  pure  cellulose.  It  absorbs  water  very  readily 
and  readily  allows  water  to  pass  through  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
when  wet,  as  it  always  is  in  the  active  cells,  it  retards  the  passage 
of  air  or  gases  unless  in  solution  much  the  same  way  as  we  have 
all  seen  a  wet  sheet  enclose  and  retain  bubbles  of  air  when  in  a 
wash  tub. 

The  cell  wall  may  be  variously  modified  as  the  tree  grows 
older,  those  of  the  trunk  becoming  very  thick  and  woody. 
Those  of  the  bark  receive  deposits  of  cork  and  the  cells  finally 
become  minute,  tight,  thick-walled  cork  boxes,  each  containing 
a  little  bubble  of  air  and  forming  an  admirable  non-conductor 
to  protect  the  tissues  below  from  extremes  of  temperature  with- 
out. Lining  the  inside  wall  of  all  living  vegetable  cells  is  a  thin 
layer  of  a  semifluid,  viscid  substance  called  protoplasm  and 
imbedded  in  it  or  suspended  in  the  interior  of  the  cell  by  strands 
of  protoplasm  is  a  body  called  the  nucleus.  The  protoplasm  is 
the  seat  life  in  the  cell  and  the  nucleus  probably  controls  the 
vital  activities  of  the  protoplasm.  The  cell  cavity  within  the 
film  of  protoplasm  is  filled  with  the  watery  cell  sap,  and  bubbles 


40  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

of  gas  or  air.  The  gas  content  of  the  wood  on  some  trees  being 
as  high  as  20  to  25  per  cent  of  its  vohnne.  The  fihn  of  pro- 
toplasm, Hke  the  cell  wall,  allows  water  to  pass  through  it  but 
it  can  regulate  in  a  great  measure  the  passage  of  the  soluble  cell 
contents.  If,  however,  this  living  matter  is  killed,  for  example 
by  frost,  the  cell  sap  readily  passes  through  it  and  escapes. 
This  makes  the  tissues  soft  and  flabby  as  is  the  case  with  frozen 
leaves  of  tender  plants. 

In  a  tree  like  the  apple  or  pear,  the  living,  active  cells  are 
largely  confined  to  the  outer  layers  of  the  wood  and  inner  layers 
of  the  bark.  ]\Iost  of  those  in  the  interior  contain  no  living 
protoplasm  and  are  functionless  except  as  they  assist  in  support- 
ing the  trunk  and  in  the  transference  of  liquids.  The  region 
of  growth  in  the  tree,  as  we  all  know,  is  at  the  junction  of  the 
bark  and  wood.  This  is  known  as  the  cambium  zone.  During 
the  growing  season  the  cells  of  the  cambium  layer  grow  rapidly 
and  are  actively  dividing,  forming  wood  on  one  side  and  bark  on 
the  other.  The  wood  formed  in  any  one  season  from  this  divis- 
ion produces  the  well  marked  annual  ring  which  we  all  recog- 
nize. If  anything  happens  to  destroy  the  living  cells  in  the 
cambium  zone,  growth  stops  there,  the  bark  dries  down  or 
sloughs  off  and  we  have  an  exposed  surface  or  wound  inviting 
the  entrance  of  wood  decaying  fungi  into  the  tissues  below. 

Before  leaving  the  question  of  structure  we  should  point  out 
those  elements  which  are  concerned  in  the  transference  of  food 
materials  and  foods  in  the  tree,  for  this  throws  light  upon  certain 
phenomena  observed  with  reference  to  frost  injured  trees 
Mineral  food  substances  dissolved  in  water  are  absorbed  by  the 
fine  hairs  near  the  ends  of  the  minute  rootlets,  then  carried  up 
through  the  roots  to  the  stem  where  they  pass  upward  through 
the  vessels  of  the  wood  inside  the  cambium  zone  to  the  leaves. 
Here  they  mingle  with  the  gases  taken  up  from  the  air  and  are 
converted  into  starch  and  other  food  materials  by  the  proto]ilasm 
of  the  leaf  cells,  acted  upon  by  sunlight.  Then  these  manufac- 
tured food  materials  are  sent  back  down  to  furnish  nourishment 
to  the  growing  parts  of  the  trees.  But  instead  of  going  down 
through  the  wood  they  pass  down  through  certain  vessels  in  the 
inner  part  of  what  we  commonly  call  the  bark,  next  to  the  cam- 
bium. The  downward  course  of  the  manufactured  food  materials 
is  easily  demonstrated,  for  every  orchardist  is  familiar  with  the 


state:  pomological  society.  41 

effect  produced  by  ringing  or  partially  ringing  the  tree.  Growth 
goes  on  above  the  ring  but  stops  below  for  the  food  supply  is 
entirely  cut  oft'. 

Not  all  the  manufactured  food  is  used  at  once  for  growth  but 
some  of  it  is  stored  away  in  the  tissues  of  the  stem  and  root  for 
future  use.  This  is  especially  true  toward  fall  when  the  wood 
is  "ripening  up,"  as  we  say  for  winter.  Then  the  tree  is  actively 
storing  up  food  material,  largely  in  the  form  of  starch  to  be  used 
the  following  spring.  In  the  early  spring,  the  food  materials 
begin  to  go  into  solution  again,  pass  up  through  the  vessels  with 
the  water  current  and  are  used  in  building  up  the  young  leaves 
till  thy  are  ready  to  go  into  the  food  manufacturing  business 
on  their  own  account. 

After  a  severe  winter  we  are  sure  of  a  large  number  of 
bundles  of  apple  twigs  to  examine  during  \lay  and  June.  The 
owner  in  each  case  is  very  much  alarmed,  saying  that  some 
unknown  contagious  disease  has  appeared  in  his  orchard  and 
is  sweeping  through  it  like  wildfire.  In  some  cases  the  trees  fail 
to  put  forth  leaves  at  all.  With  these  trees  the  orchardists 
readily  recognize  that  they  have  winter  killed.  ]\Iore  often  the 
leaves  appear  as  usual  and  frequently  blossoms  are  also  put 
forth.  In  less  severe  cases  the  fruit  sometimes  sets.  Suddenly 
the  leaves  begin  to  wither  and  fall  off  and  the  bark  on  many  o£ 
the  younger  limbs  and  twigs  withers  and  dries  out.  Bearing  in 
mind  what  has  just  been  said  with  reference  to  the  structure  of 
the  tree  and  the  storage  and  movements  of  food  materials  the 
explanation  of  the  cause  is  now  easy. 

When  the  ground  begins  to  warm  up  in  the  spring  the  sap 
current  from  the  roots  starts  up  through  the  vessels  of  the  wood 
through  the  trunk,  limbs  and  twigs  to  the  buds.  The  dormant 
buds  on  the  trees  are  quite  well  protected  from  frost  and  appar- 
ently can  withstand  greater  variations  in  temperature  than  the 
smaller  limbs.  The  stored  food  materials  go  into  solution  and 
are  carried  along  with  the  water  current,  the  buds  swell  and 
begin  to  put  forth  leaves  as  usual.  If  the  frost  injury  is  not 
severe  the  trees  will  have  a  sickly  appearance  for  a  season  or  two 
and  may  gradually  recover  unless  another  cold  winter  follows 
to  finish  them.  More  frequently  the  leaves  fall  as  has  already 
been  described.  Here  we  have  stored  food  materials  sufficient 
to  start  the  young  leaves,  but  this  soon  gives  out.     So  many  of 


42  state;  pomological  society. 

the  living  cells  in  the  outer  tissues  of  the  young  Hmbs.have  been 
killed  that  they  cannot  perform  their  proper  function  and  death 
results,  either  to  a  part  or  a  whole  of  the  tree,  depending  on  how 
many  of  the  limbs  are  badly  affected. 

There  is  always  an  upper  and  a  lower  limit  of  temperature 
that  a  given  species  can  withstand.  Some  tropical  plants  are 
killed  at  a  temperature  of  from  +35  degrees  to  +40  degrees  F. 
while  some  arctic  plants  have  been  known  to  withstand  — 60 
degrees  to  — 70  degrees  F.  Our  experience  during  the  past 
season  with  apple  trees  shows  us  that  this  minimum  limit  varies 
with  the  variety  and  with  the  individuals  of  a  given  species  or 
variety.  When  we  get  down  to  — 30  degrees  or  — 40  degrees 
F.  we  have  come  within  the  danger  limit  for  most  varieties  of 
the  apple.  Last  winter  the  records  at  Orono  show  that  we 
reached  this  limit  in  January  twice  within  a  few  days  of  each 
other. 

When  a  tree  freezes  water  is  withdrawn  from  the  cell  walls 
and  cell  sap  and  forms  in  crystals  in  the  intercellular  spaces  or 
in  the  interior  of  the  vessels,  hence  the  cell  walls  become  much 
dryer,  and  the  cell  contents,  even  though  they  do  not  freeze 
themselves,  become  more  concentrated, — a  condition  similar  to 
drought.  If  now  thawing  gradually  takes  place  the  water  is 
reabsorbed  slowly  and  the  vital  functions  of  the  cells  are 
renewed.  If  on  the  other  hand  the  frozen  tissues  are  rapidly 
warmed  and  the  water  quickly  liberated  trouble  is  sure  to  fol- 
low, just  the  same  as  will  be  the  case  if  ihe  small  boy  t'  awi  his 
frosted  ears  by  the  kitchen  stove  instead  of  using  the  time 
honored  snowball. 

Before  attempting  to  fix  just  hozv  and  when  our  trees  were 
killed  last  winter,  let  me  quote  three  sentences  from  one  and  one 
from  another  of  the  best  German  authorities  on  this  subject, 
the  latter  a  specialist  in  the  diseases  of  trees. 

1.  "Thawing  is  more  dangerous  than  freezing,  as,  if  it 
proceeds  too  rapidly,  it  kills  more  plants  and  plant  parts  than 
extreme  cold." 

2.  "Those  parts  of  plants  that  contain  little  water  are  par- 
ticularly endow'ed  with  the  power  to  withstand  cold." 

3.  "Death  from  cold  is  undoubtedly  in  very  many  cases  a 
result  of  want  (withdrawal  or  loss)  of  water  and  not  of  low 
temperature." 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  43 

4.  "The  injurious  effects  of  repeated  thawing  and  freezing, 
long  continued  frost,  or  strong  drying  winds  are  to  be  explained 
by  the  scarcity  of  water  that  results  from  the  interrupted  or  at 
least  reduced  passage  of  water." 

It  may  seem  on  first  thought  that  the  second  statement  is  a 
direct  contradiction  to  the  third,  but  it  will  be  seen  that  one 
means  the  absence  of  water  before  the  frost  while  the  other 
means  the  loss  of  water  from  the  tissues  resulting  from  freezing. 

Now  let  us  look  to  the  weather  record  for  January,  1907,  as 
taken  at  Orono.  Out  of  23  days  following  January  8  there  were 
only  two  in  which  the  temperature  rose  above  the  freezing  point. 
January  17  with  a  maximum  of  — 3  degrees  F.  and  a  minimum 
of  — 40  degrees  F.  or  72  degrees  below  the  freezing  point  and 
January  24  with  a  maximum  of  +9  degrees  F.  and  a  minimum 
of  — 35  degrees  F.  or  67  degrees  below  freezing  furnish  the 
extreme  low  temperature  conditions.  Think  of  the  conditions 
of  the  cell  with  regard  to  moisture  in  the  7  days  following  the 
— 35  degrees  F.  record  on  January  24.  Not  a  maximum  over 
+24  and  a  minimum  varying  from  o  degrees  F.  to  — 24  degrees 
F.  or  from  32  degrees  to  56  degrees  below  the  freezing  point  of 
water.  By  this  time  they  must  have  been  as  dry  as  the  prover- 
bial bone.  Nor  is  this  the  entire  story.  Let  us  look  to  the  two 
exceptions  in  the  period  already  noted,  where  the  temperature 
did  go  above  the  freezing  point.  We  find  these  to  be  together^ 
exactly  midw^ay  between  the  two  lowest  records,  giving  us  the 
two  highest  and  the  two  lowest  records  in  the  month  occurring 
within  eight  days.  From  — 40  degrees  F  on  the  17th  we  jump 
85  degrees  to  +45  degrees  F.  on  the  20th.  From  +47  degrees 
F.  on  the  21st  we  drop  82  degrees  to  — 35  degrees  F.  on  the 
24th,  followed  by  the  week  of  low  temperature  already  men- 
tioned. A  little  closer  inspection  of  the  change  from  severe  cold 
to  thawing  weather  shows  that  it  was  moreover  quite  abrupt. 
Since  the  daily  observation  is  made  at  2  P.  M.  the  minimum 
record  would  ordinarily  represent  the  preceding  night,  or  most 
frequently  just  before  sunrise  on  the  day  of  the  record.  Start- 
ing with  the  17th  we  have  a  minimum  of  — 40  degrees  F.  and 
no  time  during  the  day  did  the  temperature  go  above  — 3  degrees 
F.  On  the  i8th  the  highest  record  was  only  -^II  degrees  F. 
Before  the  morning  of  the  19th  the  temperature  dropped  again 
to  — 13  degrees  F.  and  only  reached  +20  degrees  F.  during  the 


44  state;  pomologicai,  society. 

clay  or  still  12  degrees  below  freezing.  Some  time  during  the 
night  it  dropped  off  2  degrees  to  +18  degrees  F.  and  hy  2  o'clock 
on  the  afternoon  of  tJie  20th  the  temperature  had  risen  to  +^5 
degrees  F.  or  /j  degrees  on  the  thawing  side.  That  night  shozvs 
a  drop  of  55  degrees  to  -h/o  degrees  F.  Back  it  comes  again 
J7  degrees  to  +4"/  degrees  F.  and  thazving  on  the  21st  and  on  the 
folloiving  night  falling  60  degrees  to  —13  degrees  F.  Thus  we 
had  the  long  continued  low  temperatures,  the  extreme  low  tem- 
peratures, the  rapid  thawing  following  a  hard  freeze,  and  the 
alternate  freezing  and  thawing  all  in  the  month  of  January  and 
the  last  three  conditions  occurring  within  10  days.  I  need  not 
tell  the  orchardists  of  Maine  what  this  did  to  the  fruit  trees  for 
they  know  that  part  of  it  too  well,  but  I  do  believe  that  this 
record  for  January,  1907,  shows  when  and  how  the  damage  was 
acomplished.  When  we  remember  that  we  have  transferred  the 
apple  from  the  milder  climate  and  lesser  rainfall  of  south- 
western Asia  and  southeastern  Europe,  is  it  strange  that  so  many 
varieties  succumb  to  the  conditions  I  have  just  described?  I 
am  not  so  astonished  because  of  the  number  killed  as  I  am  that 
so  many  survived. 

But  this  does  not  explain  why  one  variety  is  killed  and  another 
variety  in  the  same  orchard  is  not  killed  or  why  an  individual 
is  killed  and  another  of  the  same  variety  standing  beside  it  sur- 
vives under  exactly  the  same  conditions.  No  doubt  also  some 
of  you  feel  that  our  reasoning  has  been  faulty  for  you  have 
repeatedly  seen  the  trees  on  an  exposed  hillside  survive  while 
those  on  the  lower  ground  in  the  same  orchard  are  killed.  We 
cannot  explain  the  difference  in  hardiness  of  varieties,  or  of 
individuals  of  the  same  variety,  but  I  think  we  can  explain  in 
part,  at  least,  why  the  trees  in  the  more  exposed  localities  stood 
the  winter  better  than  those  on  the  lower  ground.  In  the  first 
place  it  is  a  fact  well  known  that  the  cold  air  drains  off  into  the 
valleys  or  pockets  and  that  the  hillsides,  though  more  exposed, 
do  not  as  a  rule  record  so  low  temperatures  as  does  the  lower 
ground.  This  fact  is  almost  always  considered  in  locating  peach 
orchards.  The  peach,  as  you  know,  being  quite  sensitive  to 
frost.  Secondly  let  me  call  your  attention  again  to  the  sentence 
"Those  parts  of  plants  that  contain  little  water  are  particularly 
endowed  with  the  power  of  withstanding  cold."  I  think  we  are 
justified  from  what  has  been  said  in  going  one  step  farther  and 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  45 

saying  that  the  resistance  of  an  individual  plant  to  cold  varies, 
within  limits,  with  the  amount  of  moisture  it  contains  at  the  time 
of  the  freeze,  although  I  do  not  recall  any  experimental  evidence 
to  prove  the  assertion.  If  this  is  granted  the  application  to  the 
case  is  as  follows :  Snow  fell  early  in  November,  1906,  and 
remained  on  throughout  the  entire  winter.  You  will  also 
remember  that  when  the  snow  came  there  was  no  frost  in  the 
ground  and  except  in  exposed  localities  the  soil  did  not  freeze. 
The  roots  of  trees  standing  on  lower  lands  where  the  soil  was 
comparatively  warm  were  not  chilled  and  kept  forcing  moisture 
uj)  into  the  trunk  thus  saturating  .the  tissues  with  water.  On 
the  other  hand  the  soil  underneath  and  the  roots  of  the  trees 
on  the  exposed  localities  were  chilled  down  quite  early  in  the 
season.  Hence  it  would  seem  that  there  would  be  less  forcing 
of  water  into  these  trees,  the  moisture  content  would  be  less,, 
and  they  would  not  suffer  so  much  from  frost  injury  as  the 
trees  on  lower  ground. 

Xow,  what  can  we  do  to  avoid  repetition  of  this  trouble^ 
Unfortunately  we  cannot  control  the  weather  and  must  take  the 
bitter  with  the  sweet.  It  seems  hard,  when  a  man  has  the 
results  of  years  of  work  swept  away  just  as  he  is  about  to  realize 
profitable  returns,  to  tell  him  that  the  loss  could  not  be  avoided. 
However,  the  experiences  of  the  past  few  years  have  their  value 
if  applied.  We  should  plant  only  those  varieties  which  with- 
stood the  freezing  or  withstood  it  to  a  marked  degree.  If  others 
are  used  it  must  be  with  the  understanding  that  chances  are  being 
taken  in  doing  so.  In  selecting  ground  for  orchards  we  should 
see  that  it  is  well  drained,  and  avoid  heavy  soils,  low  valleys  and 
pockets.  If  advantage  cannot  be  taken  of  natural  wind  breaks 
an  artificial  one  should  be  provided  on  the  side  of  the  prevailing 
cold  winds.  It  goes  without  saying  that  the  trees  should  be  well 
fertilized  and  cared  for.  However,  they  should  not  be  stimu- 
lated by  late  cultivation  to  too  strong  and  late  growth  in  the 
fall  so  that  the  wood  will  not  mature  before  winter  sets  in. 
Professor  Alunson  also  notes,  and  your  Secretary  emphasizes 
this  in  his  report,  that  trees  which  bore  heavily  the  summer 
before  are  more  likely  to  be  injured  and  recommends  thinning 
the  fruit  in  summer  on  the  heavily  loaded  trees. 


46  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 


STANDING    OF    THE    INSECT    INVASION    AND 

CONDITION   OF  OUR   ORCHARDS. 
By  Prof.  E.  F.  Hitchings,  State  Entomologist. 

As  you  all  know,  the  year  1907  has  been  one  of  the  most 
crawly  years  in  the  history  of  our  State,  or  buggy,  or  whatever 
the  term  you  might  apply  to  it.  We  have  had  all  sorts  of  speci- 
mens of  insects  sent  in  to  the  office,  and  I  have  heard  them  being 
complained  of  all  over  the  State.  Of  course  among  them  we 
find  some  old — shall  we  call  them  friends?  no — we  find  insects 
that  we  have  been  familiar  with  from  our  childhood,  lots  of 
them,  but  never  in  such  an  abundance,  and  never  have  they  done 
such  damage  probably  in  the  history  of  the  State  as  they  have 
during  the  past  year. 

Now  among  the  common  insects  that  have  infested  your 
orchards,  your  shade  trees,  your  garden,  vegetables,  etc.,  we  will 
only  refer  to  a  few  and  call  your  attention  to  the  exhibit  here, 
which  you  can  consult,  and  we  will  be  glad  to  answer  any  ques- 
tions in  regard  to  these  specimens  here,  or  any  others  that  you 
may  wish  to  ask  about. 

We  had  in  the  spring  our  usual  infestation  of  what  we  term 
the  tent  caterpillar.  In  some  counties  in  the  State  that  insect 
did  a  great  deal  of  damage,  especially  so  in  York  and  Oxford 
counties.  Some  sections  were  almost  free  from  any  nests  of  the 
tent  caterpillar.  We  had  many  complaints  of  our  leaf  rollers, 
b»ud  moths,  etc.,  those  small,  minute  insects  that  perhaps  many 
of  you  have  never  seen,  or  may  not  know  that  they  have  been 
in  your  orchards. 

Then  we  had  coming  to  us  after  haying  caterpillars  that  strip 
young  trees  especially,  kill  them  outright.  I  can  show  you  one 
block  of  between  three  and  four  hundred  trees  dead  from  the 
effect  of  just  the  red-humped  apple  worm.  Now  the  moth  of 
this  caterpillar  hatches  out  late  in  the  season.  She  lays  her  eggs 
while  you  are  haying,  or  earlier  than  that — the  caterpillars  hatch 
while  you  are  haying,  and  while  you  think  your  orchard  is  safe 
these  little  fellows  begin  their  work,  and  by  the  time  you  get 
through  haying,  and  by  chance  visit  your  young  orchard,  the 
damage  has  been  done.  I  venture  to  say  that  if  we  could  get 
full  data  from  that  one  pest,  it  would  be  up  into  the  thousands — 


STATE)    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY.  47 

I  know  it  would  be  up  into  the  thousands  of  young  trees 
destroyed  during  the  past  summer  by  this  one  insect  alone. 
Then  to  take  an  associate,  the  yellow-necked  caterpillar  so-called,, 
and  there  were  all  kinds  of  others,  the  different  species  of  the 
woolly  bear  so-called,  and  many  other  insects  that  were  abundant 
this  fall. 

Of  the  railroad  worm,  the  trypeta,  in  certain  sections  hardly 
an  orchard  has  been  immune  from  this  pest.  An  easy  remedy 
of  course  would  be  the  cleaning  up  of  the  fallen  fruit.  That  is 
the  only  thing  to  do — cleaning  up  and  feeding  out,  or  pasturing 
sheep  or  hogs ;  because,  as  most  of  you  who  are  acquainted  with 
this  insect  know,  the  adult  is  a  little  fly  not  half  as  large  as  your 
common  house  fly,  and  the  female  punctures  the  skin  of  the 
apple  and  lays  her  egg  underneath  the  skin.  There  is  no  way 
you  can  spray  to  do  any  good.  Now  that  little  fellow  when  it 
reaches  maturity  must  go  into  the  ground  and  remain  over  win- 
ter. Common  sense  would  tell  you  then  that  if  you  keep  your 
fruit  picked  up  before  this  little  fellow  can  go  into  the  ground, 
why  you  destroy  its  future  career.  The  codling  worm  is  easily 
controlled  by  spraying.  I  shall  be  ready  at  any  time  to  answer 
any  questions  regarding  any  of  our  insect  pests,  but  I  don't  want 
to  take  the  time  at  present  to  speak  further  on  these  insects  that 
are  so  familiar  to  all  of  you. 

We  do  have,  though,  t\yo  other  insects  our  President  referred 
to — the  brown-tail  and  the  gypsy.  I  think  most  of  you  are 
familiar  with  the  winter  nests  of  the  brown-tail.  You  may 
never  have  seen  the  caterpillar  to  recognize  it,  or  the  adult,  the 
perfect  insect.  They  are  shown  here,  the  whole  life  and  work, 
and  they  will  be  explained.  But  I  want  to  say  this  much  about 
the  work  of  the  brown-tail  moth  in  the  State.  The  law  of  last 
winter  did  not  go  into  effect  until  about  the  first  of  March.  We 
could  not  expect  to  enforce  the  law  at  that  late  date.  We  tried 
our  best  to  institute  the  educational  work  as  far  as  the  depart- 
ment was  concerned,  but  as  to  compelling  the  private  individual 
or  town  to  live  up  to  the  letter  of  that  law,  we  could  not  do  it  for 
the  want  of  time.  This  year  we  are  in  hopes  that  we  won't  have 
to  do  anything  further  in  the  way  of  compulsion.  We  hope  and 
trust  that  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  State  has  an  inter- 
est in  this  matter  and  will  see  to  it  not  only  that  their  own  trees 
— orchards    and  shade    trees — are  freed  of   these    nests  during 


48  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

the  coming  months,  but  that  the  town  officials  are  up  to  their 
duty  in  looking  after  the  shade  trees  on  the  highways  and  remov- 
ing these  nests.  In  the  short  time  last  spring  very  effective 
work  was  done,  both  by  the  towns  and  by  private  individuals. 
We  were  very  much  pleased  indeed  to  see  the  interest  taken  and 
the  thoroughness  of  the  work  done.  As  a  result,  I  think  you 
will  all  agree  with  me  that  you  do  not  find  many  brown-tail  nests 
in  towns  wdiere  there  were  C|uite  a  few  last  spring.  Of  course 
throughout  the  thickly  settled  portion — that  is,  thickly  settled  as 
far  as  the  nests  were  concerned,  or  have  been  for  the  past  two 
or  three  years,  that  is  the  towns  in  York  county  especially— you 
could  find  them  today  by  the  thousands,  but  along  our  northern 
border,  through  this  section  and  further  south  even  till  you  get 
to  Portland,  I  think  you  will  find  that  more  than  fifty  per  cent 
have  dropped  out. 

We  have  at  present  eight  men  in  this  work.  The  work  is  edu- 
cational. We  are  scouting  along  the  northern  border  to  see 
that  none  have  escajDcd  us — stepped  over  the  line.  That  of 
course  has  to  be  done,  and  done  thoroughly,  because  we  don't 
want  them  to  get  by  us  and  start  in  somewhere  where  they  will 
not  be  noticed  perhaps.     So  much  for  the  brown-tail  work. 

Now  I  am  to  touch  upon  a  chapter  that  I  trust  is  an  intro- 
ductory chapter,  and  I  hope  there  will  be  but  one  chapter  follow- 
ing, and  that  is  this  record  of  the  gypsy  moth  in  our  State.  It 
has  reached  now  such  a  serious  condition  that  it  appeals  to  every 
living  being  in  Maine.  I  have  here  two  new  mounts  of  gypsy 
material  prej)ared  in  the  office  a  day  of  two  ago  to  be  presented 
to  the  Governor  and  Council  yesterday.  Dr.  Howard — I  will 
go  back  a  little — Dr.  Howard  and  his  field  agent  for  this  work 
visited  our  State  and  in  company  with  my  field  agent  and  myself 
we  went  over  the  territory,  showing  him  what  we  had  done 
during  the  past  year.  He  expressed  himself  as  very  much 
gratified  indeed  with  the  work  done.  Now  understand,  I  don't 
want  you  or  any  one  not  employed  in  this  special  work  to  touch 
a  gypsy  egg  cluster  in  the  State,  not  a  live  one.  It  is  not  safe. 
Last  winter  we  had  them  carried  arovmd  on  the  bottoms  of 
sleighs  and  pungs  and  scattered  all  through  York  county.  We 
discovered  the  remains  of  these  on  the  bottoms  of  sleighs  and 
pungs  with  only  a  few  eggs  left.  Well,  now.  with  an  egg  cluster 
numbering  five  hundred    eggs,  and  with  a    vitality  shown    by 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  49 

experiment  to  be  almost  indestructible  witli  common,  natural 
means,  where  they  have  tested  these  eggs  frozen  and  thawed  out 
and  frozen  again  up  to  six  times  in  succession  and  then  had  the 
eggs  hatch  out,  there  is  not  much  show  for  scattered  eggs  being 
killed  by  remaining  under  foot  along  the  road,  or  where  the 
horses  travel,  or  anything  of  that  nature.  Now  if  you,  or  any 
other  one,  should  go  and  attempt  to  remove  an  egg  cluster,  you 
might  drop  a  half  a  dozen  eggs  easily.  I  would  rather  have  a 
wdiole  egg  cluster  of  five  hundred  eggs  than  one  scattered  egg 
hatch.  Why?  If  we  had  five  hundred  big  caterpillars  to  look 
for,  they  would  show  their  work;  we  would  discover  it,  the 
infestation  of  the  one  nest  possibly,  while  I  would  defy  almost 
anybody  to  discover  the  one  or  two  or  half  a  dozen  that  had  been 
left  scattered. 

Now  in  regard  to  the  work  of  last  summer,  I  will  give  you 
just  one  instance  of  the  thoroughness  of  the  work  done.  As 
most  of  you  know,  we  have  had  men  in  the  field  since  this  law 
was  passed  last  winter — the  work  on  the  gypsy  confined  wholly 
to  the  department — the  brown-tail  work,  any  one  can  cut  a 
brown-tail  nest  and  destroy  it,  and  that  is  for  you  to  do.  But 
the  gypsy  must  be  handled  by  men  trained  for  the  work.  And 
there  is  no  comparison  between  the  two.  \\'hy  I  have  been 
asked  many  times,  "  Well,  what  is  the  difiFerence  between  the 
gypsy  and  the  brown-tail?"  Now  there  is  just  as  much  differ- 
ence as  there  is  between  the  best  citizen  in  this  hall  and  the  worst 
criminal  down  to  Thomaston.  That  is  the  difference.  Now 
these  were  discovered  none  too  soon.  We  went  to  work  none 
too  soon.  \\^e  have  had  now  almost  a  year's  experience  wdth 
the  gypsy  here  in  Maine.  They  have  been  here  five  years  or 
more,  but  we  didn't  know  it.  These  men  were  trained  in  ]\Iassa- 
chusetts  and  then  went  into  our  work,  ^^"e  had  the  national 
government  men  first  come  and  scout  sections  of  the  territory. 
One  infestation  was  on  a  road  which  was  being  passed  over 
morning  and  night  by  one  of  our  men  who  was  attending  the 
burlaps  at  another  place.  He  discovered  by  accident  some 
caterpillars  crawling  across  the  road  as  he  went  by  on  his  wheel. 
On  investigation  we  found  a  very  bad  infestation  that  must 
have  been  there  at  least  five  j^ears,  estimated  to  number  over  a 
million  full  grown  caterpillars,  almost  full  grown  when  discov- 
ered ;    many  of   them  were    full  grown.     We  at  once    put    the 


50  STATE    POMOIvOGICAI,    SOCIETY. 

whole  force  onto  that  infestation,  used  seven  barrels  of  kerosene 
to  spray  and  then  set  them  afire.  There  were  no  trees;  it  was 
low  shrubbery,  sweet  fern  and  this  ground  hemlock  and  bay- 
berry  bushes  in  a  pasture.  A  stone  wall  lined  each  side  of  the 
road.  They  were  on  both  sides.  Such  effective  work  was  done 
at  that  time  that  when  Dr.  Howard  was  here  he  made  the  remark 
that  we  were  doing  the  best  work  that  was  being  done.  Later 
on  we  had  one  of  the  best  spies  or  scouts  in  Massachusetts  come 
down  and  scout  that  territory  around  this  section  that  we  had 
burned.  The  man  said  that  if  he  could  afford  it  he  would  give 
one  hundred  dollars  in  cash  if  he  could  find  a  number  of  the 
gypsy  egg  clusters,  because  he  wanted  to  prove  that  we  didn't 
do  good  work,  or  that  it  couldn't  be  done ;  and  you  can  imagine 
that  he  did  his  duty  in  scouting  with  his  men.  They  went  over 
the  territory  and  went  into  the  woods  beyond  and  all  around  it 
and  hunted  and  hunted  everywhere,  with  the  result  of  only  one 
egg  cluster  under  a  rock  way  back  from  the  territory  burned. 
Just  one  egg  cluster  out  of  one  million  almost  full  grown  cater- 
pillars that  were  destroyed. 

Now  by  accident,  only  a  short  time  ago,  one  of  our  best  scouts 
in  passing  through  a  wooded  section  of  three  hundred  acres  of 
forest  growth  discovered  the  egg  clusters  of  the  gypsy  in  abun- 
dance. We  had  already  discovered  two  or  three  new  ones,  but 
I  will  simply  refer  to  this  one.  I  am  taking  too  much  time,  but 
I  want  you  to  realize  the  importance  of  this  and  the  seriousness 
of  it,  and  to  use  your  influence  in  every  way  possible  to  see  that 
the  work  is  carried  on  by  proper  means,  and  that  some  arrange- 
ment can  be  made  whereby  our  appropriation  will  not  be  cut 
short  until  the  work  is  done. 

As  soon  as  this  infestation  was  discovered  the  head  field  agent 
at  Boston  was  notified  and  more  help  asked  for.  We  had 
secured  eleven  scouts  before  that  from  the  national  government. 
The  national  government  has  a  fund  for  this  work  of  $150,000- 
and  we  are  entitled  to  a  part  of  it,  so  that  we  secured  eleven  men. 
I  went  right  to  Boston  and  asked  for  more  men  and  I  had  the 
promise  last  week  of  twelve  more  men  from  the  government. 
We  took  all  of  our  men  and  put  them  in  with  the  others.  Now 
what  is  the  result  of  that  new  find? — these  nests  that  I  have 
referred  to  on  twelve  different  varieties  of  trees.  As  a  result 
of  this  inspection  so  far  we  have  taken  2,662  egg  clusters  in  this 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  5 1 

one  woodland,  and  as  near  as  we  can  judge  there  are  two  hun- 
dred acres  out  of  three  hundred  acres  infested.  We  have  had 
nine  men  at  work  there  one  week.  In  one  day  they  secured  865 
egg  clusters,  and  from  one  tree  251  egg  clusters  were  taken. 

Is  that  important  or  not?  As  a  matter  of  insurance  protec- 
tion to  our  State  we  must  stop  this  gypsy.  There  is  no  other 
way  that  we  can  do.  We  must  do  it.  And  we  will  do  it  if  we 
can  get  the  money  and  the  men  to  do  with.  I  have  got  to  get 
some  men  and  send  them  right  to  Massachusetts — have  several 
in  mind  now — but  we  don't  want  any  man  in  the  work  who  is 
looking  for  the  dollars  and  cents — not  a  man.  We  have  had 
so  many  applications  at  the  office  from  men  who  are  no  more 
competent  to  do  this  work  than  little  children,  and  men  that  you 
could  not  depend  upon,  and  yet  we  have  had  petition  after  peti- 
tion come  in,  even  one  person  going  before  the  Governor  and 
Council  as  a  last  resort,  to  get  onto  this  work.  I  wouldn't  have 
the  man  if  the  President  of  the  United  States  should  insist  on 
it,  if  I  could  have  anything  to  say  about  it.  The  first  rule  on 
my  field  note  book  says  "No  man  addicted  to  intoxicating  liquors 
shall  be  employed  on  the  force."  That  is  enough  to  rule  out  lots 
of  the  applicants.  We  don't  intend  to  have  a  man,  as  I  said, 
who  is  looking  for  the  dollars  and  cents.  We  are  all  looking 
after  them  in  one  way,  and  it  is  right  we  should.  But  what  I 
mean  we  don't  want — there  is  a  new  word  come  in  that  is  just 
being  used  and  coming  to  the  front  a  great  deal — we  hear  it  in 
connection  with  our  pomological  meetings — every  man  that  has 
got  an  orchard  uses  that  word  sometimes,  especially  in  the  spring 
when  he  starts  out  with  some  scions  in  his  hands.  What  does 
he  do  to  his  tree  ?  Well,  now,  we  don't  want  that  word  used  in 
any  connection  with  the  gypsy  or  brown-tail  work,  and  we  don't 
intend  it  shall  get  there  if  we  can  help  it.  We  have  got  to  have 
honest  work.  We  can't  have  a  man  on  the  force  who  will  slyly 
put  an  egg  cluster  in  his  pocket  and  on  his  way  home  or  some- 
where else  drop  it.  A  man  ought  to  be  hung  that  will  do  it. 
And  yet  they  do  it  and  have  done  it.  If  you  ever  see  a  man  on 
this  force  doing  anything  of  that  kind,  please  report.  I  will  pay 
a  bounty. 

I  will  tell  you  our  methocV;  perhaps  if  I  leave  you  just  here 
you  may  think  that  we  are  up  against  an  impossibility.     Now  I 


52  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

assure  you  I  have  been  familiar  with  the  work  ever  since  its  first 
inception  in  Massachusetts  under  the  old  commission,  and  in 
fact  have  been  in  close  touch  enough  all  along  to  know  some- 
thing of  its  history,  and  have  had  a  lot  to  do  with  insect  inva- 
sions— enough  to  know  something  of  what  can  be  done  with 
an  insect.  Now  there  is  one  great  advantage  that  we  have  with 
this  gypsy  over  all  other  insects — almost  all  other — and  that  is 
the  inability  of  the  female  moth  to  fly.  I  have  watched  them 
by  the  thousands,  and  if  we  had  a  tree  growing  up  one  here  and 
one  within  two  or  three  feet  of  it,  a  moth  could  not  fly  from  one 
trunk  to  the  other — a  female  moth.  I  have  watched  them  where 
they  tried  even  to  climb  up  the  tree  they  were  on,  and  almost 
invariably  they  would  lose  ground  and  get  down  to  the  bottom 
and  have  to  crawl  away  somewhere  to  lay  the  eggs.  Now  there 
is  the  advantage. 

And  what  is  our  system  of  work  in  a  few  words?  I  will 
explain  it  to  you  so  I  think  you  will  see  that  there  is  hope.  It 
only  needs  the  requisite  number  of  the  right  kind  of  men,  men 
who  are  honest  to  the  core  and  would  not  scatter  an  egg  any 
more  than  they  would  cut  the  finger  ofif  from  their  right  hand. 
Those  egg  clusters  are  laid  in  August,  we  will  say.  They 
remain  in  that  condition  till  the  next  spring.  When  they  hatch 
out,  the  little  fellows  are  so  small  you  couldn't  see  them  as  they 
crawled  up  the  tree — very  small  indeed.  But  by  using  what  we 
call  tanglefoot,  putting  a  strip  around  the  tree  of  a  sticky  sub- 
stance to  intercept  those  little  fellows,  we  can  catch  them  by  the 
thousands  as  they  go  up  in  their  first  journey.  After  a  little 
they  will  begin  to  feed,  only  by  night  and  hide  away  through  the 
daytime.  That  characteristic  is  in  our  favor,  for  in  the  infested 
districts  we  burlap  the  trees ;  that  is,  take  a  band  of  burlap 
eight  inches  wide,  put  it  around  the  tree,  tie  a  string  round  the 
center,  turn  the  upper  fold  down,  and  we  have  a  double  fold 
right  round  the  tree.  We  will  have  to  use  burlap  on  every  road 
in  the  town  of  Eliot,  and  every  road  in  the  towns  of  York  and 
Kittery  probably — what  I  mean  every  tree  that  comes  near  the 
sides  of  the  road  where  teams  would  pass,  or  the  possibility  of 
their  being  conveyed  by  that  means.  Now  as  soon  as  the  cater- 
pillars come  down  the  trees  in  the  morning  to  hide  away  from 
the  sunlight,  as  they  reach  the  burlap  they  crawl  up  under  and 
remain  there  through  the  day.     A  man  is  detailed  for  just  as 


state:  pomological  society.  53 

many  trees  as  he  can  handle  through  the  day.  That  is  his  work. 
He  has  his  note-book  and  keeps  a  tally  of  everything  done,  and 
he  tends  these  burlaps  and  kills  every  caterpillar  found  through 
the  season,  until  the  caterpillars  disappear  and  what  we  call  the 
next  stage,  the  pupae,  appear.  We  find  many  of  them  under  the 
burlaps  where  the  caterpillars  come  down,  and  which  remain 
hanging  there.  The  trees  are  scraped,  the  rough  bark  removed, 
and  all  places  where  they  can  hide  covered — any  holes  in  the 
trees,  anything  of  that  nature ;  and  that  is  the  work  we  do.  So 
that  it  is  simply  the  collecting,  or  the  killing  of  the  egg  clusters 
now  from  August  till  the  next  spring ;  then  the  tanglefoot ;  then 
the  burlap — and  that  the  work  we  have  to  do. 

Now  in  regard  to  this  orchard  business— I  have  just  a  sum- 
mary of  statistics  from  different  counties,  but  we  haven't  time 
to  go  into  detail,  and  in  fact  I  sat  up  last  night  till  after  twelve 
o'clock  and  got  up  this  morning  at  half  past  five,  and  then  found 
that  two  or  three  note-books  were  coming  by  express  at  ten 
o'clock  this  morning.  So  you  can  imagine  that  there  is  some 
little  work  yet  to  be  done  and  probably  this  will  come  out  in  a 
form  that  will  be  valuable  for  all  of  yon.  I  think  it  will  be  of 
considerable  value  to  the  orchard  interests  of  the  State.  I  will 
simply  in  a  hasty  way  run  through  some  of  the  counties,  and  we 
will  take  Oxford  county  first. 

Of  the  number  of  orchards  examined  and  reported  here  I  have 
140  orchards.  That  number  of  orchards  contained  80,350  trees, 
the  largest  orchard  numbering  4,000  trees  and  the  smallest  50 
trees.  In  this  work  of  course  we  have  had  to  get  at  it  in  short 
time,  but  what  has  been  done  we  trust  has  been  done  thoroughly. 
Now  out  of  that  number  what  trees  were  damaged  ?  In  Oxford 
county  we  find  that  the  Baldwins  stand  first,  Ben  Davis  second, 
and  a  few  Kings  reported.  But  QS^^c  of  all  trees  examined  that 
were  supposed  to  be  winter  killed  during  this  past  year  were 
Baldwins. 

Next  we  will  take,  as  showing  a  little  different  condition, 
Somerset  county.  Of  the  84  orchards  examined,  containing 
36,575  trees,  we  found  the  largest  orchard  numbered  2,400  trees 
and  the  smallest  30  trees.  In  that  number  there  were  twelve 
orchards  of  more  than  a  thousand  trees.  With  what  result? 
We  find    Baldwins,  Ben  Davis,  Kings,  Wealthy,    Spy,   Stark, 


54  STATD    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

different  varieties  of  Russets,  Gravenstein,  Newtown  Pippins, 
Greenings,  Fallawater,  Fameuse,  Arctics  and  Alexanders,  four- 
teen varieties. 

Piscataquis  county:  In  93  orchards  containing  22,830  trees, 
the  largest  orchard  numbering  2,000  trees  and  the  smallest  30, 
we  find  the  following :  Tolman  Sweet,  Fall  Harvey,  Fallawater, 
Pound  Sweet,  Nodhead,  Yellow  Transparent,  Gano,  Mildings, 
St.  Lawrence,  William's  Favorite,  Baldwins,  Ben  Davis,  Starks, 
Red  Russets,  Greenings,  Fameuse,  Arctics,  Kings,  Northern 
Spy,  Wolf  River,  Rolfe,  Black  Oxfords,  Mann,  Golden  Russets, 
Peewaukee,  and  others,  numbering  twenty-five  different 
varieties. 

Now  I  wish  I  could  give  you  the  history  of  this  work  in  Ken- 
nebec county.  The  work  has  been  more  thoroughly  done  in 
Kennebec  than  in  any  other  county,  but  I  haven't  the  data ;  all 
the  note-books  are  not  in,  and  each  note-book  should  show  about 
100  orchards.  But  in  hurriedly  running  over  these  books  since 
ten  o'clock,  I  find  the  varieties  as  follows  :  Baldwin,  Ben  Davis, 
Rhode  Island  Greening,  Twenty  Ounce,  Kings,  Hubbardston, 
Tolman,  Astrachan,  Bellflower,  Spy,  Sweet  Bough,  Maiden 
Blush,  Porter,  Gano,  Nodhead,  Wealthy,  Mcintosh  Red,  Russet, 
Roxbury  Russet,  Fallawater,  Gravenstein,  Grimes  Golden, 
Fameuse,  Pound  Sweet,  Fall  Harvey,  Wagener. 

I  have  not  the  data  for  Cumberland  county.  The  report  is 
not  in.  Franklin  county  has  not  been  completed.  But  I  think 
I  have  given  you  enough  to  show  the  error  in  the  statement  that 
we  have  often  heard  made,  that  this  winter  killing,  whatever  it 
was,  was  confined  to  Baldwins.  Now  I  know  from  personal 
examination,  and  from  the  reports  in  many  cases  I  could  point 
you  to  the  total  destruction  of  orchards.  I  know  of  one  instance 
in  which  a  whole  orchard  was  wiped  out  entirely. 

Now  when  you  speak  of  the  question  of  slope  and  cant,  the 
natural  position  of  the  land,  etc.,  I  look  upon  a  tree  as  very  much 
like  a  human  being,  and  the  more  you  investigate  the  sooner 
I  think  you  will  come  to  the  same  opinion.  We  have  orchards 
in  the  State  that  have  been  neglected  for  years,  that  this  year 
have  given  a  good  crop — haven't  had  a  plow — there  hasn't  been 
a  hog  in  the  orchard, — there  hasn't  been  a  limb  pruned  or  any- 
thing done,  and  yet  for  some  reason  or  other  those  men  who 
owned  the  orchards  have  put  in  from  500  to  1,000  barrels  of 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  55 

apples  that  surprised  them.  Now  you  know  that  some  people 
live  to  be  eighty,  ninety  years  old.  Put  the  same  person  when 
they  started  in  at  thirty  or  forty  under  different  environments 
and  with  a  different  method  of  living,  they  wouldn't  have  lived 
till  they  were  fifty.  So  with  our  orchards,  many  of  them.  The 
result  of  high  cultivation  is  another  thing  that  has  gone  hard 
with  some  orchards — orchards  killed  that  have  been  under  a  high 
state  of  cultivation.  And  that  is  natural.  Many  claim,  you 
know,  that  the  Jersey  cow  is  crowded  and  fed  high  and  is  weak. 
You  feed  an  orchard  high,  you  make  it  grow  and  not  let  the 
wood  mature  in  the  fall, — of  course  you  expect  to  lose.  There 
is  a  happy  medium.  I  don't  mean  to  run  down  cultivation  at 
all,  or  any  of  those  things,  and  I  don't  care  to  discuss  those — 
I  think  I  have  overrun  the  time  now — but  there  are  lots  of  these 
questions  that  will  be  brought  out,  and  if  there  are  any  of  them 
that  I  can  answer  I  shall  be  glad  to  do  so  later  on. 


NEED  OF  SPRAYING. 

Special  interest  attaches  to  the  matter  of  spraying  in  Maine. 
This  was  made  the  general  topic  for  discussion  at  the  field  meet- 
ings of  the  society.  When  apples  were  gathered  to  all  appear- 
ances they  were  generally  free  from  scab.  After  they  had  been 
stored  for  several  weeks  conditions  seem  to  have  changed  some- 
what, and  in  many  cases  scab  developed  rapidly  and  much  fruit 
was  ruined  for  market.  Mr.  Wheeler  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee called  the  Secretary's  attention  to  this  condition  and  he 
was  requested  to  go  and  examine  the  fruit  and  take  samples  and 
send  to  Washington  and  Orono.  The  fruit  sent  to  Washington 
was  referred  to  Mr.  M.  B.  Waite,  the  pathologist  in  charge  in 
the  department,  and  in  reply  he  wrote  Mr.  Wheeler  as  follows : 

Your  letter  to  Pomological  Investigations,  with  accompany- 
ing box  of  diseased  Baldwin  apples,  has  been  referred  to  me  for 
attention  by  Col.  Brackett,  Pomologist. 

I  have  made  an  examination  of  these  diseased  apples,  and  find 
that  they  are  affected  with  two  troubles.  The  original  trouble 
is  caused  by  the  apple  scab  fungus  and  is  the  disease  known  as 
apple  scab.  This  is  the  small  brown  or  nearly  black  scabby  spot 
that  occurs  so  commonly  over  the  samples.  The  scab  fungus 
attacks  the  apples  while  growing  in  the  orchard.     The  disease 


56  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

begins  to  appear  some  seasons  very  early,  even  while  the  apples 
are  in  bud,  and  may  come  at  various  times  during  the  season. 
The  scabby  spots  on  this  fruit  nearly  all  came  after  the  fruit 
was  quite  well  grown,  perhaps  larger  than  half  size.  This  apple 
scab  is  thoroughly  preventable  by  spraying  with  Bordeaux 
mixture. 

We  are  sending  you  Farmers'  Bulletin  No.  243  on  Fungicides 
and  Their  Use  in  Preventing  Diseases  of  Fruits,  which  will  give 
you  the  methods  of  making  and  applying  this  mixture.  On  page 
18  *  you  will  find  a  very  brief  discussion  of  the  treatment  for 
apple  scab.  The  treatment  there  outlined  is  supposed  to  cover 
the  disease  when  at  its  worst.  Possibly  you  might  be  able  to 
leave  out  some  of  the  early  treatments  if  you  could  count  on  the 
fungus  behaving  another  year  as  it  did  the  past  season.  I  am 
not  at  all  sure,  however,  that  you  will  be  safe  in  making  that 
assumption. 

Now  these  apples  are  also  afifected  by  a  fungus  rot  which  has 
come  into  the  fruit  after  it  was  picked.  The  apples  look  as  if 
they  had  been  oveheated,  either  in  the  pile  in  a  warm  spell  in 
October,  or  in  the  bins  where  stored,  or  possibly  in  the  barrels  ; 
at  any  rate,  a  rot  fungus  purely  secondary  to  the  original  trouble 
has  entered  the  scab  spots  and  is  the  principal  cause  at  the 
present  time  of  the  rotten  and  demoralized  condition  of  these 
apples.  By  examining  the  fruit  again,  you  will  see  that  some 
of  the  scab  spots  have  no  rot  around  them,  and  have  remained 
straight  apple  scab ;   other  scab  spots  have  a  brown  rotten  area 

*  The  formula  here  referred  to  is  of  a  Bordeaux  mixture  made  of  the  following  in- 
gredients and  is  known  as  the  5-5-50  formula: 

Copper  sulphate pounds .  .        5 

Lime do ...  .        5 

Water  to  make gallons .  .      50 

The  use  of  this  formula  is  desirable  where  the  purity  of  the  lime  is  in  doubt,  as  it  makes 
certain, with  lime  of  any  reasonable  quality,  that  all  of  the  copper  is  properly  neutralized. 
The  danger  of  scorching  or  russeting  the  fruit  is  therefore  less.  Withholding  1  pound 
of  copper  sulphate  also  cheapens  the  mixture  by  a  few  cents.  For  these  reasons  the  5-5-50 
formula  has  come  to  be  quite  generally  used  in  orchard  spraying.  In  fact,  it  has  almost 
replaced  the  old  standard  Bordeaux  mixture  in  spraying  for  the  apple  scab,  bitter  rot, 
pear  and  cherry  leaf-blight,  and  similar  diseases.  In  the  central  Mississippi  valley  the 
4-5-50  formula  has  given  good  results,  especially  in  dry  years. 

For  scab,  spray  with  either  of  the  mixtures  as  follows: 

First,  when  the  cluster  buds  have  opened  and  exposed  the  flower  buds;  second,  just 
after  the  petals  have  fallen;  third,  a  week  or  ten  days  later;  and  fourth,  two  weeks  after 
the  third  spraying.  In  a  rainy  season  this  disease  is  rather  difficult  to  control  and  may 
require  five  or  six  applications.  In  case  of  a  dry  spring,  however,  only  three  appli- 
cations are  usually  repuired. 


STATE    POMOI,OGICAL    SOCIETY.  57 

around  them,  or  perhaps  around  a  group  of  several  spots.  Of 
course  in  some  cases  the  whole  side  of  the  apple  has  rotted  with 
this  secondary  rot.  The  only  remedy  for  this  secondary  rot 
consists  in  better  handling  of  the  fruit.  Probably  these  apples 
would  have  mostly  gone  through  this  trying  condition — what- 
ever it  may  have  been^ — had  their  skin  not  been  injured  by  the 
apple  scab  fungus.  The  common  rot  fungi  have  used  the  injury 
by  scab  as  an  entrance  point  and  thus  have  gained  their  start 
in  the  apple.     The  lesson  to  be  learned  from  this  fruit  is : 

First — Your  orchard  requires  spraying  for  apple  scab. 

Secondly — The  fruit  requires  more  careful  handling,  along 
lines  which  you  will  probably  understand,  after  it  is  picked  and 
stored. 

Ordinarily  best  results  are  secured  by  hurrying  the  apples 
into  cold  storage  as  soon  as  possible  after  they  are  picked.  If 
this  occurred  in  bins  in  your  cellars,  it  indicates  that  the  bins 
were  too  large  or  too  closely  covered  or  else  that  the  cellars  need 
more  ventilation  to  avoid  heating. 


58  STATE    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY. 


INSECTS,   BIRDS,   AND   FRUITS. 
By  Prof.  Wm.  L.  Powers,  Gardiner. 

In  this  day  of  codling  moths,  curcuHos,  and  trypetas  success 
in  orcharding  is  quite  as  Hkely  to  depend  upon  a  knowledge  of 
birds  and  insects,  as  upon  skill  in  selecting  and  care  in  culti- 
vating the  best  varieties  of  fruit.  Ignorance  of  Nature's  laws 
in  the  animal  kingdom  may  and  often  does  bring  to  naught  the 
labor  of  him  who  sows,  and  trusts  in  God  for  the  increase.  He 
who  studies  those  laws  will  soon  learn  that  the  main  effort  of 
individual  life  whether  animal  or  vegetable  is  to  reproduce  its 
kind.  So  potent  is  this  function  that  the  natural  increase  of  any 
one  plant  or  animal,  if  unchecked  by  other  plants  or  animals  in 
the  struggle  for  existence,  would  in  a  few  years  cover  the  entire 
land  surface  of  the  earth.  In  old  countries  which  have  long 
been  inhabited  by  agricultural  communities,  the  various  species 
have  had  time  to  adjust  themselves,  and  the  balance  of  nature 
has  become  established. 

The  brown-tail  moth  has  been  known  in  Europe  for  three 
hundred  years,  and  yet  we  do  not  hear  of  any  such  widespread 
devastation  as  now  threatens  our  New  England  States.  Its 
natural  enemies,  bird  and  insect,  with  the  little  that  man  does, 
are  sufficient  in  the  continental  countries  to  hold  this  terrible 
pest  in  check. 

The  lands  recently  opened  up  to  agriculture  are  the  ones  which 
suffer  most  severely.  Here  in  the  United  States  we  are  con- 
fronted by  an  irruption  of  vast  hordes  of  injurious  insects  from 
two  causes :  First,  our  westward  expansion  has  brought  our 
growing  crops  into  contact  with  native  American  insects,  and 
these,  finding  their  original  food  plants  destroyed  by  the  clearing 
of  forests  and  the  breaking  up  of  the  prairies,  have  turned  to 
the  more  succulent  crops  of  the  farmer  and  have  become  terrible 
pests  by  migrating  eastward  and  devouring  the  ever  increasing 
food  supply ;  such  are  the  cutworms,  chinch  bugs,  and  Colorado 
potato  beetle ;  secondly,  injurious  insects  constantly  being  intro- 
duced from  foreign  lands  find  here  a  paradise  in  which  to  multi- 
ply. Having  escaped  their  natural  enemies  they  find  abundance 
of  food  in  a  land  where  the  insect  eating  birds  and  animals  have 
been  wantonly  and  wickedly  destroyed  by  men. 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  59 

So  vast  a  number  of  insect-destroying  birds  have  been 
removed,  so  extensive  is  the  modern  exchange  between  coun- 
tries, and  so  carefully  is  every  corner  of  the  world  being 
searched  for  new  and  hardy  varieties  of  fruits,  that  we  may 
expect  at  any  time  to  be  overrun  by  new  insect  pests  from  for- 
eign lands;  for  every  importation  of  stock  is  likely  to  have  upon 
it  another  insect  to  destroy  vegetation.  Indeed  we  have  in  our 
State  today  two  foreign  species,  the  gypsy  and  brown-tail,  either 
one  of  which  seems  possessed  of  potential  ability  to  defoliate 
entirely  every  orchard  and  shade  tree  in  New  England. 

So  widespread  is  the  fear  of  insect  devastation,  and  so  uni- 
versal is  the  belief  in  the  interdependence  of  the  kindred  sciences, 
entomology,  ornithology,  and  botany,  that  the  Biological  Survey 
of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington  is  co-operating 
with  state  governments,  in  endeavor  to  maintain  a  balance 
between  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms. 

As  a  result  of  all  this  study,  every  effort  is  now  being  made 
to  protect,  encourage  and  foster  the  native  bird  population  of 
the  land ;  scientists  are  studying  the  life  histories  of  plants  and 
animals ;  Audubon  societies  and  nature  study  clubs  are  collect- 
ing facts  of  great  value,  while  the  societies  of  national  scope  are 
scattering  broadcast  the  results  of  intensive  study  along  particu- 
lar lines ;  the  schools  have  taken  up  the  work,  and  the  President 
himself  is  not  averse  to  throwing  a  club  at  the  man^he  deems  a 
nature  fakir.  The  utility  of  birds  in  suppressing  outbreaks  of 
injurious  insects,  by  massing  in  enormous  numbers  at  the  point 
of  attack  is  beginning  to  be  understood,  and  the  wanton  destruc- 
tion of  the  species  beneficial  to  man  is  now  restricted  in  every 
state. 

It  is  my  purpose  to  recall  something  of  the  destruction  caused 
by  a  few  of  the  insects  most  injurious  to  the  fruit  industry,  and 
then  show  the  great  work  done  by  birds  in  keeping  these  insects 
in  check. 

San  Jose  scale,  aphids,  bark  lice,  currant  worms,  grape  vine 
moths,  chinch  bugs !  Where  shall  I  begin  ?  "The  annual  loss 
in  the  United  States  from  the  chinch  bug  alone,"  says  Dr. 
Howard,  "cannot  be  less  than  $20,000,000,"  and  the  total  value 
of  farm  products  ruined  yearly  by  injurious  insects  is  estimated 
at  from  $800,000,000  to  $1,000,000,000  wathout  leckoning  the 


6o  STATE    POMOI^OGICAI,    SOCIETY. 

vast  amounts  expended  for  insecticides  and  the  labor  of  applying 
them. 

The  codling  moth  or  apple  worm,  perhaps  the  most  destruc- 
tive insect  in  this  country  today,  may  well  serve  us  for  a  begin- 
ner. This  pest  was  early  imported  from  Europe  and  is  now  at 
home  wherever  apples  are  grown  in  this  country  or  Canada. 
It  causes  an  annual  loss  of  from  25  to  75%  of  the  apple  crop,  as 
well  as  of  many  other  fruits.  The  annual  damage  carefully 
worked  out  for  three  of  our  large  fruit  growing  states  is  as 
follows:  In  Illinois,  $2,375,000;  in  Nebraska,  $2,000,000;  in 
New  York,  $3,000,000. 

Its  life  history  is  as  follows.  The  eggs  are  laid  singly  upon 
the  young  af)ples,  and  from  these  eggs  hatch  the  larvae,  which 
eat  their  way  into  and  destroy  the  fruit.  In  three  weeks  the 
larvae,  the  so  called  white  "worms,"  eat  their  way  out  through 
the  side  of  the  apple  and  either  crawl  out  on  the  branches  or 
spin  down  to  the  ground.  In  either  event  they  finally  reach  the 
trunk  of  the  tree  and  pupate  under  the  bark  scales.  About  the 
middle  of  July  the  adult  moths  appear  in  vast  numbers  and  a 
second  brood  of  eggs  is  laid.  Many  of  the  larvae  from  these 
are  gathered  in  the  fall  with  the  apples,  but  enough  escape  in  the 
windfalls  and  discarded  fruit  to  re-infest  every  bark  scale  with 
another  pupa.  In  the  southern  states  two  and  even  three  broods 
are  raised  each  season,  but  all  pass  the  chrysalis  stage  in  the 
crevices  of  the  bark. 

Now  as  these  insects  in  the  imago  stage  are  night-flying  and 
protectively  colored,  the  adults  for  the  most  part  escape  the 
birds.  Bats,  indeed,  destroy  vast  quantities  of  them,  but  as  bats 
are  not  birds,  they  do  not  fall  into  the  province  of  this  paper. 

I  have  said  that  the  codling  moth  passes  the  third  stage  of  its 
existence  in  the  crevices  of  the  bark  upon  the  trunk  of  the  tree. 
Now  nature  has  fitted  a  whole  series  of  birds  for  a  tree-trunk 
life,  and  they  cannot  acquire  their  subsistence  anywhere  else. 
Such  birds  are  the  woodpeckers,  nuthatches  and  tree  creepers, 
while  other  birds  like  the  sparrows,  bluebirds,  and  chickadees 
also  glean  from  the  trunks. 

The  downy  woodpecker,  the  avowed  enemy  of  the  codling 
moth,  is  with  us  all  the  year  round.  His  whole  life  is  given  up 
to  the  destruction  of  insects  that  do  injury  to  the  trees.  When- 
ever and  wherever  you  see  him,  you  will  find  him  searching  for 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  6l 

food  in  and  under  the  bark.  In  a  twenty-five  year  study  of 
birds  I  never  saw  one  on  the  ground  or  on  the  tips  of  the 
branches.  His  whole  anatomy  is  adapted  to  the  hfe  he  leads; 
toes  four,  two  in  front  and  two  behind,  long,  strong,  and  flexible, 
and  each  armed  with  a  strong  curved  claw ;  legs  strong,  and  a 
tail  fitted  to  serve  as  a  fulcrum  to  give  added  strength  to  his 
blows;  tongue,  the  most  wonderful  of  nature's  work  in  its 
adaptability  to  its  uses,  capable  of  being  extended  almost  indefi- 
nitely, its  point  armed  with  a  barbed  spear-like  tip  for  probing 
and  bringing  forth  from  the  bottom  of  the  opening  cut  by  his 
chisel  bill,  any  larva  disclosed  therein. 

Search  your  orchard  for  samples  of  his  work.  Examine  the 
bark  scales  he  has  pecked  into.  Remove  them  and  find  the 
empty  cocoon  beneath.  If  you  find  scales  with  living  pupae 
under  them,  you  have  not  woodpeckers  enough  to  take  care  of 
your  trees.  Carry  home  with  you  some  of  these  bark  scales 
that  have  been  treated  by  the  downy.  Next  May  or  June  col- 
lect an  equal  number  of  adult  moths  and  kill  with  cyanide  or 
chloroform.  Next  summer  lay  beside  the  empty  cocoons  and 
dead  moths  an  equal  number  of  wormy  apples  cut  open  so  as  to 
show  the  ravages  of  the  insect  in  its  larval  stage ;  if  possible, 
put  with  them  an  equal  number  of  small  green  apples  each  one 
with  a  flat,  oval,  scale-like  egg  upon  it,  and  learn  a  lesson  of 
"Insects,  Birds,  and  Fruit,"  that  will  make  you  and  your  pos- 
terity the  everlasting  friends  of  the  downy  woodpecker.  If 
you  are  not  yet  convinced  of  the  utility  of  the  downy,  solve  this 
simple  problem  in  arithmetic.  If  a  codling  moth  lays  80  eggs, 
(the  average  number  is  85)  on  80  apples,  and  half  of  these  eggs 
develop  females,  and  each  of  these  lays  80  eggs,  how  many  dol- 
lars worth  of  apples,  at  fifty  cents  per  bushel,  reckoning  15O' 
apples  in  a  bushel,  will  one  codling  moth  and  her  progeny 
destroy  in  one  season?  When  you  have  found  the  answer  to 
be  five  and  one-half  dollars,  just  consider  how  much  each  downy 
is  saving  for  you,  provided  he  eats  only  one  larva  per  day  for 
only  one  month. 

Were  the  codling  moth  the  only  injurious  insect  destroyed  by 
this  bird,  we  should  owe  him  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  this  work 
alone.  But  there  are  other  hidden  enemies  tunnelling  in  the 
wood  itself  such  as  the  round-headed  apple  borers,  wood-boring- 
ants,  wood-eating  beetles,  the  birch  borer,  the  maple  borer,  and 


62  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

the  pine  weevil.  All  of  these  insects  work  serious  damage  to 
our  forest  growths,  and  if  not  held  in  check  by  their  natural 
enemy,  would  soon  become  a  serious  proposition  to  owners  of 
wild  lands.  Every  one  who  raises  fruit  for  home  consumption 
or  for  market  feels  himself  almost  helpless  when  signs  of  the 
borers  appear  in  his  trees.  Their  method  of  work  is  so  insid- 
ious that  only  the  trained  eye  can  detect  evidences  of  their 
ravages  before  the  trees  are  ruined.  But  the  downy  wood- 
pecker is  always  on  the  lookout  for  these  borers.  Expert  at 
auscultation  and  percussion  he  explores  suspicious  localities 
and  quickly  detects  evidences  of  secret  chambers  within.  Cheer- 
ful and  industrious  he  gives  utterance  to  his  labor  song,  pick, 
pick,  and  suits  his  actions  to  his  words  by  picking  out  the  boring 
larva  within. 

During  the  summer  months  other  tree-trunk  inhabiting  birds 
come  up  from  the  South  to  aid  the  downy  in  his  work.  Chief 
among  these  in  his  importance  to  the  fruit  grower  is  the  black- 
and-white  creeping  warbler.  This  is  a  common  bird  in  the 
orchards,  and  woodland,  and  may  be  called  fairly  abundant  in 
the  groves  and  smaller  clumps  of  trees  around  New  England 
villages.  He  is  the  particular  favorite  of  the  young  naturalist 
being  generally  the  first  of  the  warbler  family  to  be  carefully 
studied.  He  is  fitted  for  a  life  upon  trunk  and  branch,  but  the 
tail  is  not  used  in  climbing  and  his  bill  is  too  slender  for  cutting. 
He  may  be  seen  during  the  summer  season  creeping  about  over 
the  tree  trunks,  often  hanging  head  downward  searching  dili- 
gently here  and  there,  over  and  back,  in  search  of  insect  food. 
Like  the  woodpecker  he  sings  at  his  work,  and  his  song  is  the 
embodiment  of  his  life's  purpose,  being  a  monotonous  but  not 
tmmusical  /  see,  I  see,  I  see.  And  he  does  see  every  bark  louse, 
canker  worm,  bark  beetle,  curculio,  click  beetle,  caterpillar, 
resting  moth,  and  hidden  egg.  He  reaches  for  the  larvae  that 
are  spinning  down  from  the  branches,  darts  like  a  flycatcher  for 
flying  insects  that  have  been  startled  from  their  hiding  places  by 
his  approach,  and  when  the  trunk  has  been  cleared,  he  often 
descends  to  the  ground  for  cutworms.  Hairy  caterpillars  are 
a  favorite  morsel,  and  he  really  enjoys  eating  the  dreaded  gypsy 
and  brown-tail  larvae. 

It  may  be  well  to  digress  for  a  moment  to  note  the  enormous 
amount  of  food  required  daily  by  nestling  birds  and  the  constant 


STATE    POMOIvOGICAI,    SOCIETY.  63 

care  and  tedious  labor  imposed  upon  the  parents  to  procure  it. 
It  is  a  fact  established  by  observation  and  experiment  that  grow- 
ing birds  will  consume  a  daily  ration  of  meat  equal  to  their  own 
weight.  The  stomach  must  be  kept  full  of  food  during  the  day 
to  insure  the  fledglings'  health  and  comfort. 

A  young  robin  that  fell  from  the  nest  was  brought  up  by  hand 
and  fed  on  angleworms.  The  man  who  reared  him  found  him 
always  hungry,  and  to  satisfy  his  curiosity  resolved  to  fill  up 
that  robin  once.  The  bird  ate  that  day  fourteen  measured  feet 
of  fat,  juicy,  wriggling  worms,  and  the  next  day  was  as  hungry 
as  ever.  Chas.  Nash,  author  of  "Birds  of  Quebec  and  Ontario," 
fed  165  cutworms  weighing  together  five  and  one-half  ounces 
to  a  young  robin  weighing  only  three  ounces.  A  man  weighing 
150  pounds  and  eating  at  this  rate  would  require  275  pounds  of 
beefsteak  daily. 

Birds  are  in  some  respects  the  most  highly  specialized  of  the 
animal  kingdom.  Their  temperature  is  higher,  and  their  respi- 
ration more  rapid  than  in  man.  The  young  of  many  birds  are 
born  naked,  yet  under  favorable  conditions  they  develop  as 
rapidly  as  the  insects  on  which  they  feed.  Two  different  broods 
of  song  sparrows  were  out  of  the  nests  in  eight  days.  In  this 
incredible  short  space  of  time  they  had  developed  from  naked, 
bhnd,  and  helpless  nestlings  to  full  feathered,  wide  awake,  and 
active  investigators  of  the  insect  conditions  in  their  immediate 
neighborhoods.  Before  they  left  the  nests,  each  bird  was 
requiring  one  hundred  caterpillars  daily,  and  as  the  broods  each 
numbered  five,  one  thousand  caterpillars  was  the  daily  ration 
eaten  by  the  young  birds,  besides  what  the  four  adults  con- 
sumed. Consider  for  a  moment  the  work  done  in  one  month 
by  these  birds ;  and  when  the  second  and  third  broods  appeared, 
90,000  caterpillars  were  deprived  of  ability  to  injure  fruit  trees 
during  every  period  of  thirty  days.  I  do  not  wonder  that  Mr. 
Knowlton  in  assigning  my  subject  put  the  insects  first,  the  birds 
next,  and  the  fruit  last. 

Our  common  yellow  warbler  is  another  bird  which  comes  in 
numbers  from  the  South  and  makes  its  home  in  our  orchards 
and  village  streets.  Almost  entirely  insectiverous,  it  feeds  on 
the  greatest  pests  that  attack  our  orchards  and  small  fruits. 
Caterpillars  form  two-thirds  of  its  food,  and  while  it  is  not 
primarily  adapted  to  a  tree-trunk  life  exclusively,  it  is  always 


64  state:  pomological  society. 

on  the  alert  for  small  bark  beetles,  boring  beetles,  and  plant  lice. 
Like  the  woodpecker  and  black-and-white  creeper  he  sings  at 
his  work,  and  as  he  eats  the  young  larvae  of  the  g>'psy  and 
brown-tail,  its  song  siveet-szvect-szvect-szvcctity-szveet  would  not 
seem  inappropriate. 

The  American  redstart  is  another  trunk-loving  gleaner  whose 
fly-catching  proclivities  are  so  well  developed  that  nothing 
escapes  it.  It  delights  in  hairy  caterpillars,  moths,  and  beetles 
that  would  otherwise  live  to  defoliate  our  orchards  and  destroy 
our  fruit.  It  forages  from  ground  to  tree-top,  holding  its  wings 
in  readiness  for  instant  attack  upon  every  moving  insect.  It  is 
one  of  our  most  beautiful  and  trusting  birds  and  has  a  sweet 
and  varied  song.  Chapman  says  that  in  Cuba  where  most  of 
our  warblers  winter,  they  are  known  as  "butterflies,"  but  the 
redstart's  flaming  plumage  has  won  for  it  the  name  of  "can- 
delita,"  the  "little  torch." 

The  black-throated  green  warbler  is  another  frequenter  of 
the  trunks  of  trees,  though  most  of  its  work  is  confined  to  the 
area  covered  by  the  branches.  Its  food  consists  of  a  variety  of 
small  insects  including  several  injurious  caterpillars,  curculios, 
beetles,  and  bugs.  The  stomachs  of  five  birds  taken  in  Nebraska 
contained  220  insects,  an  average  of  44  to  each  bird.  Seventy 
per  cent  of  the  food  of  one  Illinois  specimen  consisted  of  canker 
worms.  Like  the  black-and-white  creeper,  the  black-throated 
green  is  a  species  dear  to  the  heart  of  the  young  naturalist,  and 
its  characteristic  song  is  early  learned.  Bradford  Torrey  trans- 
lates it  as  "Trees,  trees,  murmuring  trees,"  but  to  me  it  seems 
to  say,  "Cheese,  cheese,  a  little  more  cheese."  I  have  never 
heard  any  wild  bird  sing  an  articulate  word,  and  probably  no 
two  people  hearing  the  same  bird  for  the  first  time  would  write 
its  song  with  the  same  words.  But  if  suitable  words  can  be 
found  to  interpret  birds'  notes,  it  is  wonderful  how  it  enables 
the  listener  to  distinguish  different  species  in  a  multitude  of 
songs. 

One  of  our  best  known  bird  songs  is  that  of  the  white-throated 
sparrow,  yet  every  author  writes  it  differently.  I  was  tempted 
to  say  one  of  our  best  known  birds,  but  a  long  experience  as  a 
teacher  of  nature  studies  has  convinced  me  that  while  nearly 
every  one  knows  the  song  of  the  white-throat,  very  few  persons 
really  know  the  bird.     The  Indian  name,  says  Wm.  J.  Long,  is 


STATS    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  65 

killoleet,  and  a  more  appropriate  name  could  not  be  found. 
The  song  is  clear  and  very  musical.  Any  one  who  plays  can 
easily  reproduce  it  on  the  piano.  A^arious  interpretations  are 
Old-S  am-P  cabody-P  eahody-P  eabody ,  AU-day-long-tvhittling- 
■whittling-whittling ,  M y-ozvn-dcar-C anada-C anada-C anada,  and 
0-hcar-killoleet-killolcet-killoleet. 

And  what  claim  does  this  songster  have  upon  growers  of 
fruits,  and  why  should  he  be  protected  and  encouraged?  If  a 
bird  that  devours  tent  caterpillars,  plant  lice,  tussock  moths,  and 
destructive  beetles  found  on  the  trunks  of  our  apple  trees,  does 
not  deserve  a  place  in  our  hearts  as  a  protector  of  fruits,  the  fact 
that  he  also  on  occasions  descends  to  the  earth  and  searches  for 
ground  beetles  may  throw  the  balance  in  his  favor. 

The  chipping  sparrow,  the  companion  of  childhood,  is  a  con- 
stant worker  in  the  garden,  yard,  and  orchard.  It  is  sometimes 
•called  the  hair  bird  from  the  long  horse  hairs  used  for  lining  its 
nest,  which  is  placed  in  a  tree  or  vines  near  the  house  that  no 
time  may  be  wasted  in  reaching  its  feeding  ground.  Next  to 
the  robin,  it  is  the  most  familiar  of  all  our  birds  and  often  picks 
up  crumbs  near  our  doors.  Its  song  is  a  mere  string  of  chi'p- 
chip-chips  with  no  more  of  music  in  it  than  there  is  in  the 
monotonous  click  click  of  a  sewing  machine.  Its  spring  and 
early  summer  food  consists  of  caterpillars.  So  persistent  is  this 
bird  in  its  search  for  caterpillars  that  it  interfered  seriously  with 
experiments  that  were  being  made  upon  gypsy  moths  under 
cover,  by  breaking  through  the  net  that  inclosed  them,  and  eat- 
ing the  larvae.  Such  persistence  should  be  encouraged.  The 
chippy  is  no  epicure  in  the  matter  of  insect  diet  and  devours  the 
brown-tail,  tent  caterpillars,  tussocks,  codling  moth,  forest  tent 
caterpillars,  leaf  eating  beetles,  cabbage  worms,  beet  leaf  grubs, 
and  other  beetles  of  various  kinds.  Mr.  Kirkland  saw  it  eat 
fifty-four  canker  worms  for  one  meal. 

These  food  lists  are  made  up  from  two  sources :  First,  the 
birds  are  carefully  watched  near  enough  at  hand  to  render  iden- 
tification of  the  various  articles  of  their  diet  positive ;  second, 
when  the  birds  are  so  shy  that  their  food  cannot  be  made  out  by 
observation,  they  are  shot  and  their  stomachs  examined.  The 
stomachs  of  thirty-four  thousand  birds  have  been  sent  to  the 
Biological  Survey  at  Washington,  which  maintains  a  depart- 
ment solely  for  this  work.     I  was  in  there  one  day  to  see  Dr. 


66  state:  pomologicai,  society. 

Beals,  the  head  of  this  department,  and  he  told  me  he  had  just 
received  134  Meadow  larks  for  examination.  These  birds  had 
been  taken  in  Texas  for  the  purpose  of  learning  positively  if 
they  were  eating  the  cotton  boll  weevil.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that 
I  have  not  learned  the  result  of  his  examination. 

Another  one  of  our  birds  that  is  valuable  to  the  fruit  grower 
is  the  Maryland  yellow-throat.  It  is  an  easy  bird  to  study  for 
three  reasons :  First,  it  has  a  distinctive  habitat ;  second,  it  has 
a  distinctive  song ;  and  third,  it  has  a  distinctive  coloration.  Its 
throat  is  yellow ;  there  is  a  black  stripe  across  its  forehead,  eyes, 
and  cheeks ;  its  back  is  olive  green.  Its  song  is  very  character- 
istic. It  is  written — whittity-whittity-zvJiittity-whit,  and  witch- 
cry-zi'itchery-witchery-zvitch.  I  was  lecturing  on  birds  at  the 
Newcastle  Summer  School  one  summer,  when  a  woman  asked: 
"What  bird  is  it  that  says,  'Great  Caesar-great  Caesar-great 
Caesarf  "  I  said,  "I  do  not  know,  but  if  you  will  come  out 
tomorrow  morning  with  my  bird  class  at  five  o'clock,  I  will  tell 
you  what  it  is,  if  we  can  find  it."  She  lived  five  miles  from  the 
village,  but  at  five  o'clock  the  next  morning  she  was  on  hand. 
My  class  had  been  studying  the  Maryland  yellow  throat  for  a 
week  and  every  one  in  that  class  of  forty-five  had  learned  its 
song.  We  started  on  our  walk,  when  all  at  once  this  woman 
exclaimed,  "Oh,  there's  the  great  C?esar  bird."  And  there  was 
our  old  friend,  the  Maryland  yellow  throat.  I  told  this  story  at 
a  teachers'  meeting  in  Augusta  the  next  winter.  After  the  meet- 
ing a  young  lady  came  to  me  and  said,  "I  have  another  story 
about  your  'great  Caesar'  bird.  I  went  from  that  summer  school 
down  to  the  beach  and  the  cook  at  the  cottage  where  I  staid  said^ 
'Do  you  know  anything  about  birds?'  I  said,  'Yes,  I  know 
anything.'  'Then  please  tell  me  what  bird  it  is  that  every  morn- 
ing when  I  begin  work,  comes  to  the  kitchen  door  and  sings, 
Gingcrhread-gingcrhread-gingerbread.'  "  The  yellow  throat  is 
a  bird  of  the  roadside  and  shrubbery  wherever  water  is  found. 
But  it  is  a  constant  visitor  to  the  orchard  for  caterpillars  of  all 
kinds. 

The  yellow  billed-  cuckoo  should  be  better  known  for  it  eats 
tent  caterpillars  from  morning  till  night.  Of  155  stomachs 
examined  between  May  and  October,  only  one  contained  fruit. 
In  a  five  year  study  of  the  bird  conditions  in  the  State  of  Maine, 
covering  various    portions  from    north  to  south,  stopping    two 


STATE    POMOLOGICAIv    SOCIETY.  67 

weeks  in  a  place  and  teaching  in  a  summer  school,  I  never  went 
out  one  morning  with  a  class  without  finding  the  yellow  billed 
cuckoo.  It  destroys  thousands  upon  thousands  of  tent  cater- 
pillars that  would  otherwise  live  to  damage  the  fruit  crop. 
While  some  of  our  birds  devour  every  smooth  caterpillar  they 
find,  they  have  no  taste  for  the  hairy  varieties,  but  the  cuckoo 
prefers  them.  It  eats  tent  caterpillars  until  its  alimentary  tract 
from  throat  to  vent  is  lined  with  caterpillar  hairs.  Cut  one  of 
these  birds  open,  and  it  looks  as  though  he  was  lined  with  fur. 

After  our  summer  birds  have  gleaned  all  summer  long  from 
the  trunks  of  our  trees,  they  leave  us,  and  it  does  not  seem  as  if 
anything  could  be  left  of  eggs  and  insects  under  the  bark  to  sup- 
port the  army  of  insect  eating  birds  that  comes  down  to  spend 
the  winter  with  us.  The  chickadee  nests  here  in  small  numbers, 
but  during  the  winter  months  it  comes  down  from  the  north  in 
abundance.  Think  of  the  amount  of  food  that  is  required  to 
support  the  life  of  these  warm  blooded,  active,  and  cheery  com- 
panions of  our  winter  walks.  Last  winter  the  thermometer 
here  in  Maine  ran  as  low  as  50°  below  zero,  yet  these  hardy  birds 
bent  cheerfully  to  their  task  of  saving  these  very  apples  we  have 
seen  at  this  meeting.  Even  in  the  terrible  cold  they  sang  at 
their  work,  chick-a-dee-dee-dee. 

The  white  breasted  nuthatch  is  another  bird  that  nests  here 
rarely.  But  soon  as  cold  weather  comes  on,  his  numbers 
increase  and  he  begins  his  search  up  and  down  the  trunks.  His 
song  is  yank-yank-yank-yank ,  and  he  too  must  search  diligently 
for  insect  food  that  escaped  the  sharp  eyes  and  ready  bills  of 
our  summer  residents. 

Another  winter  bird  is  the  brown  creeper.  Like  the  wood- 
peckers his  tail  feathers  are  fitted  for  support  in  climbing.  His 
bill  is  long  and  slender  and  curved  to  facilitate  investigations 
into  insect  conditions  under  bark  scales.  From  early  morn  till 
dewy  eve — no,  there  is  no  dew  when  he  is  here — but  from  early 
morn  till  dark  he  must  search  for  insect  food.  His  particular 
sphere  of  action,  like  the  woodpecker's,  is  the  tree  trunk.  His 
body  is  so  small  that  it  seems  impossible  for  him  to  maintain  an 
existence  in  the  terrible  cold.  Starting  at  the  bottom  of  the  tree 
— he  never  crawls  down — he  begins  and  circles  around  the  trunk, 
hunting,  hunting;    as  soon  as  he  gets  to  the  branches,  down  he 


68  STATE    POMOLOGICAIv    SOCIETY. 

goes  to  the  botton  of  another  tree.  I  have  watched  him  half  a 
day  at  a  time,  watched  him  work  with  that  little  narrow  curved 
bill  in  the  crevices  of  the  bark,  searching,  searching,  searching. 

Does  it  seem  as  though  there  could  be  any  insects  left  to 
develop  next  summer?  Unfortunately  there  are.  What  is  the 
reason?  These  birds  were  intended  by  nature  to  hold  insects 
in  check,  but  we  have  foolishly  destroyed  the  birds. 

Do  you  want  your  fruit  trees  better  protected?  Then  stop 
the  slaughter  of  birds  about  your  orchards.  Go  home  and  kill 
your  cat.  She  is  the  greatest  pest  that  people  who  raise  fruit 
have  to  contend  with.  I  know  of  a  cat  owned  by  a  man  who 
claims  that  fifty  birds  are  the  average  number  killed  by  that  cat 
every  year.  The  cat  does  not  stay  in  the  house  nights  during 
the  summer.  She  is  a  tree  climber,  and  what  she  can't  destroy 
during  the  daytime,  she  takes  from  the  nest  at  night.  Fifty 
birds  for  otie  cat  in  one  family !  I  know  another  family  that 
said  their  cat  caught  fifty-nine  robins  in  one  summer.  Another 
man  said  his  cat  caught  forty-eight — and  those  men  were  all 
trying  to  raise  fruit !  Those  men  were  trying  to  raise  fruit,  yet 
they  were  keeping  cats  that  were  doing  them  thousands  of  dol- 
lars worth  of  damage  every  year.  Review  for  a  moment  ■Mr. 
Nash's  experiment  in  feeding  young  robins.  One  young  bird 
weighing  only  three  ounces  ate  165  cutworms  per  day.  Here 
were  157  robins  put  out  of  existence  on  three  farms.  The 
amount  of  insect  food  required  per  day  by  these  157  robins  was 
157  times  165,  or  the  enormous  number  of  25.905  cutworms,  or 
their  equivalent  in  other  forms  of  insect  life.  What  terrible 
devastation  these  robins  might  have  held  in  check  had  they  been 
permitted  to  live. 

Unfortunately  for  the  orchard  interests  of  Maine,  many 
domestic  cats  are  left  by  our  summer  visitors  to  resume  once 
more  their  wild  state.  It  is  a  pleasant  thing  to  see  puss  about 
our  summer  cottages,  for  it  adds  to  their  home-like  appearance ; 
but  when  our  visitors  return  to  their  city  homes,  the  cats  are 
often  left  behind  with  no  means  of  subsistence  unless  they  prey 
largely  upon  the  birds.  If  well  fed  domestic  tabbies  will  kill 
fifty  robins,  what  terrible  slaughter  must  be  wrought  by  the  hun- 
dreds of  cats  that  return  each  year  to  a  state  of  nature.  If  you 
hunt,  shoot  every  cat  you  can  find  in  the  woods  and  fields.  If 
you  have  a  boy  with  the  collecting  craze,  and  his  mind  is  set 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  69 

upon  birds'  eggs — no,  don't  kill  him,  but — teach  him  better.  If 
there  is  anything  that  has  been  unfortunate  for  the  bird  life  of 
New  England,  it  is  the  collecting  craze  of  boys.  Hundreds  and 
hundreds  of  eggs  have  been  collected  in  every  town  in  our 
State,  and  not  one  in  a  thousand  has  ever  contributed  to  the 
cause  of  science.  No  data  have  been  kept  of  the  conditions 
under  which  the  eggs  were  taken,  and  not  one  collector  in  a 
thousand  ever  published  the  results  of  all  his  ill  directed  labor. 
The  attic  and  waste  heap  are  the  final  resting  places  of  the  shells 
once  pregnant  with  celestial  melody.  If  your  boy  must  collect — 
most  boys  have  the  passion  at  some  period  of  childhood — teach 
him  to  collect  life  histories  of  injurious  insects.  By  such  work 
he  will  add  to  the  productiveness  of  your  farm,  increase  the 
stock  of  human  knowledge,  and  animate  his  old  age  with  the 
vivacity  of  youth. 

Kill  your  cat.  Stop  your  boys  from  robbing  nests.  Study 
the  part  that  birds  and  insects  play  in  fruit  culture,  and  bountiful 
harvests  shall  follow. 


FRUIT   GROWING   AT   OAKLANDS. 
By  Robert  H.  Gardiner,  Esq.,  Gardiner. 

The  very  kind  words  of  your  President  simply  make  me  feel 
more  deeply  than  I  had  felt  before — although  it  has  been  troub- 
ling me  a  good  deal — that  I  haven't  any  right  whatever  to  appear 
on  this  platform.  He  has  been  good  enough  to  speak  of  my 
place.  I  have  not  made  the  place.  My  grandfather  and  my 
uncle  and  Mr.  Merrill  made  the  place  and  I  have  entered  into 
their  labors. 

If  I  had  been  able  to  make  this  address  a  year  ago,  I  should 
have  done  it  without  very  much  hesitation,  because  I  had  then 
at  my  right  hand  a  man  who  I  think  it  is  no  disrespect  to  any- 
body here  to  say  was  as  good  an  orchardist  as  there  was  in  the 
State.  The  great  beauty  of  my  place,  the  great  value  of  my 
orchard,  has  come  entirely  through  the  indefatigable  labors  of 
Mr.  Stephen  T.  Merrill,  who  was  called  hence  last  winter  in  the 
prime  of  his  health  and  strength,  and  his  years  were  not  many. 
Mr.  Merrill  was  reallv  a  remarkable  man, — a  man  of  the  highest 


70  STATE    POMOLOGICAIv    SOCIETY. 

personal  character,  of  rare  intelligence,  and  of  as  thorough  and 
comprehensive  a  practical  knowledge  of  farming  and  of  any- 
thing connected  with  farming  as  any  man  that  I  ever  met.  He 
took  my  orchard  when  it  was  partly  run  down  and  he  made  a 
good  orchard  of  it,  and  what  I  shall  try  this  afternoon  will  be 
simply  to  repeat  a  few  of  the  lessons  that  I  learned  from  Mr. 
Merrill. 

The  gist  of  his  success  in  orcharding  is  what  must  be  the  gist 
of  every  success  in  every  pursuit  of  life — thoroughness.  If  he 
had  anything  to  do  with  the  orchard,  he  tried  to  do  it  thoroughly 
right  down  to  the  bottom.  If  we  were  talking,  for  instance,  of 
setting  out  new  trees,  he  would  cultivate  that  field  for  two  or 
three  years  before  he  set  out  a  tree, — plow  it  and  cultivate  it  and 
get  it  into  thorough  condition,  get  all  the  rocks  out,  get  it  smooth 
and  the  soil  light  and  easily  pervious  to  light  and  air, — get  the 
field  into  thorough  condition  two  or  three  years  before  he  set  out 
his  trees. 

We  have  always  found  it  to  our  advantage  to  buy  trees. 
Some  fifty  years  ago,  I  think,  they  used  to  raise  their  trees  and 
do  their  grafting.  We  find  it  very  much  better  to  buy  trees. 
We  get  excellent  stock  and  they  are  very  cheap,  and  I  guess  it 
is  a  good  deal  better  than  it  is  to  go  to  the  trouble  and  expense 
of  raising  our  own  stock  and  trying  to  graft  them. 

I  don't  think  too  much  stress  can  be  laid  upon  the  importance 
of  care  in  planting  the  trees.  I  think  the  first  setting  out  of  the 
tree  has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  character  of  that  tree  for  the 
rest  of  its  life.  If  there  are  any  of  the  roots  that  are  torn  in 
the  slightest  degree,  we  cut  them  ofif  smooth,  and  separate  the 
roots  out  so  that  the  tree  will  get  a  good  chance  to  set.  A  mis- 
take that  was  made  in  my  principal  orchard  when  that  was  set 
out  some  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago  was  in  starting  the  crown  of 
the  tree  too  low.  They  had  an  idea  that  by  letting  the  branches 
start  out  pretty  low  down  it  would  save  trouble  in  picking.  I 
think  that  has  been  a  very  great  mistake.  My  trees  are  set  out 
thirty  feet  apart,  and  I  wish  they  had  been  thirty-five  or  forty 
now  they  have  got  full  grown.  We  find  on  those  lower  branches 
which  are  easy  to  pick  we  are  lucky  if  we  get  No.  2S.  They 
are  mostly  cider  apples.  Our  new  trees  we  are  starting  out  the 
head  pretty  high  up,  so  that  we  shall  not  have  any  branches 
hanging  down  low.     It  is  not  only  that  these  low  branches  raise 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  7I 

poor  apples,  small  apples  and  badly  colored  apples,  but  it  makes 
it  troublesome  about  getting  about  to  cultivate.  And  we  are 
starting  our  new  trees  up  a  good  deal  higher,  hoping  that  we 
shall  get  about  them  more  easily  to  cultivate,  and  that  we  shall 
get  more  No.  is  and  less  No.  2s  and  No.  3s.  There  isn't  any 
money,  I  believe,  in  raising  anything  except  No.  i  apples.  I 
don't  believe  it  pays  to  raise  cider  apples  or  No.  2  apples. 

And  then  when  we  get  our  orchards  started,  we  prune  the 
trees.  As  I  look  round,  Mr.  President,  and  see  you  and  these 
other  gentlemen  here  who  have  been  orcharding  before  I  was 
born,  I  feel  a  little  bit  like  the  young  lawyer  who  argued  his  first 
case  in  court.  He  began  telling  the  court  a  lot  of  things  that 
are  taught  to  a  boy  in  the  law  school  the  first  half  hour  of  his  first 
•  day  there,  and  he  noticed  the  court  getting  a  little  bit  restive  and 
he  stopped  his  argument  and  said  "Excuse  me,  your  Honor, 
for  dwelling  so  long  on  these  very  elementary  points  but  it  really 
would  be  such  a  great  pity  to  have  this  case  decided  wrong." 
So  I  feel  that  I  am  dwelling  on  elementary  points ;  but  you  have 
asked  a  man  whose  knowledge  is  limited  and  you  have  got  to 
endure  him  if  he  dwells  too  long  on  these  elementary  points. 

Then  we  believe  very  greatly  in  pruning — pruning  to  shape 
the  tree,  to  get  as  much  outside  to  the  tree  as  possible,  and 
pruning  also  to  promote  the  fruitage  of  the  tree.  We  try  and 
make  the  tree  all  outside.  We  take  out  the  inside  of  the  tree 
so  as  to  give  just  as  much  exposure  of  the  tree  to  the  light  and 
sun  as  possible.  It  is  the  sun  largely  that  makes  the  No.  i 
apples.  If  an  apple  does  not  have  good  air  and  good  sunlight 
it  does  not  turn  out  a  good  color,  and  what  we  want  to  do  is  to 
get  just  as  much  outside  to  the  tree  as  possible,  and  have  just 
as  little  of  the  fruit  inside  where  it  doesn't  get  the  light  and  air. 
Then,  so  far  as  my  experience  goes,  I  think  pruning  is  a  great 
incentive  to  fruitage. 

We  had  rather  an  interesting  example  of  that  a  number  of 
years  ago.  There  were  two  or  three  rows  of  trees  which  had 
been  set  out  a  number  of  years ;  they  were  badly  handled  after 
they  were  set  out;  within  a  year  or  two  of  the  time  they  were 
set  out,  before  they  had  time  to  establish  themselves  they  were 
very  heavily  budded  and  it  gave  them  a  set-back  which  it  took 
them  years  to  get  over.  They  never  had  borne  very  heavily.  They 
were  fairly  good  sized  trees  for  their  age — rather  small  for  their 


'J2  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY 

age,  but  they  never  had  borne  very  heavily  until  a  number  of 
years  ago.  It  was  about  Thanksgiving  time,  the  leaves  had 
stayed  on  the  trees  unusually  late  that  year,  and  there  came  a 
very  wet,  heavy,  clinging  snow  which  stuck  on  these  leaves  and 
bent  the  trees,  squashed  them  almost  down  to  the  ground.  Well, 
we  got  out  the  next  morning  and  beat  off  the  snow  as  well  as 
we  could,  but  in  spite  of  all  our  efforts  those  trees  were  very 
seriously  damaged.  There  were  a  great  many  big  branches 
torn  out,  and  the  trees  were  torn  pretty  badly.  The  next  year 
those  trees  that  had  been  badly  torn  were  loaded  with  apples, 
and  almost  every  apple  on  those  trees,  a  very  large  percentage  of 
the  apples  on  those  trees  that  had  been  most  heavily  damaged 
were  No.  i  apples ;  we  found  very  few  No.  2  or  cider  apples  on 
the  trees  that  had  been  most  heavily  damaged.  The  other  trees 
right  alongside  of  them  where  we  had  been  more  successful  in 
knocking  the  snow  off  had  a  smaller  number  of  apples  on  them, 
and  the  apples  they  did  raise  were  not  very  good  ones.  So  that 
we  have  always  found  it  to  our  advantage  to  prune  pretty 
heavily.  I  think  it  promotes  the  growth  of  the  tree.  The  tree 
seems  to  have  what  one  might  almost  call  an  instinct,  when  it  is 
damaged,  to  try  to  propagate  itself  by  fruiting  heavily  to  make 
up  for  its  expected  dissolution.  It  is  almost  as  if  the  tree  said 
"Here  has  something  happened  to  me  that  is  going  to  kill  me 
pretty  soon  and  it  is  my  business  to  preserve  my  species,  and  I 
will  raise  all  the  apples  I  can  next  year,  and  the  best  apples  I 
can,  in  order  to  keep  up  the  growth  of  apples."  I  have  been  told 
— I  have  never  tried  the  experiment — that  if  you  damage  a  tree, 
drive  some  nails  into  a  tree,  hurt  the  tree,  that  the  tree  will  in 
the  same  way  give  extra  fruit  the  next  year. 

Then  we  cultivate  pretty  heavily.  I  think  the  plow  is  a  pretty 
valuable  part  of  an  orchard,  the  plow  and  the  harrow.  We 
thought  it  was  a  great  scheme  to  have  sheep  and  we  tried  sheep 
one  year  in  the  orchard  to  eat  up  the  wormy  apples.  It  so  hap- 
pened that  year  that  we  had  an  unusually  good  crop  in  that  sheep 
orchard,  but  I  don't  think  it  was  altogether  due  to  the  sheep, 
and  I  don't  think  the  sheep  have  seriously  diminished  the  num- 
ber of  worms  in  that  orchard.  I  think  that  enough  worms  or 
moths  have  come  in  from  the  other  orchards  to  prevent  that 
from  being  of  any  very  great  value.  We  are  going  to  plow  up 
that  orchard  now.     We  think  the  sod  has  got  too  hard,  too  solid, 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  73 

and  we  have  taken  out  the  sheep  and  are  going  to  plow  up  that 
orchard.  I  beheve  the  plow  and  harrow  are  very  valuable  helps 
to  the  orchard.  I  think  the  ground  ought  to  be  kept  loose  and 
light  so  that  the  air  can  get  down  to  the  roots  and  so  that  the 
water  can  get  down,  and  above  all  keep  the  top  of  the  ground 
stirred  constantly  by  the  harrow  so  that  the  water  down  in  the 
lower  tiers  of  the  soil  won't  all  evaporate.  I  think  once  or 
twice  we  have  saved  our  crop  in  dry  summers  when  there  was 
likely  to  be  a  drought — I  think  we  have  saved  our  crop  by 
harrowing  the  surface,  breaking  up  the  top  of  the  ground  so  as 
to  prevent  the  evaporation  through  the  ground. 

Now  I  don't  know  that  it  was  intended  that  I  should  speak 
about  packing  apples,  but  I  think  perhaps  the  most  essential 
thing  about  growing  apples  is  the  way  in  wdiich  they  are  picked 
and  packed.  And  I  think  one  reason  why  these  Pacific  Coast 
apples  sell  for  such  high  prices — those  from  California  and 
Oregon  and  Colorado,  for  instance,  that  we  hear  so  much 
about — is  that  they  pay  more  attention  to  picking  and  packing 
than  we  do.  When  apples  are  picked  and  wrapped  up  in  paper 
and  packed  away  in  a  box,  a  man  is  apt  to  be  more  careful  than 
when  he  is  packing  his  apples  away  in  a  barrel.  I  rather  think 
that  taking  the  thing  by  and  large,  with  a  great  many  notable 
exceptions — I  rather  think  that  the  Western  apples  are  better 
packed  than  are  our  Eastern  apples.  I  think  more  men  out 
West  take  trouble  in  packing  their  apples  than  there  are  in  the 
East.  I  don't  say  there  are  not  a  great  many  men  here  in  the 
East  who  pack  apples  just  as  well  as  anybody  in  the  whole  coun- 
try, but  I  think  we  are  afP icted  with  more  men  here  in  the  East 
who  don't  pack  their  apples  well.  Now  if  I  send  a  barrel  of  apples 
up  to  the  market  that  is  badly  packed,  that  is  a  great  injury  to 
you.  Because  there  are  very  few  purchasers  of  apples  who 
know  anything  about  it,  almost  everybody  in  the  big  cities,  for 
instance,  thinks  one  barrel  of  apples  is  exactly  like  another. 
They  have  been  accustomed  to  buy  their  coal — they  can't  tell 
the  difference  between  one  lump  of  coal  and  another,  one  ton  of 
coal  and  another,  and  they  think  it  is  the  same  way  with  apples. 
If  I  send  to  market  a  barrel  of  apples  that  is  badly  packed, 
bruised  or  poor  fruit  in  the  inside,  and  handled  roughly,  why  the 
person  that  buys  that  barrel  of  apples  is  not  going  to  content 
himself  with  saying  "I  will  never  get  any  apples  from  that  man 


74  STATE    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY. 

Gardiner  again,"  but  he  is  very  likely  to  say  "I  don't  want  any 
more  of  these  Maine  apples.  I  will  buy  my  apples  next  time 
from  Oregon,  or  California,  or  Colorado."  We  try  and  handle 
our  apples — this  is  a  common-place,  you  see  it  in  almost  every 
issue  of  every  intelligent  agricultural  paper,  but  I  don't  think 
it  can  be  said  too  often — we  try  and  handle  our  apples  exactly 
as  if  they  were  eggs.  And  it  is  not  only  for  the  sake  of  this 
year's  crop,  but  of  next  year's  crop.  When  a  man  takes  an 
apple  between  his  thumb  and  finger  and  presses  it  hard,  he  is 
pretty  apt  to  make  a  bruise ;  and  if  he  yanks  it  off,  he  probably 
yanks  off  next  year's  branch.  It  ought  to  be  lifted  properly 
where  it  will  come  off  at  the  hinge  which  the  Lord  has  provided 
for  that  apple.  At  the  right  place,  if  the  apple  is  taken  in  the 
hand  so  there  is  no  pressure  of  the  fingers,  and  lifted,  it  will 
come  off  in  the  proper  place  and  it  will  leave  next  year's  bud 
in  the  place  where  it  ought  to  be.  I  think  most  careful  orchard- 
ists  have  pretty  nearly  eliminated  the  off  year  on  apples,  and  I 
think  it  is  very  largely  due  to  care  in  picking.  I  won't  say 
mostly,  but  I  think  it  very  often  happens  that  the  reason  why 
there  is  an  off  year  in  apples  is  because  so  many  of  the  next 
year's  buds  have  been  pulled  off  in  picking  this  year's  apples. 

Now  the  matter  of  bruises.  We  had  a  good  lesson,  I  think, 
a  number  of  years  ago.  We  cultivated  our  trees  with  manure, 
thoroughly  rotted  manure  with  some  soil  mixed  in  it.  It  was 
almost  as  soft  as  a  feather  bed,  just  as  soft  as  anything  could  be. 
We  had  a  number  of  apples  blown  off  in  a  gale  and  they  fell 
down  on  this  perfectly  soft  bed,  just  as  if  they  had  fallen  on  a 
feather  bed,  and  we  picked  them  up  and  we  couldn't  see  that 
they  had  been  damaged  at  all,  and  we  wanted  to  sell  them  to  the 
gentleman  in  Boston  who  was  then  buying  my  apples.  I  told 
him  about  it.  We  put  them  up  in  separate  barrels  and  marked 
them.  "Well,"  he  said,  "you  can  send  them  up  if  you  want  to, 
but  they  are  not  worth  sending."  "Well,"  I  said,  "we  can't 
see  any  trouble  with  them."  "Well,"  he  said,  "you  send  them 
up  and  I  will  keep  them  for  you."  We  sent  them  up.  He  kept 
them,  I  don't  know  how  long,  some  weeks,  but  sure  enough  at 
the  end  of  those  weeks,  those  apples  on  which  we  could  not  see 
any  bruises  whatever  when  we  first  packed  them,  in  the  course 
of  weeks  those  apples  developed  bruises  all  over  them.  Finger 
mark  bruises  will  develop  in  just  the  same  way.     A  man  can 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  75 

very  easily  take  an  apple  and  pinch  it  in  such  a  way  he  won't  see 
any  bruise  at  the  time,  but  if  it  is  a  delicate  apple  that  bruise  will 
show  up  not  very  long  afterwards.  What  we  try  to  do  is  to 
pick  the  apple  in  the  hand  without  squeezing  it,  and  then  place 
it  in  a  basket.  We  don't  drop  it  in  the  basket  but  we  place  it 
down  in  the  bottom  of  the  basket.  When  we  come  to  sort  we 
do  it  in  the  same  way,  take  them  up  by  hand  from  the  basket 
and  put  them  by  hand  down  in  the  bottom  of  the  barrel,  place 
them.  And  don't  allow  one  apple  to  drop  on  another.  It  takes 
a  little  bit  more  time  and  it  takes  a  good  deal  more  trouble,  but 
it  produces  a  satisfactory  article,  and  produces  an  apple  that 
will  keep.  Even  the  most  delicate  apple,  if  it  is  handled  prop- 
erly in  that  way,  will  keep  in  a  way  that  a  much  harder  variety 
won't  keep  if  it  is  treated  as  if  it  were  a  lump  of  coal  and 
dropped  into  a  basket,  and  then  rolled  out  of  the  basket  into  a 
pile. 

Then  my  experience  has  been  that  in  selling  apples,  it  is  a  good 
plan  to  look  up  the  character  and  the  intelligence  of  my  buyer 
pretty  well.  I  not  only  look  up  his  financial  standing — I  look 
that  up  to  see  if  he  ranks  well  in  Bradstreet's — but  what  I  want 
to  find  out  most  about  the  man  is  whether  he  knows  the  differ- 
ence between  a  good  apple  and  a  bad  apple.  And  when  I  go  to 
a  new  buyer  I  always  get  him  to  take  me  into  his  storage  houses 
and  see  if  he  knows  the  difference  between  a  No.  i  and  a  cider 
apple.  I  don't  believe  in  selling  apples  to  those  fellows  who 
don't  know  the  difference  between  a  well  packed  barrel  and  a 
poorly  packed  barrel.  I  think  a  man  who  understands  good 
fruit  and  good  picking  and  good  packing  is  a  much  more  satis- 
factory man  to  deal  with,  if  you  have  got  a  good  article.  If  you 
have  got  a  good  article,  then  he  knows  enough  to  know  it  is  a 
good  thing,  and  he  will  treat  you  better,  give  you  better  prices 
for  that  fruit  than  a  man  that  doesn't  know  anything  about  it. 
So  I  like  to  see  my  buyer  out  in  the  storage  house,  like  to  look 
over  his  fruit;  and  I  like  him  to  be  a  little  careful  and  see 
whether  I  know  the  difference.  I  like  to  have  him  put  me 
through  an  examination  and  see  what  I  know  about  apples,  see 
if  I  know  the  difference. 

Then  one  other  thing  that  I  want  to  speak  about  is  manuring. 
I  don't  think  we  can  put  too  much  dressing  on  our  orchards.  If 
we  are  going  to  get  good  apples  we  have  got  to  put  an  everlast- 


^6  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

ing  amount  of  dressing  on  them.  It  sometimes  happens,  I 
know,  that  an  orchard  that  has  been  neglected  for  many  years 
will  suddenly  turn  about  and  produce  a  crop  of  very  handsome 
apples.  But  that  is  an  exception;  it  is  not  the  rule.  If  we  are 
going  to  expect  to  get  good  crops  year  after  year  for  a  long 
series  of  years,  we  have  got  to  feed  the  trees,  and  we  have  got 
to  keep  the  ground  thoroughly  and  heavily  dressed.  I  don't 
think  we  can  put  on  too  much  dressing. 

Now  I  am  going  to  be  just  a  little  bit  presumptuous,  and 
although  I  have  admitted  what  is  perfectly  true  that  I  don't 
know  very  much  about  the  subject,  I  am  going  to  give  my  own 
experience  in  contradiction  to  something  that  was  said  this 
morning  about  the  destruction  of  trees  this  last  winter.  In  our 
experience  the  trees  that  were  lost  were  Baldwins.  I  think 
every  single  Baldwin  tree  on  the  place  was  taken  out.  Most  of 
the  Baldwins  we  had  were  in  an  orchard  by  themselves,  but 
there  were  a  few  trees  scattered  here  and  there  through  the  other 
orchards.  So  far  as  I  know,  last  winter  went  over  my  orchards 
and  if  it  found  a  Baldwin  tree  over  in  that  corner  it  killed  it, 
if  it  found  another  one  over  here  in  this  cofner  it  killed  it,  and 
if  it  found  one  in  another  place  it  killed  that.  But  as  a  rule  it 
did  not  touch  my  Bellflowers,  which  have  been  the  trees  that  we 
have  cultivated  most  intensely  and  which  we  have  pressed  the 
hardest.  My  Bellflowers  for  a  good  many  years  have  been 
pressed  as  hard  as  we  knew  how  to  press  them.  We  have  culti- 
vated, pruned  heavily,  manured,  forced  them  as  hard  as  we  knew 
how.  My  Bellflowers  were  not  damaged  as  a  rule.  The  prin- 
cipal damage  to  my  Bellflowers  was  to  the  trees  I  was  speaking 
of  a  few  minutes  ago,  the  trees  which  were  mishandled  when 
they  were  first  set  out — it  must  have  been  thirty-five  years  ago 
now — those  trees  were  mishandled  when  they  were  first  set  out 
and  never  were  healthy  and  vigorous  trees,  and  a  good  many  of 
them  were  killed  this  last  year.  My  experience  has  been  that 
last  winter  was  disastrous  to  the  worst  trees.  My  Baldwins 
were  almost  all  old  trees  that  had  been  hurt  some  years  ago  when 
there  was  a  general  injury  to  Baldwin  trees,  and  they  had  never 
really  recovered.  We  hadn't  forced  them  as  we  had  the  Bell- 
flowers.  The  Bellflowers  we  had,  as  I  say,  forced  the  best  we 
knew  how,  and  as  a  whole  tliere  was  very  little  damage  among 
the    Bellflowers.     It    destroyed  my    crop.     I  got    almost    the 


STATE    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY.  JJ 

smallest  crop  this  year  that  I  have  ever  had  in  quantity,  and  I 
guess  on  the  whole  the  worst  crop  in  quality  that  I  have  ever 
had.  But  it  didn't  kill  the  trees  that  had  been  most  forced.  It 
may  be  we  shall  find  that  a  good  many  of  them  are  dead  next 
year,  that  they  have  just  struggled  through  this  year  without 
showing  any  great  sign  of  injury,  and  we  shall  find  a  good  many 
of  them  won't  live  out  next  year.  But  our  experience  has  been 
that  it  pays  to  force  the  tree, — to  start  them  right  and  then  after 
they  get  started  to  force  them  every  way  we  know  how,  by  cul- 
tivating, and  by  manuring,  and  by  pruning, — make  the  tree  grow 
just  as  fast  as  we  can  make  it,  and  give  the  tree  if  possible  a 
short  life  and  a  merry  one,  and  when  its  short  life  is  over,  dig 
it  up  and  start  another  one  in  the  same  way. 


HOME   STORAGE   FOR   FRUITS. 
By  T.  L.  Kinney,  South  Hero,  Vermont. 

I  think  the  apple  is  the  •  main  fruit  grown  for  market  in 
Northern  New  England,  and  it  is  the  market  subject,  very 
largely,  that  we  are  discussing  as  I  see  by  the  program  today. 
The  most  important  subject  of  any  that  we  can  consider  at  the 
present  time  in  New  England,  in  Northern  New  England  espe- 
cially, and  in  fact  all  over  our  country,  is  the  legalizing  of  a 
standard  for  grading,  for  packing  and  marketing  our  fruit.  It 
seems  to  me  to  be  of  the  first  importance. 

The  next  perhaps  most  important  question  is  the  labor  subject 
which  is  staring  not  only  the  fruit  growers  of  our  country  in  the 
face  but  everybody  that  is  trying  to  do  business,  the  manu- 
facturers, the  farmers,  the  agriculturists  in  any  line. 

The  next  subject  which  calls  our  attention  more  strongly  I 
think  than  any  other  is  home  storage,  especially  here  in  Northern 
New  England,  Northern  Vermont,  and  Northern  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  the  whole  I  think  of  Maine.  The  dairymen  of  the 
State  of  Maine  and  the  state  of  Vermont  have  long  since  learned 
the  importance  of  having  a  place  for  their  cows,  a  dairy  barn — 
and  it  can't  be  too  good,  it  must  be  up-to-date — the  cows  must 
be  cared  for  and  the  products  caned  for ;  the  horseman  never 
stops  with  the  pasture  in  breeding  a  horse  for  market,  but  he 


78  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

procures  a  barn  and  all  the  equipage  to  train  that  colt  and  bring 
that  colt  to  the  position  where  he  will  bring  the  best  price,  he 
has  his  barn  and  all  the  equipage  and  feeds  him  for  whatever 
the  colt  is  designed  to  be,  that  he  may  get  for  it  the  best  price. 
Now  on  the  apple  question,  the  apple  business,  I  have  noticed 
in  our  part  of  New  England  that  the  farmer  works  for  and 
wants  to  get  an  up-to-date  orchard,  fine  apple  orchard ;  he  works 
the  trees  and  the  soil  and  he  studies  all  the  requirements  of 
that  orchard.  The  trees  come  into  bearing  in  fine  condition 
perhaps  and  the  crop  is  grown  and  he  works  all  the  season  to 
get  a  good  growth  to  his  apples  and  a  good  color  to  his  apples, 
and  to  get  them  in  the  finest  condition,  and  then  what?  Sell 
them.  Sell  them,  is  all  he  thinks  of,  is  all  the  commercial  inter- 
ests of  the  country  think  of.  Let  the  farmer  sell  them  no  matter 
whether  those  apples  are  grown  by  him  for  next  February 
market  or  for  today.  Sell  them !  That  is  what  the  commercial 
interests  of  the  country  demand  and  it  is  what  they  want.  They 
want  the  farmer  to  produce  the  apple  and  let  the  commission 
man  or  the  fruit  man,  the  commercial  man,  have  the  profits. 
We  of  New  England  have  got  tired  of  this.  We  want  the 
profits  ourselves.  Let  the  commercial  man  have  his  profits 
after  we  have  put  those  apples  on  the  market  at  a  time  when 
they  need  them,  when  the  market  demands  them.  For  instance 
the  Snow  apple  is  demanded  on  the  market  in  October  and 
November,  through  the  holidays,  sometimes  lasts  even  till  Christ- 
mas ;  then  the  King  and  Spitzenburg,  those  apples  are  displayed 
on  the  market  during  the  holidays,  and  the  Rhode  Island  Green- 
ing and  that  class  of  apples ;  in  January  and  February  the 
market  demands  the  Spies  and  later  on  the  Baldwin  and  the 
Russets.  Now  what  farmer  wants  to  put  the  Snow  on  the 
market  in  February  and  March  ?  There  is  no  demand  for  them. 
They  may  be  well  preserved  in  good  storage  but  nobody  wants 
them.  The  market  isn't  calling  for  them.  It  is  no  time  to  put 
them  onto  the  market.  Some  dealers  do  hold  a  few  for  special 
customers,  but  no  dealer  ever  was  known  to  hold  a  whole  storage 
of  Snows  for  the  February  market.  They  don't  demand  them. 
They  don't  want  them.  Then  why  should  we  New  England 
farmers  place  our  Northern  Spies  and  our  Baldwins,  such 
beautiful  apples,  such  long  keeping  apples — such  grand  apples 
as  you  have  on  these  tables  here  today, — put  them  on  the  market 


STATE    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY.  79 

now?  Yes,  six  weeks  before  now.  How  many  of  the  orchard- 
ists  over  in  Vermont,  and  I  presume  in  this  State,  made  their 
sales  weeks  ago!  The  buyers  knew  there  was  a  rush  in  the 
market,  they  knew  there  would  be  a  call,  and  the  quicker  they 
bought  them  the  surer  they  were  to  get  them.  And  we  are 
obliged  to  sell  because  we  are  not  prepared  with  home  storage. 
We  may  use  cold  storage,  the  commercial  storage,  if  it  is  at  our 
hand — it  can  be  done,  it  is  not  positively  necessary  for  a  New 
England  farmer  to  build  his  own  storage.  Because  when  we 
learn  that  we  can  ship  our  fruit  to  a  cold  storage  in  the  city 
markets  and  hold  it  there  just  as  well  as  the  commercial  dealers 
can,  why  then  that  will  do.  But  very  largely  New  England 
farmers  don't  like  to  do  that.  There  are  many  reasons  why  we 
should  not  do  it.  The  commercial  storage  is  expensive.  They 
hold  their  temperature  by  ice  and  by  chemical  conditions,  but 
up  here  in  Maine  and  Vermont  we  have  a  temperature  that  is 
just  as  well  adapted  for  the  holding  of  winter  apples  as  it  was 
during  the  summer  to  grow  this  beautiful  fruit.  There  is  no 
temperature  in  the  world  that  can  grow  a  better  apple  than  the 
temperature  of  New  England,  the  northern  part  of  it.  It  is  just 
adapted  to  the  production  of  fine  apples  that  have  the  keeping 
qualities.  And  so  it  is  with  the  holding  of  this  fruit  until  the 
time  when  it  shall  become  matured. 

Now  then,  how  shall  we  manage  to  have  a  fruit  house, — a 
home  storage?  I  don't  think  it  is  important  that  we  build  an 
elaborate  house,  an  expensive  house,  though  we  may  if  we 
choose.  But  whatever  the  conditions  are  that  surround  the 
farmer  who  wants  a  fruit  house,  a  storage  house,  let  him  build 
according  to  that ;  but  let  him  be  just  as  particular  in  preparing 
that  fruit  house  so  that  when  a  cold  wave  comes  he  is  not  fear- 
ful of  the  frost  getting  through  it,  as  he  was  in  preparing  the 
soil  for  the  trees  and  caring  for  them  when  they  came  to  bear- 
ing. A  fruit  house  needs  simply  to  be  air-tight.  You  have  the 
cold  air  up  here  in  New  England  to  force  into  that  building  by 
large  windows  on  sides  where  the  circulation  is  most  liable  to 
go  through.  We  can  cool  off  a  building  to  a  considerable  degree 
of  coldness  before  apple  picking  time  comes.  We  commence 
about  the  first  of  October  to  pick  our  winter  fruit.  Before  that 
there  are  several  cold  waves  that  come  with  us  from  the  west 
and  northwest,  and  our  west  windows  are  opened  and  those  cold 


8o  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

waves  come  and  the  wind  sweeps  through  for  one  or  two  or 
three  nights.  Then  if  the  building  is  closed  up  and  it  is  air- 
tight, that  only  stays  there  until  the  next  cold  wave  comes,  per- 
haps a  week  later;  then  it  is  opened  again  and  re-shut,  and  by 
the  time  we  are  ready  to  put  our  fruit  in  there,  that  building  is 
cooled  through  and  through,  and  if  it  is  a  large  building  it  won't 
matter  even  if  the  doors  are  opened  during  a  moderately  warm 
spell.  By  cooling  up  our  house  in  this  way  we  have  it  suffi- 
ciently cool  to  put  our  winter-keeping  apples  in  and  hold  them 
until  spring.  Then  when  the  cold  days  of  winter  come,  if  our 
building  is  air-tight  so  that  the  cold  can't  get  in,  there  is  no 
danger  of  freezing,  and  when  the  warm  days  come  if  it  is  so 
tight  that  the  warmth  can't  get  in,  the  apples  will  remain  all 
right.  You  know  we  don't  manufacture  anything  in  the  hold- 
ing of  apples  by  cold  storage,  but  we  are  holding  what  has 
already  been  built,  we  are  holding  the  apple  till  the  proper  time 
comes  for  the  market  to  consume  it. 

Now  there  are  many  considerations  in  holding  this  fruit  that 
we  want  to  think  of  and  study  as  we  go  along.  Some  will  say : 
How  will  you  put  these  apples  into  the  cold  storage  building? 
Well,  the  Rhode  Island  Greening  and  that  class  of  apples  that 
are  inclined  to  scald,  should  always  be  put  in  as  near  to  a  condi- 
tion like  this  as  may  be.  Crates,  perhaps  bushel  crates,  with 
board  ends,  with  lath  on  the  three  sides,  making  a  genuine  little 
crate — it  is  a  storage  crate — and  these  crates  filled  with  Green- 
ings and  placed  one  above  another  take  but  very  little  room. 
There  isn't  the  room  consumed  that  there  is  with  barrels,  and  the 
air  comes  in  contact  with  every  apple  all  the  time  while  it  is  in 
storage.  Some  of  you  may  say.  Well,  our  building  is  air-tight, 
what  matter  whether  it  is  in  a  barrel  or  a  crate?  But  with  the 
Rhode  Island  Greening  it  does  matter;  and  those  apples  should 
not  be  where  there  will  be  any  inclination  to  heating  in  the  middle 
of  the  barrel — not  a  genuine  heat  but  just  a  little  heating  which 
causes  them  to  scald.  The  scald  is  all  we  fear  in  storing  the 
Greenings.  The  Northern  Spy,  the  Baldwin,  the  Ben  Davis 
and  that  class  of  apples  can  be  just  as  well  held  in  great  bins 
that  will  hold  a  few  hundred  barrels,  if  you  will,  as  any  other 
way. 

This  fall  we  commenced  our  harvesting  of  the  apple  crop  and 
we  were  short  of  barrels,  but  we  didn't  care  very  much  and 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  8l 

when  we  came  to  the  Spies,  instead  of  using  barrels  which  we 
didn't  have  at  our  command,  we  built  bins  across  the  building, 
in  the  lower  part  of  the  building.  These  bins  held — three  of 
them — held  eight  hundred  barrels  and  they  were  tiered  right 
up  the  same  as  if  bins  were  built  across  this  room,  one  bin  and 
then  another.  We  had  to  make  them  not  too  wide  because  w^e 
couldn't  get  the  apples  in  without  jamming.  Then,  as  the 
gentleman  has  told  about,  we  had  to  be  very  careful  in  emptying 
in  these  apples — rolling  down  and  filling  the  front  of  the  bin 
first. 

Now  it  seemed  to  me  at  one  time  when  I  first  thought  of  stor- 
ing this  fruit,  in  fact  we  used  to  store  in  bins  with  partitions 
eighteen  inches  or  two  feet  high,  and  then  another  bottom  placed 
in  the  bin  and  then  another,  and  so  on.  But  it  doesn't  amount 
to  anything ;  I  don't  care  if  it  is  ten  feet  high.  You  know  you 
can  fill  a  barrel  of  eggs  and  the  egg  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
barrel  is  no  more  liable  to  break  than  on  the  top ;  the  pressure 
of  one  against  the  other  holds  it.  If  there  is  no  moving  or  giv- 
ing of  these  sides  to  the  bin  so  that  there  is  a  shaking  back  and 
forth,  those  apples  on  the  bottom  of  the  bin  never  will  jam. 
Then  hang  a  light  right  over  the  top  of  the  bin  and  it  makes  the 
nicest  place  to  grade  and  sort  apples.  In  the  fall  all  we  had  to 
do  was  to  hustle  and  bustle  to  get  help  to  pick  the  apples  and  get 
them  in  those  bins.  Now  we  are  at  leisure  to  come  to  Maine 
or  anywhere  else  and  let  our  apples  rest  there  till  the  market 
demands  them.  This  is  a  great  convenience  to  any  farmer. 
Some  farmers  may  have  a  location  especially  adapted,  where 
they  can  dig  into  the  side  of  a  bank,  and  in  a  position  where  they 
can  get  a  circulation  of  cold  air;  otherwise  you  can  use  ice. 

The  matter  of  selling  in  the  winter,  shipping  in  the  dead  of 
v^^inter  comes  in  with  the  cold  storage  question.  We  think  if 
we  had  a  thousand  or  two  thousand  barrels  of  apples  out  here 
in  the  storehouse,  we  are  fearful  we  would  not  be  able  to  get 
them  marketed  without  freezing,  or  that  they  would  be  frozen 
on  the  way  or  after  they  got  there,  or  while  we  were  getting 
them  there.  But  we  have  learned  that  there  is  no  more  trouble 
in  shipping  apples  in  the  dead  of  winter  than  there  is  in  shipping 
butter  or  anything  else  of  that  nature.  The  apples  are  sorted 
and  packed  in  this  fruit  house  in  the  temperature  which  they  are 
held  there,  and  then  they  are  hauled  down  to  the  station  in  a 


82  STATE    POMOLOGICAI.    SOCIETY. 

sleigh  perhaps,  throw  a  canvas  over  your  barrels  so  the  wind 
won't  strike  the  barrels  very  hard,  and  take  them  down  to  the 
car,  load  them  into  a  refrigerator  car,  roll  them  right  in,  pack 
them  up  in  there  the  same  as  you  do  in  the  fall  or  summer  and 
tighten  up  your  doors  tight,  and  they  won't  freeze  in  going  from 
here  to  Boston — they  won't  freeze  in  going  from  here  to  the 
Pacific  coast,  I  don't  believe.  We  never  have  had  any  trouble  to 
amount  to  anything  from  freezing  in  transportation.  We  warm 
up  the  car  with  an  oil  stove  before  we  put  the  fruit  in  most 
always,  so  that  the  inside  of  the  car  is  comfortably  warm,  and 
we  most  always  pack  in  with  straw — and  if  you  have  the  very 
best  refrigerator  cars  this  is  not  necessary;  and  this  way  we 
have  with  us,  we  have  a  c^r  that  goes  to  Boston  and  returns  in 
our  own  service,  in  our  own  name,  and  when  we  have  a  good 
many  apples  as  we  have  had  this  year  to  ship,  we  will  have  two 
or  three  cars  a  week.  That  keeps  us  constantly  busy  through- 
out the  winter ;  saves  us  from  getting  into  trouble ;  gives  our 
hired  help  who  don't  need  money  very  much  but  still  do  like  to- 
have  it,  plenty  of  work  to  do  through  the  winter ;  and  puts  our 
apples  on  to  the  market  at  a  date  when  the  market  demands, 
them,  when  they  want  them. 

I  don't  think  that  this  is  the  most  beneficial  year  for  home 
storage  that  we  ever  have  had  in  the  way  of  getting  high  prices. 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  limit  is  pretty  nearly  reached  in  the 
prices  that  they  are  paying  for  apples  this  year.  Yet  it  may  be 
that  we  can  double  these  prices  this  winter.  Very  often  we 
double  the  prices  from  fall  to  winter. 

Now  I  want  to  consider  just  a  moment  the  commercial  method 
of  buying  apples  and  handling  them  and  putting  them  onto  the 
market.  A  man  from  New  York  or  Boston,  or  a  firm — a  mil- 
lionaire firm  generally,  sends  out  agents  all  over  the  country,  to 
the  west  and  to  the  south  and  in  New  England,  and  they  send 
even  into  Canada  to  look  up  apples  and  find  where  the  locations 
are.  And  those  agents  appoint  other  agents,  and  those  other 
agents  hire  men  to  pick  their  apples  and  pack  them  and  grade 
them  and  ship  them.  They  hire  the  same  cars  that  we  are  hiring 
to  ship  them  to  some  distant  point  to  cold  storage;  they  hold 
them  until  they  wish  to  sell  them.  Now  can  those  men  manipu- 
late that  amount  of  management  cheaper  than  the  farmers  of 
Maine?     Can  they  pick  those  apples   cheaper  than  you  can? 


Storage  house  of  John  W.  Clark,  North  Hadley,  Mass.     (front  view) 


IE     FARMER      PRESS,      AUSUSTA 


Storage  house  of  John  W.  Clark     (rear  view) 


STATE    POMOIvOGICAL    SOCIETY.  83 

Can  they  grade  them  better  than  you  can?  Can  they  hold  them 
better  than  you  can?  Now  when  the  time  comes  for  shipping, 
what  do  they  do  ?  When  they  want  to  take  out  a  hundred  bar- 
rels of  Spies  out  of  that  cold  storage,  they  go  into  the  cold  stor- 
age, and  if  they  shake  a  little,  they  take  one  barrel,  plug  it  a  little, 
squeeze  it  down  and  it  goes  onto  the  train.  Now  a  farmer  up 
in  Maine,  with  the  kind  of  apples  that  the  gentleman  has  spoken 
of,  if  he  is  dealing  entirely  with  his  own  apples ;  he  has  them  in 
his  storehouse;  he  repacks  them — or  doesn't  repack  them,  they 
never  have  been  packed — he  grades  and  packs  them  in  Fc'-rua^y 
perhaps,  or  March,  and  the  next  week  after  they  are  packed  they 
are  being  consumed  in  Boston  or  New  York  or  some  othc^ 
market.  There  are  no  rotten  apples  down  there  squeezed  in 
together  to  make  the  barrel  appear  tight.  They  are  just  what 
the  market  wants.  And  how  long  before — if  this  package  is 
properly  marked — how  long  before  he  has  a  reputation  upon  his 
apples  in  the  market,  whatever  mark  he  uses  ? 

Now  take  the  conditions  of  the  trade  today,  this  year,  when 
they  want  all  the  barrels  of  apples  they  can  get,  and  what  do 
they  do  ?  Are  they  particular,  the  buyers,  to  hold  up  the  stand- 
ard of  Maine  apples?  I  hope  it  is  not  in  Maine  as  it  is  in 
Vermont,  but  I  can  illustrate  by  the  actual  facts  in  my  own 
neighborhood.  One  of  my  neighbors  sold  his  orchard  for  $600 
— it  was  a  small  orchard — just  as  it  was ;  didn't  have  to  touch 
them  excepting  to  haul  the  barrels  from  the  station  and  to  haul 
the  apples  to  the  station — didn't  make  no  difference  whether 
No.  IS  or  No.  2s.  Every  barrel  they  had  were  No.  is — almost 
all  the  barrels  in  that  lot — they  put  in  everything  there  was  in 
the  orchard, — windfalls,  wormy  apples,  drops  and  everything. 
But  they  were  faced  with  good  apples,  faced  on  both  ends  with 
good  apples.  Has  it  helped  the  reputation  of  that  county  to 
have  such  apples  as  that  go  to  market?  Customers  know  they 
came  from  the  Champlain  Valley,  because  they  bring  a  bigger 
price  because  of  the  reputation  of  the  Champlain  Valley  apples. 
Another  man  sold  his  orchard  for  $500  in  the  same  way. 
Another  sold  his  apples  for  $3  a  barrel,  and  they  did  all  the 
work  and  even  hired  the  man  that  owned  the  apples  to  oversee 
the  crew;    and  they  put  in  everything  into  those  barrels  that 


84  state;  pomoIvOGicaiv  society. 

they  could  scrape  because  they  wanted  the  number  of  barrels 
and  weren't  particular  for  quality. 

Now  here  is  the  immediate  point  for  the  farmers  of  Maine. 
Protect  your  interests.  Protect  your  market.  Protect  the 
quality  of  your  fruit.  Don't  let  that  fruit  displayed  on  these 
tables  go  to  face  a  mess  of  slush  for  some  speculator  to  get  rich. 

This  neighbor  I  spoke  of  who  sold  his  orchard  for  $500,  said, 
"Yes.  I  made  a  pretty  good  sale,  but  not  very  good  after  all. 
Think  how  long  I  have  been  cultivating  these  trees."  He  has 
had  crop  after  crop  almost  as  good  as  that  one.  I  said  how 
many  trees  did  you  get  these  apples  from  ?  Small  orchard,  only 
part  of  it  bearing.  He  said  sixty  trees.  Less  than -an  acre  and 
a  half  of  apple  orchard  and  he  got  his  $500  without  lifting  a 
finger.  Look  at  the  profit.  But  then  look  again  and  see  what 
he  is  doing.  He  is  killing  the  reputation  of  that  farm  and  of  his 
neighbors  by  sending  that  stuff  into  market  as  Champlain  Valley 
apples.  You  farmers  in  Maine,  it  is  just  as  important  that  you 
with  this  reputation  you  have  got  for  your  beautiful  long-keep- 
ing apples,  should  handle  that  product  yourselves.  How  can 
you  do  it?  Here  is  the  commission  house.  The  gentleman  has 
just  told  us  of  going  to  the  commission  house.  Now  those  com- 
mission men  all  know  what  a  good  apple  is.  They  can  almost 
look  through  a  barrel  without  taking  of  the  cover.  But  tell 
them  what  you  have  got  at  home,  let  them  know  you  have  got 
an  orchard  up  in  Maine,  and  not  you  alone  but  fifty  or  twenty- 
five  of  your  townsmen,  and  that  when  they  want  Snows  you  will 
send  cars  of  Snows — if  you  can't  yourself,  you  and  your  neigh- 
bors clubbing  together.  Co-operation  is  something  that  is  hard 
to  deal  with  in  Maine  and  all  New  England  among  the  farmers. 
It  is  not  hard  to  handle  in  the  great  West  but  it  is  hard  with  us. 
I  won't  put  my  apples  into  a  car  if  you  are  going  to  put  yours 
into  it,  and  another  won't  put  his  into  a  car  that  Kinney  has  any- 
thing to  do  with.  But  we  have  got  to  combine.  You  don't 
know  what  I  get  for  my  apples.  My  account  is  with  the  com- 
mission house,  and  he  never  divulges  what  I  get  or  what  you  get. 
That  is  the  way  we  do  there.  One  man  don't  fill  a  car  alone 
very  often.  One  of  us  will  see  to  the  shipping.  There  are  a 
dozen  to  fifteen  home  storages  in  our  own  little  island,  running 
from  2,000  down  to  200  barrels  in  the  storehouse,  little  houses 
made  on  purpose  for  storing  apples,  nothing  else.     When  I  get  a 


STATE    POMOLOGICAI.    SOCIETY.  85 

car  ready  to  load,  which  this  one  or  that  one  or  the  other  one 
knows  by  our  telephone  service  and  in  other  ways  that  such  a  car 
or  such  a  series  of  cars  is  going  to  commence  shipping  that  day 
or  that  v/eek,  and  they  call  up  to  know  if  they  can  put  in  ten  bar- 
rels, another  one  twenty,  another  forty,  and  we  make  up  a  car 
load  and  in  just  two  or  three  hours  the  car  is  all  loaded  and 
closed  up.  It  gets  to  market;  every  man's  apples  are  marked 
and  every  barrel  is  supposed  to  be  marked  Vermont  apples — we 
are  trying  to  advertise  Vermont  apples,  not  Maine  or  New 
Hampshire — and  it  seems  to  me  every  barrel  ought  to  be  marked 
that  way,  whether  they  are  No.  is  or  No.  2s.  Each  one  gets  his 
returns  back  and  there  is  no  trouble  in  this  co-operation.  Then 
think  of  the  commission  house.  They  want  to  know  where 
these  apples  come  from,  and  they  want  to  know,  if  they  get 
apples  that  will  satisfy  them  this  year  that  they  will  have  the 
privilege  of  getting  them  next  year.  A  man  in  Massachusetts 
has  been  sending  to  Hall  &  Cole  for  years;  they  just  as  much 
expect  those  apples — they  are  acquainted  with  the  man — and 
they  know  just  what  they  are  doing,  and  he  knows  that  they 
won't  go  back  on  him,  because  they  think  just  as  much  of  this 
side  of  the  trade  as  they  do  of  the  other ;  they  think  just  as  much 
of  the  producer,  provided  he  is  honest  and  intelligent,  as  they 
do  of  the  consumer.  My  case  is  perhaps  a  little  different  from 
most  of  you  people.  I  have  a  son  in  the  commission  business, 
and  you  know  if  he  cheats  me  why  it  is  all  in  the  family  so  it 
doesn't  matter  so  much.  But  before  he  commenced  business  I 
had  a  great  deal  of  experience  with  other  commission  houses, 
and  I  took  great  pains  to  get  them  to  our  island  and  to  take 
them  about  our  island,  show  them  the  different  orchards,  make 
them  know  we  were  in  earnest  in  this  subject  of  apple  produc- 
tion and  apple  selling;  and  it  was  the  greatest  trouble  for  me 
when  my  son  went  into  the  commission  business  and  I  had  to 
leave  the  other  commission  house  and  turn  the  goods  over  to  my 
son,  because  family  ties  were  stronger  than  this  experience 
which  was  very  satisfactory  in  commercial  ways.  He  died,  and 
now  I  have  a  son  in  Boston,  and  my  goods  are  all  going  there. 
But  you  will  have  no  trouble  in  selecting  a  commission  house, 
providing  you  can  satisfy  their  wants ;  it  is  just  as  simple  as  any 
other  production. 


86 


state;  pomological  society. 


Now  about  the  building  of  the  storehouse.  How  tight  has 
it  got  to  be?  To  build  a  fruit  house,  if  you  are  going  to  build 
it  of  lumber,  use  studding  as  wide  as  you  want  your  air-space, 
and  it  don't  matter  much  whether  two  inches,  one  inch,  or  five 
or  six.  And  the  way  mine  is  built  is  studding  up  and  down, 
tight  boarding  outside,  matched  lumber,  lathed  and  plastered 
inside — lath  and  plaster  in  the  middle  and  leave  an  air  space  on 
the  inside,  and  then  seal  up  on  the  inside  with  tight  boarding 
leaves  another  air  space,  a  little  paper  and  then  sheathing  com- 
pletes that  wall  air-tight ;  and  then  paper  and  clapboards  on  the 
outside  makes  it  double  air-tight  and  there  is  no  circulation  of 
air ;  double  windows  and  have  shutters  outside. 


Storage  House  of  T.  L.  Kinney,  South  Hero,  Vt. 

Now  about  the  moisture,  in  keeping  fruit  in  that  fruit-house, 
it  will  get  wonderfully  moist  in  there.  I  have  seen  the  ceiling 
in  the  upper  room  in  that  fruit  house  all  covered,  quite  thick, 
perhaps  an  eighth  of  an  inch  of  ice,  just  occasioned  from  the 
steam  coming  from  the  apples.  It  goes  up  there  and  freezes  and 
gathers. 

Now  I  don't  think  it  is  necessary  to  keep  that  atmosphere  dry. 
I  think  it  is  better  to  have  it  moist.  I  think  it  is  better  to  hold 
that  moisture  in.  But  that  is  a  matter  of  ventilation  which 
might  aggravate  a  good  deal  of  discussion  on  the  ventilation  of 
an  apple  storehouse.  If  a  body  of  apples  are  wet,  or  very  wet,  I 
don't  think  it  makes  any  difference  in  the  keeping  quality  of 


state:  pomologicai,  society.  87 

those  apples.  They  don't  want  to  be  hit  together  wet  and  then 
become  dry,  they  don't  want  to  become  cold  and  then  warm.  If 
those  apples  get  so  cold  they  freeze,  it  don't  matter  very  much 
if  they  don't  thaw  out  too  quickly.  An  apple  gets  to  be  cold, 
very  cold,  freezes,  and  then  if  it  goes  back  very  gradually  to 
very  cold  and  to  cold  and  don't  go  any  further  than  simply  cold, 
you  never  know  that  the  apple  has  been  frozen.  So  don't  be 
afraid  if  your  apples  get  touched  on  the  outside  around  the 
walls  with  frost;  it  won't  hurt  them  any  if  you  don't  handle 
them  while  they  are  frozen. 

Now  the  next  matter  which  comes  up  for  a  storehouse  at 
home  perhaps  would  be  the  convenience  to  the  farmer  at  picking 
time,  although  this  labor  question  is  a  hard  one  when  a  man  has 
a  thousand  or  two  thousand  barrels  of  apples  to  pick  and  no  one 
to  help  him  do  it.  And  then  when  you  get  together,  as  I  did 
this  fall  and  have  several  falls,  a  lot  of  young  men,  it  happened 
this  year  that  the  first  lot  of  men  I  hired  didn't  one  of  them  put 
in  an  appearance,  and  then  when  I  hired  another  set,  hired  them 
from  factories  where  they  had  been  shut  down  a  few  days,  those 
boys  didn't  have  any  more  interest  in  the  picking  of  those  apples 
than  they  did  in  anything  else.  The  question  with  me  was,  how 
can  I  get  those  apples  secured  the  quickest.  You  know  there 
was  a  terrible  frost  that  scared  us  all  to  death  pretty  near — 
didn't  seem  to  hurt  the  apples  right  in  our  locality,  but  it  did  in 
some  parts  of  Vermont.  How  can  we  handle  them  the  quickest, 
the  safest  and  the  best? — The  best  way  I  have  found  is  to  have 
a  place  where  you  can  haul  those  apples  from  the  tree  right  into 
their  storage  place.  I  haven't  sorted  or  graded  an  apple  that 
came  from  the  trees — put  the  good,  bad,  all  conditions,  right 
into  the  bin  and  in  the  barrels.  I  don't  like  that  way.  I  would 
rather  partially  sort  those  apples  before  they  go  in,  but  this  year 
I  couldn't  do  it,  circumstances  were  such.  This  storehouse 
gives  me  an  opportunity  to  handle  my  crop  when  I  couldn't 
handle  it  otherwise.  One  man  came  to  me  who  had  fourteen 
hundred  barrels  of  apples ;  he  had  them  all  graded,  sorted  and 
sold.  He  said:  "If  I  had  had  a  storehouse  I  could  have  waited 
two  weeks  longer  before  I  picked  an  apple — if  I  had  had  a  place 
to  put  them  and  then  handle  them  later  on — and  I  would  have 
got  more  difference  than  the  storehouse  would  have  cost  me  in 
the  value  of  those  apples,  because  that  is  just  the  time  that  red 


88  state;  pomological  socii;ty. 

fruit  was  maturing  and  putting  on  its  best  color."  Here  in  New- 
England  you  want  to  leave  your  apples  just  as  late  as  you  can 
and  have  time  enough  to  handle  them.  Now  then  if  we  have  a 
storehouse  that  will  help  us  along  that  line,  it  is  worth  consider- 
able. One  man  who  built  a  storehouse  several  years  ago,  Mr. 
Tracy,  a  neighbor  of  mine — the  upper  part  of  the  building  was 
built  by  a  railroad  construction  company  and  they  gave  it  to 
him  when  they  got  through  and  he  built  a  cellar  right  under  it — 
carried  800  barrels,  and  the  first  year  he  put  his  apples  in  there 
without  grading  or  sorting,  and  the  buyers  went  to  buy  them; 
no,  he  didn't  want  to  sell  but  just  as  they  were  getting  ready  to 
go  away,  had  closed  up  their  deals,  they  offered  him  more  than 
enough  to  have  paid  for  the  building  of  that  storehouse,  with 
that  one  crop — more  than  they  would  have  paid  him  when  they 
were  buying  apples.     You  see  the  importance  of  these  things. 

Now  there  is  another  matter  which  I  want  to  call  your  atten- 
tion to  in  having  a  storehouse.  You  know  you  think  more  of  a 
good  horse  if  you  have  a  nice  barn  for  him.  You  think  more 
of  a  dairy  cow,  or  a  lot  of  them,  or  a  herd,  if  you  have  nice 
stables,  up-to-date,  all  sanitary,  clean  and  nice.  And  so  you  feel 
about  your  apple  orchards.  Now  you  want  to  have  all  the 
interest  in  an  apple  orchard  that  you  have  in  any  other  kind  of 
operations  that  you  have  on  your  farm.  If  you  are  not  inter- 
ested in  it,  you  won't  be  very  successful;  you  better  sell  the 
first  opportunity  you  get. 

F.  H.  Morse.  I  have  had  a  little  experience  in  cold  storage, 
and  my  experience  corroborates  every  word  Mr.  Kinney  has  said 
in  regard  to  the  success  of  it.  Mine  is  simply  a  dead-air  space 
building,  very  cheajjly  constructed.  We  hired  a  carpenter  for 
just  a  few  days  to  put  up  the  building  and  get  the  outside  finish 
on.  The  inside  of  it  we  did  wholly  ourselves.  We  found  that 
we  could  do  it  better;  that  is,  that  while  we  were  not  so  used 
to  carpentering,  we  were  more  sure  of  getting  what  we  wanted 
doing  it  ourselves  than  we  were  to  hire  it.  The  building  of  it 
is  simply  a  matter  of  thoroughness.  The  air  spaces  have  got 
to  be  air-tight  and  that  is  all  there  is  to  it.  And  then  this  matter 
of  convenience  that  Mr.  Kinney  has  spoken  of  is  a  very  great 
factor.  As  he  said  he  did  this  year  we  have  done  for  ten  years ; 
we  have  taken  our  apples  right  from  the  trees.  Where  we  have 
to  hire  our  work  done,  as  I  do,  to  depend  on  hired  help,  it  is  no 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    S0CIE;TY.  89 

use  to  tell  them  to  sort  them  as  they  pick  them.  And  then  very 
often  it  has  been,  as  it  was  this  year,  nip  and  tuck  to  see  which 
would  get  there  first,  the  frost  or  we.  And  in  that  case  you 
have  got  to  do  as  you  can  and  not  according  to  theory.  We 
have  turned  the  old  fashioned  theories  of  picking  apples  upside 
down.  When  I  began  to  raise  apples  twenty  years  ago,  they 
said  to  always  pick  them  when  they  were  dry ;  don't  put  any 
leaves  with  them ;  never  touch  them  when  they  are  frozen. 
Well,  we  began  by  doing  as  they  stated.  That  will  do  if  you 
have  got  time  enough.  But  we  found  that  where  we  put  them 
in  this  house  a  few  leaves  didn't  do  any  harm.  So  I  told  the 
men  to  be  careful  not  to  pull  off  the  stems  but  leave  the  leaves 
right  on  and  put  them  in.  Then  we  found  we  couldn't  wait  for 
them  to  get  dry  and  we  picked  them  in  the  wet,  any  time  it  was 
suitable  for  a  man  to  work,  whether  the  apples  were  wet  or  not. 
We  picked  them  that  way — took  a  little  pains  to  set  them  where 
there  would  be  a  little  draft  afterwards,  or  in  bins  where  a  little 
air  would  draw  through  and  dry  them  off ;  otherwise  that  is  all 
we  have  done.  When  we  packed  them  we  didn't  find  any 
difference ;  they  were  just  as  good  as  when  picked  dry.  This 
year  we  found  it  was  a  question  of  picking  them  when  they  were 
frozen  or  not  getting  them  at  all,  and  we  picked  them  frozen. 
Monday  morning  we  picked  them  with  gloves  on  and  put  them 
in  the  barrels  frozen.  This  was  an  experiment,  we  thought  we 
would  try  both  ways.  We  took  a  horse  blanket  which  happened 
to  be  the  only  thing  convenient,  turned  six  or  eight  barrels  on 
to  that,  Monday  morning.  They  laid  there  until  Friday  noon 
and  then  we  took  them  up  and  the  frost  wasn't  all  out  in  the 
middle  of  the  pile  then — so  you  see  they  were  frozen  pretty  bad 
— apples  all  right — once  in  a  while  a  little  mark  but  nothing  that 
harmed  the  apples  at  all.  So  I  have  no  fears  of  picking  apples 
when  they  are  frozen.  We  put  them  into  this  storehouse,  as  I 
say,  dry,  frozen  or  any  other  way  to  get  them  there ;  and  we  pack 
them  any  time.  Sometimes  we  hold  them  up  to  February  or 
March  and  they  have  always  come  out  in  first-class  condition. 
When  the  room  is  once  cooled  off  there  is  no  trouble  in  keeping 
it  for  weeks  or  even  months.  It  is  my  opinion,  although  I  have 
never  had  any  experience  with  the  cold  storage  in  cities,  that  we 
can  keep  our  own  apples  by  putting  them  in  there  right  from  the 


90 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 


trees  and  have  less  ^^ste  than  to  ship  them  and  have  them  stored 
in  high-priced  cold  storage  houses. 

V.  P.  DeCoster.  Have  you  had  any  experience  with  the 
apples  sweating  in  cold  storage  ? 

Mr.  Morse.  No,  we  haven't.  After  they  are  once  in  there 
and  dry  they  don't  sweat,  because  the  sweat,  as  I  understand  it, 
is  being  cold  and  then  warm ;  the  changing  of  the  temperature 
is  what  makes  them  gather  moisture.  If  the  temperature  is 
even  I  guess  the  apples  will  never  sweat.  I  don't  know  as  I  am 
right,  but  that  is  my  idea.  I  never  have  had  any  trouble  in  that 
way. 

Question.  I  would  hke  to  ask  the  gentleman  if  he  has  any 
trouble  with  rats? 

Mr.  Morse.  No,  sir,  never  have  seen  a  rat  in  the  house ;  once 
in  a  while  a  few  mice  but  never  any  rats.  This  storehouse  is  a 
mile  and  a  half  from  my  home.  We  can't  care  for  it  to  as  good 
advantage  as  if  it  were  right  at  home  where  we  could  open  it 
every  cool  night  and  shut  it  up  every  morning.  But  of  course 
we  get  up  there  once  in  a  while  and  leave  it  open  through  the 
night  and  shut  it  in  the  morning,  but  we  have  done  it  very  few 
times. 

Question.  When  you  built  it,  you  didn't  put  anything  in  to 
make  it  rat  proof? 

Mr.  Morse.  When  you  get  it  air-tight,  it  is  pretty  near  rat 
proof ;  eight  thicknesses  of  board  and  four  thicknesses  of  paper 
clear  round  it,  a  rat  has  got  to  have  pretty  good  courage  if  he 
gets  in. 

Question.     Sill  at  the  bottom? 
Mr.  Morse.     Yes,  sir. 

C.  S.  Phinney.  It  seems  to  me  it  would  be  of  advantage  if 
we  could  know  something  about  the  cost  of  the  storehouse. 

Mr.  Morse.  I  can't  give  you  much  of  an  idea  as  to  that. 
The  cost  would  be  entirely  different  with  different  people 
according  as  they  are  situated.  Of  course  if  you  were  to  build 
one  now,  and  use  lumber  at  a  high  price  as  it  is,  and  hire  a 
carpenter  to  do  all  the  work,  and  put  in  eight  thicknesses  of 
board  and  four  of  paper,  it  would  be  very  expensive.  But  I 
think  it  could  be  built  with  matched  board,  one  thickness  per- 
haps, just  as  well,  or  perhaps  something  else  could  be  used. 
We  built  ours  of  cheap  lumber  except  matched  boards  outside 


state;  pomological  socie;ty.  91 

and  in ;  all  the  other  is  very  cheap ;  and  as  we  did  it  with  our 
own  help  and  at  odd  times,  I  can't  tell  you.  Any  one  else  could 
figure  it  up  just  as  well  what  the  cost  would  be,  and  a  little  bet- 
ter than  I  could.  But  since  then — we  are  building  now — we 
have  got  part  of  it  now — a  larger  storage  room  in  our  barn. 
We  had  some  room  that  we  could  spare  without  interfering 
seriously  with  our  hay  room.  We  had  a  silo  in  one  part  of  the 
barn — and  we  took  a  space  about  forty  feet  from  the  silo  to  the 
end  of  the  barn.  We  took  and  dug  down  to  get  six  feet  below 
the  barn  floor ;  laid  up  with  stone  and  cement,  and  have  a  bulk- 
head in  the  end  of  it  that  opens  outside.  We  have  quite  a  room, 
high  enough  to  set  five  barrels  high,  one  above  the  other.  In 
that  way  we  are  getting  a  place  where  we  can  store  ten  to  twelve 
hundred  barrels.  When  I  built  this  first  house  it  was  built  to 
hold  600  barrels  in  1895.  I  didn't  have  an  idea  I  should  need 
anything  else  to  hold  my  apples.  But  in  just  a  few  years  we 
had  outgrown  that  and  this  year  we  picked  over  1,200;  so  at 
this  rate  we  shall  have  to  be  looking  out  for  another  one  pretty 
soon. 

President  Gilbert.  Will  Mr.  Kinney  give  information  in 
regard  to  cost  and  also  inform  us  in  regard  to  the  holding  of 
the  temperature  and  securing  it? 

Mr.  Kinney.  The  cost  of  the  building  of  course  cannot  be 
determined  until  one  knows  what  the  conditions  are  that  the 
person  is  building  under.  The  building  which  we  built  in  1888 
cost  $1,500,  slate  roof,  with  5  ft.  wall,  2^  at  the  bottom;  the 
cost  of  course  would  be  $2,500  or  more  today.  But  any  one  can 
estimate  the  cost  the  same  as  they  would  estimate  the  cost  of 
any  other  building  to  make  it  air-tight. 

About  the  sweating  of  apples,  apples  will  always  sweat  when 
they  are  moved  from  one  condition  of  temperature  to  another, 
whether  it  is  colder  or  warmer,  but  that  doesn't  afifect  the  apples 
unless  they  are  constantly  changed. 

Now  just  a  word  in  regard  to  holding  the  temperature  in  such 
a  room  as  this.  If  this  room  was  filled  with  apples,  perhaps 
2,000  barrels,  open,  not  headed,  one  barrel  on  top  of  the  other, 
I  don't  believe  they  would  freeze  here  in  a  cold  night.  The 
secret  of  this  is  that  every  apple  is  a  holder  of  warmth  or  cold. 
Whatever  the  temperature  is  in  the  middle  of  one  apple  it  will 
be  at  the  outside  of  it  too  and  there  is  from  five  to  six  hundred 


92  STATE    POMOEOGICAI,    SOCIETY. 

apples  in  every  barrel,  and  a  thousand  or  two  thousand  barrels 
in  a  clump  like  that  would  have  to  get  the  whole  body  cold 
enough  to  freeze  before  they  will  freeze  in  the  room,  arid  the 
room  will  be  held  by  that  body  of  apples ;  even  if  it  is  not  so 
very  warm  it  will  be  held.  If  it  goes  down,  if  you  leave  the 
doors  open  until  it  gets  really  cold  in  there,  so  cold  that  apples 
will  freeze  by  thermometer  test,  shut  it  up  and  in  just  a  little 
while  it  will  come  right  back  to  the  old  temperature,  because 
every  apple  is  a  holder  of  a  certain  degree  of  temperature. 
There  is  nothing  that  will  take  the  warm  or  the  cold  into  itself 
like  an  apple,  will  allow  the  cold  or  warmth  to  go  in.  But  it 
won't  allow  water  to  go  in,  or  the  juice  of  the  apple  to  come  out 
unless  it  is  broken,  and  it  holds  it  there.  I  think  that  is  impor- 
tant for  every  one  to  remember  in  building  a  cold  storage,  that 
while  a  basket  of  apples  would  freeze,  a  whole  bunch  of  apples 
would  hold  the  temperature  to  such  a  condition  that  they 
wouldn't  freeze. 

Now  there  is  another  matter  about  picking  apples.  The 
gentleman  has  spoken  about  picking  in  cold  or  warm,  or  very 
cold.  In  a  warm  time  in  October  sometimes,  we  didn't  have  it 
this  year,  cold  and  rainy  and  wet  all  the  time — some  years  we 
will  have  two  or  three  days — and  I  presume  you  will  have  more 
of  them  here — very  sultry  and  warm.  Apples,  in  my  opinion, 
never  should  be  picked  at  that  time  and  put  into  any  bulk,  in  a 
barrel,  in  a  storehouse,  or  anywhere  else,  unless  it  is  where  they 
can  cool  off  again.  The  man  who  owns  an  orchard  wants  to  be 
careful  that  he  don't  pick  in  those  hot,  sultry  days ;  putting  a 
lot  of  apples  into  a  bin  when  they  are  hot  is  like  putting  pork 
into  a  barrel  before  the  animal  heat  is  out  of  it,  all  the  salt  in 
the  world  don't  keep  it.  And  it  is  just  so  with  apples.  Get 
them  cool,  not  necessarily  so  very  cool,  but  get  them  cool  before 
they  are  put  in. 

And  about  the  picking  of  apples  when  they  are  frozen.  If 
the  picker  picks  without  gloves — not  many  of  them  that  will  in 
these  days — he  will  leave  marks  on  the  apples  where  he  takes 
hold  of  the  apple.  If  the  hand  is  warm  it  will  be  very  apt  to 
leave  a  mark  on  that  apple.  If  they  are  picked  with  gloves,  I 
think  the  gentleman  is  right.  But  be  very  careful  about  those 
important  points. 


STATE    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY,  93 

Question.  I  would  like  to  ask  about  using  cement  in  con- 
struction for  a  cold  storage  house,  what  the  experience  has  been 
that  way. 

Mr.  Kinney.  We  haven't  any  experience,  that  is,  in  cement 
buildings  you  mean?  cement  walls?  But  they  must  be  good  if 
you  can  hold  them,  keep  them.  I  have  never  cemented  the  bot- 
tom of  our  storehouse  because  the  atmospheric  condition  com- 
ing up  from  the  ground  we  think  is  beneficial ;  perhaps  it  isn't. 
It  would  be  very  convenient  if  the  bottom  of  the  storehouse  was 
all  cemented  in  rolling  the  barrels  and  that  kind  of  work,  but  we 
leave  it  in  order  to  get  surface  on  the  ground ;  that  we  think 
helps  us  quite  a  good  deal. 


MAINE  FRUIT  AS  IT  APPEARS  TO  OTHERS. 

By  A.   A.  HixoN^   Secretary  Worcester  County  Horticultural 
Society,  Worcester,  Mass. 

I  won't  trouble  you  many  minutes.  I  always  like  to  introduce 
myself  before  I  begin  to  talk.  Unfortunately  I  am  secretary 
of  a  horticultural  society — not  a  society  that  meets  once  a  year, 
but  a  society  that  owns  its  building,  has  its  own  offices,  an  office 
that  I  occupy  and  occupy  exactly  the  same  as  a  lawyer  or  a 
doctor  does — I  go  down  early  in  the  morning  and  I  stay  there 
until  late  at  night.  Always  on  deck,  always  ready  to  answer 
any  question  or  questions,  and  as  the  librarian  of  a  library 
always  ready  to  see  that  people  have  the  proper  books  that  they 
would  like  to  take  out.  And  we  are  right  in  the  center  of  a  city 
of  145,000  inhabitants,  exactly  on  the  street  where  every  electric 
car  that  comes  in  from  out  of  town  stops  and  deposits  its  pas- 
sengers. We  are  only  one  floor  up.  We  have  twenty-six  exhi- 
bitions a  year.  Every  horticulturist  and  every  agriculturist  that 
goes  through  the  city  of  Worcester  and  has  time  to  stop  gener- 
ally comes  in  to  see  me.  I  have  been  there  seventeen  years  in 
charge  of  that  property,  and  its  exhibitions.  We  have  twenty- 
six  exhibitions  a  year  and  for  seventeen  years  I  have  had  sole 
control  of  twenty-six  exhibitions  a  year,  and  for  the  eleven  years 
previous  partial  charge  and  clerk  of  the  committee  of  arrange- 
ments ;    consequently  somewhere   from  twenty-five  to  twenty- 


94  STATD    POMOLOGICAI,    S0CIE;TY. 

seven  years  of  my  life  I  have  held  and  handled  twenty- 
six  exhibitions  a  year.  I  hardly  think  there  is  another  man  in 
the  United  States  that  has  such  a  reputation  for  exhibitions. 

Now,  I  have  been  asked  to  say  what  we  people  outside  of  the 
State  of  Maine  think  about  your  fruit.  Hardly  any  necessity 
to  tell  you  anything  about  it.  You  know  just  as  well  as  I  do, 
and  a  little  bit  better.  You  know  that  the  Kennebec  Baldwin 
has  had  a  national  reputation  for  years  and  years  and  years  as 
far  back  as  the  Revolutionary  War.  I  think  you  had  Baldwins, 
or  you  had  apples  on  the  Kennebec  river  that  sometime  later, 
or  after  the  Baldwin  came  into  existence  was  grafted  into  Bald- 
win apples,  and  the  reputation  of  the  Kennebec  Baldwins  is  that 
they  are  the  best  Baldwins  that  are  grown  in  the  world.  Now 
what  more  can  I  say  than  that  ?  And  you  have  a  reputation  for 
growing  Northern  Spies  that  equal  the  best  Northern  Spies,  and 
perhaps  better  than  ever  came  from  the  state  of  New  York. 
What  more  can  I  say  for  that?  And  there  are  lots  of  other 
kinds  of  apples  that  come  from  the  State  of  Maine  that  have 
that  same  reputation.  You  can  grow  a  better  Early  William 
than  we  can  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston,  and  you  have  lots  of 
apples  that  originated  in  the  State  of  Maine  that  came  to  Boston. 
I  was  in  Boston  last  Saturday  and  I  asked  the  question  of  a  man 
whom  I  always  go  to  see,  who  handles  more  of  the  Oregon  and 
Washington  and  Colorado  fruit  than  any  other  man  in  the  city 
of  Boston,  and  I  said  to  him  "How  is  fruit  coming  in  ?"  "Well," 
he  says,  "pretty  well.  But,"  he  says,  "the  great  trouble  is,  and 
that  is  where  the  slump  in  the  apple  market  comes,  is  that  we 
get  too  much  poor  stuff.  Come  out  on  the  sidewalk  and  see 
what  we  have  got."  And  I  went  out  there  and  I  was  surprised 
that  there  was  hardly  a  respectable  looking  barrel  of  apples  on 
the  sidewalk.  And  I  went  the  whole  length  up  and  down  two 
or  three  times  from  one  end  of  Boston  market  to  the  other,  and 
for  the  benefit  of  our  friend  Kinney,  I  want  to  tell  you  a  story 
on  Vermont.  He  says  "I  received  a  letter  from  Northern  Ver- 
mont a  few  days  ago  asking  what  we  would  pay  for  Tolman 
Sweets,  and  I  wrote  him  if  he  had  such  Tolman  Sweets  as  he 
said  he  had,  we  would  give  him  $4  a  barrel.  Now,"  he  said, 
"come  out  on  the  sidewalk  and  see  what  I  have  got."  And  they 
lie  right  on  a  plate  right  here  on  this  table.  He  opened  a  barrel,, 
and  when  he  opened  it,  I  said  "Why,  they  are  not  full."     "No," 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  95 

he  said,  "there  hasn't  been  a  barrel  of  them  all  come  within  five 
inches  of  being  full."  I  put  my  hand  down  and  took  out  seven 
apples,  one  of  them  slid  back  into  the  barrel,  and  I  laid  them  on 
the  box,  and  he  said,  "Here,  you  might  as  well  have  your  whole' 
handful,  and  I  will  give  you  the  biggest  apple  there  is  on  top 
of  the  barrel,"  and  he  did,  and  there  are  the  seven  apples  on 
that  plate  there.  Those  are  the  Tolman  Sweets  that  were  sent 
to  Boston  as  an  extra  lot  of  apples.  He  sold  several  barrels  of 
those  apples  to  a  man  for  $1.50  a  barrel  without  looking  at  them. 
The  man  sent  them  back  to  him  and  he  was  there  while  I  was 
there,  and  he  says,  "You  can  sell  those  for  anything  you  are  a 
mind  to,  and  you  needn't  pay  me  the  difference  between  what  I 
get  and  what  I  paid  for  them,  because  I  would  not  like  to  have  it 
said  that  I  came  down  here  and  bought  some  apples  and  I  sent 
them  back  and  took  the  money  you  received  from  them."  And 
he  was  offering  them  for  a  dollar  a  barrel. 

A  letter  was  received  from  the  man  in  Vermont :  "Dear  Sir : 
There  seems  to  be  a  big  difference  between  what  you  told  me 
you  would  pay  for  my  apples  and  the  check  you  sent  me,  and  if 
you  don't  send  me  the  difference  between  what  you  told  me  you 
would  pay  me  and  what  you  sent  me  there  will  be  trouble." 
The  gentleman  in  Boston  says,  "That  is  one  of  the  things  that 
we  commission  men  have  to  deal  with."  There  are  two  sides 
to  the  apple  question.  There  are  two  sides  to  everything,  and 
I  wish  that  I  dared  tell  friend  Kinney  who  the  man  was,  but  I 
never  give  away  such  things. 

Mr.  Kinney.  I  don't  think  Maine  has  gotten  up  to  that  point 
where  they  can  have  their  apples  sold  as  many  times  as  we  Ver- 
mont people  can. 

Mr.  Hixon.  I  haven't  got  to  the  Maine  people  yet.  Yester- 
day some  one  sent  me  out  to  ride  to  see  your  beautiful  city,  and 
I  want  to  say  right  here — I  wish  the  mayor  was  here,  I  wish  I 
could  have  said  something  to  him  last  night  after  his  talk — you 
have  got  a  pretty  city,  you  took  me  to  a  beautiful  place  out  here 
below,  one  of  the  finest  places,  natural  places — I  am  a  believer 
in  nature  and  not  too  much  of  the  ordinary  fixing  up  that  we 
get — and  that  place  of  Mr.  Gardiner's  is  a  magnificent  natural 
place,  and  you  have  got  a  magnificent  little  city  here,  magnificent 
views  and  scenery,  and  old-fashioned  colonial  houses,  and  new 
fashioned  houses,  and  every  one  of  them  well  kept,  and  your 


96  STATE    POMOEOGICAI,    SOCIETY, 

Streets  well  kept  as  such  a  hilly  town  can  keep  its  streets — so 
much  for  your  town.  Now  when  I  came  back  from  there  I  felt 
a  little  chilly  and  my  wife  and  I  walked  across  the  river  up  and 
down  the  streets,  looking  into  your  business  places.  A  gentle- 
man said  to  me  last  night,  "Oh,  ho,  you  think  more  of  the  busi- 
ness of  a  town  than  you  do  of  the  horticulture,  do  you?"  I  says, 
"No,  sir,  if  you  want  to  know  the  reason  why  I  went  out  on  the. 
street,  I  will  show  you  after  sui^per."  So  I  went  to  a  store 
above  here  and  said  to  the  man  "Give  me  a  couple  of  quarts  of 
those  apples."  He  said  "All  right,  sir."  He  sort  of  tried  to 
apologize  for  the  looks  of  the  apples  that  he  had  in  his  store. 
The  man  was  so  ashamed  that  he  said  "As  long  as  you  are  a 
delegate  to  this  convention  I  won't  charge  you  anything,"  and  I 
says  "I  am  going  to  give  you  ten  cents."  And  I  gave  him  ten 
cents  for  them.  Along  the  other  side  I  saw  some  pears  as  bad 
as  those  if  not  worse,  and  I  had  a  good  mind  to  buy  some  of 
those  and  bring  them  here  today. 

Now  I  am  not  saying  these  things  to  find  fault  or  to  be  smart 
or  anything  of  the  kind.  I  simply  want  to  show  you  that  there 
is  an  everlasting  lot  of  poor  stuff  that  gets  into  the  market,  and 
it  is  the  poor  stuff  that  drives  your  good  stuff  out  of  the  market. 
Now  why  do  you  suppose  such  apples  as  those  Jonathan  over 
there  sell  in  Worcester,  Boston  and  New  York  and  every  other 
large  place  ?  Suppose  any  one  of  you  was  going  to  have  a  little 
party,  one  of  your  children  was  going  to  have  a  party  and  you 
wanted  a  dozen  bananas,  a  dozen  oranges  and  a  dozen  apples  to 
put  on  the  table.  You  can  get  your  bananas  and  your  oranges 
and  you  can  trust  to  your  marketman  to  bring  them  up,  but  what 
will  he  bring  you  for  apples?  Now  isn't  that  too  bad  to  say, 
when  we  are  in  the  best  apple  section  in  the  world,  the  New 
England  States  ?  I  want  you  to  understand  that  I  am  in  favor 
of  fruit  growing  in  Massachusetts,  Vermont,  New  Hampshire 
and  Maine,  and  if  I  was  a  young  man  today  I  would  put  every 
single  cent  of  money  I  could  into  fruit  growing.  Last  night  I 
lieard  an  old  gentleman  say  here  if  he  wasn't  in  the  fruit  busi- 
ness he  wouldn't  go  into  it,  because  it  was  the  poorest  part  of 
agriculture.  The  old  gentleman  didn't  know  what  he  was  talk- 
ing about.  Now  if  a  man  goes  into  the  boot  and  shoe  business 
or  into  the  lumber  business  he  puts  some  thought  into  the  mat- 
ter ;  he  puts  capital  into  it.     He  isn't  a  bit  disconcerted  if  some- 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    S0CIE:TY.  97 

body  in  New  York  doesn't  pay  a  bill  of  two  or  three  thousand 
dollars ;  he  keeps  right  on  with  the  shoe  business,  doesn't  he  ? 
keeps  on  doing  business- — he  puts  every  dollar  that  he  can  get 
into  his  business.  What  does  the  farmer  do,  or  the  fruit- 
grower? He  buys  a  few  trees  and  then  he  won't  put  another 
cent  into  it  if  he  possibly  can  help  it.  Now  if  a  man  is  going 
into  the  fruit  business  and  set  out  acres  and  acres  of  trees,  he 
wants  to  go  into  it  understanding^ ;  he  wants  to  make  up  his 
mind  that  he  is  going  to  spray  and  dig  and  harrow  and  pack — ■ 
and  he  has  got  to  have  the  proper  place  to  put  that  fruit.  He 
mustn't  go  to  work  and  raise  a  thousand  barrels  of  apples  and 
then  when  he  gets  ready  to  pick  them  have  no  place  to  put  them. 
That  is  not  business,  not  a  bit  of  it ;  that  is  only  one  part  of  the 
business.  He  must  have  his  cold  storage  plant  and  he  must  be 
in  shape  to  take  care  of  that  fruit,  and  be  in  shape  so  as  to  go 
into  the  market,  and  put  the  fruit  into  the  market  when  people 
want  it,  and  not  put  it  into  the  market  when  he  picks  it  or  have 
it  spoil  on  his  hands.     That  is  not  business,  not  a  bit  of  it. 

And  let  me  tell  you  another  thing.  Here  is  another  man  got 
a  boy  or  girl,  three,  four,  five,  six,  seven  years  old  up  to  ten, 
fifteen;  he  puts  $25  in  the  bank  for  that  child,  so  as  to  have  a 
capital  for  it  when  it  gets  old  enough  to  go  to  school,  college, 
or  somewhere  else,  or  go  into  business.  Why  not  take  a  five 
acre  lot,  the  best  you  have  got  on  the  farm,  and  set  it  out  to 
trees  and  let  the  young  man  or  the  woman  have  the  trees,  show 
them  how  to  take  care  of  them?  Don't  you  think  in  ten  years 
from  now  it  would  produce  money  enough,  well,  to  put  the  child 
into  school  and  perhaps  carry  them  through  school?  I  think 
it  would.  I  think  if  the  stories  you  told  here  last  night  about 
the  two  or  three  thousand  dollars  that  you  received  from  apples 
from  a  certain  number  of  trees — I  think  if  you  had  five  or  ten 
acres  in  Northern  Spies  or  Baldwins  or  in  some  other  variety, 
that  you  would  have  a  real  good  bank  account  for  that  boy  or 
girl.  And  that  wouldn't  be  all,  you  would  be  teaching  the  boy 
and  girl  the  very  business  that  you  ought  to  teach  them  to  follow 
in  your  footsteps.  H  you  expect  the  horticulture  of  this  coun- 
try to  live,  you  have  got  to  have  somebody  to  follow  after  we 
old  fellows  are  dead  and  buried.  Let  me  tell  you  an  incident. 
Attending  a  meeting  like  this,  some  one  unfortunately  sprung 
an  educational  sort  of  a  question  on  the  meeting  and  they  got 


98  STATi:    POMOI.OGICAI,    SOCIETY. 

to  talking  education,  and  they  got  to  sort  of  throwing  mud  at 
their  State  College.  It  wasn't  a  pretty  thing  to  do,  and  the 
President  was  smart  enough  to  call  them  to  order  and  asked 
me  to  take  the  floor,  which  belonged  to  me.  And  I  said  I  very 
seldom  dabbled  in  educational  problems  because  I  had  a  theory 
of  my  own,  and  it  didn't  work  with  other  people's  theories  real 
well  and  so  I  very  seldom  had  anything  to  say  about  it,  but,  I 
says,  I  want  to  ask  you  one  or  two  questions  right  here.  How 
many  of  you  men  have  got  boys  in  that  agricultural  college? 
Not  a  single  one  of  them.  How  many  of  you  women  will  be 
proud  to  see  your  daughter  marry  an  agriculturist?  Not  a 
single  person  in  the  audience  said  yes  to  it.  How  under  the  sun 
do  you  expect  an  agricultural  college  to  survive  with  such  treat- 
ment as  that?  And  why  in  thunder  did  those  people  find  fault 
with  that  agricultural  college  when  they  didn't  have  one  single 
interest  in  it?  H  there  are  any  of  you  people  like  that  in  the 
State  of  Maine,  keep  it  to  yourself;  don't  say  anything  about 
it.  Don't  find  any  fault  with  your  college  if  it  isn't  doing  as  you 
would  like  to  have  it  do,  if  you  haven't  got  a  representative 
there.  I  was  glad  to  find  that  you  had  a  young  lady  there  from 
our  state,  proved  to  be  a  relative  of  my  wife  and  she  didn't  find 
it  out  till  this  morning,  and  it  was  kind  of  funny  that  she  should 
drift  from  our  state  into  the  State  of  Maine  to  help  you  people 
out.  She  is  connected  with  the  insect  department  and  I  presume 
a  good  many  of  you  know  her. 

Now  two  or  three  years  ago  a  young  man  came  in  and  he  said, 
"Btt).  Hixon,  I  want  my  boy  to  go  to  college  for  a  short  term  in 
horticulture,  and  I  have  tried  and  I  can't  do  an)d;hing  up  here 
with  Amherst,  I  can't  do  anything  at  Rhode  Island,  I  can't 
do  anything  in  Connecticut,  not  as  I  would  like  to  do,  nor  New 
Hampshire,  and  the  only  place  left  for  me  is  the  State  of  Maine, 
and  he  wrote  down  to  Orono.  And  he  came  down  here  and 
went  through  the  course  in  good  shape,  came  back  and  went  to 
work  for  a  greenhouse  man  near  by  and  is  doing  first  rate. 
That  all  speaks  a  good  word  for  your  college  over  here.  And 
I  am  sorry  to  say  that  until  the  agricultural  colleges  meet  the 
farmers'  boys  half  way  and  take  off  some  of  the  educational 
restrictions,  that  they  are  not  going  to  make  as  many  farmers 
as  they  ought  to  make.  I  don't  think  a  boy  ought  to  graduate 
from  the  high  school  before  he  can  start  out  to  study  and  to 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  99 

learn  agriculture.  There  ought  to  be  some  way  for  him  to  get 
into  that  agricultural  college  without  being  obliged  to  go  through 
college.  When  he  gets  through  college  he  has  got  an  idea  in  his 
head  that  he  won't  work  for  his  living,  and  then  he  tries  to  see 
how  near  he  can  come  to  that  and  generally  he  fetches  up  on  an 
electric  car  as  a  motor  man. 

Now  about  cold  storage,  I  want  to  say  this  one  thing.  Cold 
storage  from  a  professional  standpoint  is  not  always  correct. 
They  do  carry  it  to  such  an  extent  that  they  fairly  kill  the  life 
of  the  fruit  and  when  it  comes  out  it  is  no  good.  They  get  it 
just  the  least  little  bit  too  cold.  But  home  storage,  I  never  saw 
that  trouble  at  all.  Now  I  speak  because  I  know.  I  have  tried 
and  taken  home  bushels  and  bushels  of  apples  that  have  been 
through  cold  storage  and  they  were  just  about  as  good  as  an  old 
wooden  ball — they  were  not  good  for  anything.  So  if  you  ever 
try  cold  storage  don't  get  it  so  far  down  that  you  kill  the  life  of 
the  fruit  entirely.  Give  it  an  opportunity  to  sort  of  ripen  up 
after  you  take  it  out  of  cold  storage.  Cold  storage  for  fruit 
that  is  exactly  in  condition  today  is  all  right,  as  cold  as  you  like 
to  keep  it,  and  you  will  have  to  use  it  immediately  upon  taking 
it  out  of  cold  storage.  But  fruit  that  you  are  keeping  to  sell 
and  has  got  to  be  exposed  in  the  market  must  not  be  in  that  con- 
dition when  it  is  put  in  and  it  must  not  go  so  low  down  in  the 
degrees  of  cold. 

Something  was  said  about  varieties  in  my  hearing  yesterday. 
I  am  sorry  to  see  you  people  going  down  in  quality  of  fruit. 
Don't  put  in  the  Ben  Davis  even  if  the  market  will  pay  you  for 
them.  There  is  going  to  be  a  time  that  people  will  demand 
something  better  than  Ben  Davis  or  the  Stark  or  such  apples  as 
that.  You  people  have  got  a  good  reputation  for  Northern 
Spies,  and  stick  to  your  Northern  Spies.  You  can't  do  much 
better  than  Baldwin,  provided  it  is  hardy  with  you.  You  people 
must  determine  that  for  yourselves.  I  can't  come  from  Massa- 
chusetts and  give  you  any  advice  whatever  in  regard  to  the 
hardiness  of  your  varieties.  That  you  will  have  to  test  for 
yourselves.  But  because  Friend  Jones  over  here  can't  grow  it, 
don't  you  think  that  you  can't  grow  it.  It  doesn't  take  more 
than  two  or  three  hundred  feet  remove  from  one  spot  to  another 
to  get  from  a  bad  location  to  a  good  location.     And  when  you 


lOO  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

ask  me  what  kinds  you  should  grow,  why  take  the  kinds  for  the 
present  that  you  can  sell  in  the  market,  but  all  the  time  be  trying 
to  produce  something  that  is  a  great  deal  better.  Quality  will 
pay  in  the  end  if  it  doesn't  just  at  present. 

Now  in  regard  to  varieties  of  fruit  in  the  setting  out  of  an 
orchard.  I  want  to  tell  you  something  that  I  am  very  much 
interested  in  and  something  that  is  interesting  lots  of  other 
people,  and  that  is  this.  You  want  to  know  the  reason  why 
there  is  so  much  difiference  in  the  Baldwins,  why  there  is  so 
much  difference  in  different  kinds  of  apples.  The  original 
Baldwin  originated  in  Essex  county  between  Newburyport  and 
Boston,  and  everything  of  the  Baldwin  kind  came  from  that 
original  tree.  As  nurseries  developed  in  the  Western  States, 
the  Baldwin  was  carried  west  and  further  \vest,  and  by  and  by 
you  people  in  the  states  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts  and  New 
Hampshire  want  Baldwin  apples  and  you  send  out  there  and  buy 
them,  and  they  come  back  here  a  little  different  kind  of  Baldwin 
from  the  original  Baldwin.  Why?  Because  they  have  become 
acclimated  out  there.  Let  me  say  to  you  that  the  Roxbury  Rus- 
set taken  the  other  side  of  the  Mississippi  river  will  grow  very 
large  and  will  be  a  fine  apple.  Suppose  some  of  you  should  be 
struck  on  that  apple  and  should  send  out  there  for  scions — do 
you  think  you  are  going  to  have  the  original  Roxbury  Russet? 
Not  by  a  good  deal.  That  is  just  the  trouble  with  your  Baldwin 
apples  and  every  other  kind  of  apples;  you  shift  the  location, 
and  you  bring  them  back,  and  you  have  got  something  else. 
Now  I  went  down  to  Rhode  Island  to  talk  the  fruit  question  one 
night.  As  I  was  talking  along,  using  a  man's  orchard  for  an  illus- 
tration of  three  different  kinds  of  planting, — one  before  he  was 
born,  and  another  lot  that  he  had  set  out  thirty  years  before,  and 
only  set  them  twenty  feet  apart  and  they  were  so  close  together 
that  a  spear  of  grass  wouldn't  grow  under  them — he  never  was 
troubled  with  grass  or  weeds  growing  tuider  those  trees — then 
a  new  orchard  that  had  been  set  out  about  seven  years  that  was 
bearing  about  three  barrels  of  apples  to  a  tree, — and  he  stopped 
me  right  in  the  meeting  and  said  "Friend  Hixon," — he  is  a 
Quaker — "It  is  all  right  for  thee  to  talk  the  way  thee  is  talking, 
but  I  would  give  more  for  the  Baldwins  and  the  Rhode  Island 
Greenings  on  those  old  trees  that  I  know  to  be  eighty-five  years 
old  than  I  would  all  of  these  new  trees  I  have  got  in  these  lower 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY,  lOI 

orchards."     I  was  glad  to  hear  him  say  it  because  the  old  trees 
were  grafted  from  the  original  trees  in  Massachusetts  and  the 
young  trees  came  from  the  west.     And  we  older  people  here 
never  have  seen  a  Rhode  Island  Greening  as  good  as  the  old 
Rhode  Island  Greenings  that  we  used  to  have  on  the  old  trees. 
Now  if  you  know  trees  that  are  bearing  the  right  kind  of  fruit — 
if  you  know  the  Gravenstein,  if  you  know  the  Mcintosh  Red, 
the  Wealthy  or  any  others  that  are  growing  on  trees  that  stay 
on  as  long  as  they  ought  to  and  you  have  an  opportunity  to  pick 
them    instead    of    picking    them    off    the    ground,    you    buy 
any    kind    of    trees     from    an    orchard    that    has    got    good 
roots,     and     let  them     grow     one     year,     and     then     graft 
from    these    trees    that    you    know    to    be    satisfactory,    that 
you  know  to  be  hardy,  that  produce  the  fruit  thar  you  would 
like  to  produce,  and  you  will  be  all  right.     I  have  had  that  thing 
happen  in  the  state  of  New  Hampshire,  clear  way  up  to  the  foot 
of  the  mountains,  and  I  have  letters  at  home  thanking  me  for 
the  scions  that  I  sent  them,  and    stating    that  they  had    taken 
premiums  at  the  state  fair  from  trees  that  they  had  grafted  from 
the   scions   that   I   sent  them  on  the  little  seedlings   that  they 
picked   up  around   on  their   farms,  where  the  trees  that  they 
bought  from  the  west  had  not  produced  an  apple  yet.     Now  con- 
ditions govern  everything.     Don't  you  think  for  a  minute  that 
the  trees  that  they  grafted  in  the  state  of  New  Hampshire  pro- 
duced   fruit    any    quicker    comparatively    than    the    trees    they 
bought  in  the  west,  because  the  seedling  trees  instead  of  being 
a  year  or  two  old,  may  have  been  five  or  six  or  seven  or  eight 
years  old,  you  see.     I  always  like  for  every  single  identical  thing 
that  I  possibly  can,  when  I  am  doing  anything  of  this  kind,  to 
see  that  I  am  strictly  correct.     As  A.  A.  Hixon  I  wouldn't  care, 
but  as  secretary  of  the  Worcester  Horticultural  Society,  I  am 
mighty  careful  that  what  I  say  will  hold  water.     I  pride  myself 
that  every  single  bit  of  information  that  I  give  has  been  thor- 
oughly studied  from  one  end  to  the  other.     And  if  you  all  would 
do  that  thing  and  not  jump  at  conclusions  you  would  be  a  great 
deal  better  off. 

Now  just  a  word,  because  there  are  so  many  ladies  present — 
there  are  other  things  besides  apples.  I  don't  know  what  you 
can  grow  here  but  when  I  was  a  boy  and  lived  in  Bangor,  I  know 
they  had  peaches  and  plums  and  grapes  and  currants  and  other 


I02  STATE    POMOLOGICAIv    SOCIETY. 

things,  and  if  your  men  folks  are  so  bound  up  and  so  taken  up 
that  they  can't  grow  anything  but  apples,  and  you  love  the  other 
kinds  of  fruits,  see  that  you  and  the  boy  and  the  girl  have  a 
piece  of  land  near  the  house  and  that  the  men  folks  plow  it  up 
and  put  it  in  good  shape  for  you,  and  that  you  have  everything 
in  the  fruit  line  that  you  can  grow  in  the  State  of  Maine,  and 
not  only  that,  but  encourage  the  children  in  fruit  growing. 
Keep  them  out  of  doors.  Give  them  an  opportunity  to  learn 
what  there  is  to  be  learned.  Now  is  that  advisable?  And  I 
speak  because  my  heart  is  in  that  question,  and  those  of  you 
who  know  me  know  that  the  children  do  pretty  near  as  I  ask 
them  to  do.  We  have  two  exhibitions  a  year  that  we  appro- 
priate $50  each  for,  and  Horticultural  Hall  is  not  big  enough 
to  take  care  of  the  exhibits  of  those  children.  I  have  been  to 
Boston,  the  Massachusetts  Society's  exhibition,  I  have  taken  in 
every  town  and  city  that  has  requested  me  to  take  in  their  exhi- 
bitions, and  to  judge  and  to  advise  and  talk  to  the  children,  and 
I  do  lots  and  lots  of  that  kind  of  work.  And  I  am  going  to  say 
in  conclusion  that  I  have  two  grandsons,  one  three  and  a  half 
years  old  and  one  five,  that  had  a  garden  this  year,  and  a  garden 
last  year,  and  this  year  the  five  year  and  a  half  boy  took  the 
second  prize  in  Boston  for  the  best  collection  of  vegetables 
grown  by  a  child  under  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  his  grand- 
father bossed  the  job  so  that  he  knows  that  it  is  as  honest  as 
anything  can  be  in  this  world,  and  that  the  children  did  their 
own  work  excepting  the  plowing  of  the  ground.  I  used  to  go 
out  with  them  and  sit  down  and  see  them  do  the  work.  When 
the  little  fellow  was  four  years  and  a  half  old  he  says  to  me, 
"Grandpa,  I  want  some  of  that  nasty,  stinking  stuff  that  papa 
uses  in  his  garden."  And  I  said,  "Well,  young  man,  go  and 
get  your  tin  pail — a  pail  that  would  hold  four  quarts  perhaps — 
and  go  down  to  the  barn  and  get  it."  And  he  went  down  and 
got  it.  "Now,"  he  says,  "how  will  I  use  that."  "Well,"  I  says, 
"you  have  seen  your  grandmother  and  your  mother  make  bread, 
and  scatter  flour  on  the  board.  Now  you  scatter  that  nasty, 
stinking  stuff  in  that  row  just  as  you  have  seen  your  mother 
scatter  the  flour  when  she  makes  bread."  He  went  and  did  it, 
I  says  "Do  it  over  again,  because  you  haven't  got  enough ;  rake 
it  back  and  forth."  Aftsr  he  shelled  his  corn,  he  said  "What 
will  I  do?"     I  put  my  foot  there,  and  then  there,  and  so  on, 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  IO3 

and  I  says  you  put  a  few  seed  there  and  there  and  there.  And 
when  he  got  his  corn  planted,  then  I  had  him  plant  his  beans 
and  potatoes  and  tomatoes — no,  not  his  cucumbers,  but  summer 
squash.  And  then  he  says  to  me  "Ain't  I  going  to  have  any 
cucumbers?"  and  I  said  "Why,  yes,  only  I  haven't  any  seed  at 
home.  When  I  come  home  I  will  bring  you  some."  He  kept 
track  of  it  and  when  the  proper  time  came  that  year  at  our  own 
exhibition  the  little  fellow  got  the  first  prize  on  butter  beans 
and  the  second  prize  on  green,  and  there  were  seventeen  entries 
on  the  butter  beans  and  eighteen  entries  on  the  green  pod  snap 
beans.  He  went  out  and  got  those  beans  and  washed  them  and 
rinsed  them  and  put  them  on  towels  to  dry  them  and  put  them 
into  a  box,  and  when  he  got  down  to  the  hall  and  when  he  went 
to  Boston,  both  years,  he  wouldn't  allow  a  single  person  to  help 
him.  One  old  lady  down  to  Boston,  says  "You  dear  little  fel- 
low, let  me  help  you  arrange  your  things."  And  he  says  "This 
is  my  exhibition,  it  ain't  yours."  That  settled  it.  And  the 
pictures  of  these  children  have  been  in  almost  every  paper  in  the 
United  States,  in  the  Boston,  Springfield,  New  York,  Chicago 
and  the  Western  papers,  and  I  answered  a  postal  card  only  a 
day  or  two  ago  for  the  little  fellow  from  an  ex-rebel  soldier 
from  the  State  of  Washington,  asking  him  how  under  the  sun 
he  managed  to  grow  tomatoes. 

One  little  story  more  about  my  grandson.  The  loth  of  Octo- 
ber our  Society  has  an  exhibition  similar  to  this.  It  only  lasts 
one  day.  At  noon  time  we  have  dinner.  Our  old  president, 
now  deceased,  was  always  partial  to  being  hospitable  and  having 
a  dinner  to  which  he  could  invite  his  friends  and  have  a  little 
speaking  after  dinner.  It  would  be  very  much  such  an  affair 
probably  as  you  are  going  to  have  tonight.  At  breakfast  time 
I  said  to  the  little  fellow,  "Now  Stanley,  if  you  are  a  good  boy 
you  can  come  down  with  your  mother  and  have  dinner  with 
grandpa  at  the  hall  today."  He  says  "All  right."  A  little 
while  after  I  had  gone  away  he  said  to  his  mother  "I  am  going 
over  in  the  garden  and  get  some  things  to  exhibit."  Now  it 
was  too  late  to  get  anything.  There  was  some  little  bits  of  beets 
that  weren't  larger  than  a  quarter  of  a  dollar,  perhaps  not  as 
large  as  that.  He  pulled  up  a  few  of  them.  They  were  not 
worth  pulling  up.  And  he  found  a  cucumber  turned  yellow, 
and  he  found  some  beans  that  the  wet  hadn't  entirely  spoiled. 


104  state;  pomologicai,  society. 

He  took  them  over  to  the  house  and  told  the  other  boys,  the 
Httle  fellows  from  one  of  the  neigboring  houses,  that  "yo^ 
mustn't  cut  the  beet  tops  ofif  close  because  if  you  do  they  will 
bleed  and  all  the  sweet  will  come  out  of  them."  You  see  he 
had  heard  somebody  say  that.  He  fixed  them  up  and  put  them 
in  a  box  and  brought  them  down  town,  and  he  says  "Grandpa, 
here  is  my  exhibit."  And  his  mother  said,  "Don't  bother 
grandpa  with  that."  Why,  I  wouldn't  have  had  that  child  set 
on  for  $50,  because  it  isn't  the  proper  way  to  do.  If  he  shows 
any  disposition  to  do  anything,  encourage  him.  And  I  allowed 
him  to  put  them  on  a  plate,  and  about  that  time  dinner  was 
announced  so  I  had  to  go  in.  When  we  came  down  the  little 
fellow  noticed  that  his  plate  was  still  in  the  library  on  my  table, 
and  he  said  "Ain't  I  going  to  have  that  taken  into  the  hall?"  I 
says  "Sure."  He  and  I  carried  it  in  and  he  got  a  fifty  cent 
gratuity  on  it.  That  is  the  proper  way  to  use  children  and 
encourage  them. 


THE  GRANGE   CO-OPERATIVE  COMPANY. 

By  W.  T.  GuPTiLL,  Topsham. 

Now  I  prepared  an  article  to  read  to  you  as  I  supposed  the 
dignity  of  the  Society  would  demand,  but  it  would  be  much 
easier  for  me  if  you  would  lay  your  dignity  aside  and  dip  into 
me  with  pertinent  questions  or  any  other  questions  regarding 
our  company,  which  is  a  co-operative  company  of  the  grange, 
and  let  me  answer  those  questions  as  they  come,  and  you  would 
find  in  that  way  exactly  what  I  know  about  it.  What  I  have 
written  is  in  regard  to  the  need  of  a  co-operative  movement;  it 
is  the  argument  that  brought  us  down  in  Sagadahoc  county  to 
study  the  question  as  you  would  a  problem  in  mathematics. 
We  had  first  a  committee  in  Sagadahoc  county,  and  afterwards 
a  committee  composed  of  the  Pomona  Granges,  for  two  years. 
At  the  present  time  the  company  is  a  living  reality — I  mean  to 
say  its  stock  is  subscribed  for  and  at  the  present  time  we  are 
exactly  in  the  situation  that  the  United  States  was  after  a  treaty 
of  peace  was  signed  with  England,  before  the  constitution  was 
adopted.     We  are  not  in  a  shape  to  do  business  at  the  present 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  IO5 

time,  because  it  is  a  temporary  organization.  It  was  formed 
with  the  intention  and  the  purpose  of  being  temporary.  Our 
next  annual  meeting  comes  during  the  State  Grange.  We  appre- 
hend that  the  Granges  are  going  to  take  hold  of  it.  We  want 
them  to.  It  is  open  to  every  one  at  the  present  time  to  take 
hold,  whether  they  belong  to  the  Grange  or  not,  but  as  long  as 
the  Grange  was  behind  it  we  propose  to  submit  it  to  them 
whether  they  will  admit  people  who  are  not  grangers  or  not. 
Now,  if  you  will  pardon  me,  I  will  read  what  I  have  prepared, 
and  then  you  can  take  hold  and  ask  me  all  sorts  of  questions ; 
I  don't  care  even  if  you  consider  them  impertinent,  I  will  be 
very  much  obliged  for  them  and  I  .will  answer  them  civilly  as  I 
can  and  thank  you  for  it. 

When  we  begin  to  talk  about  co-operation  it  shows  in  itself 
that  we  are  dissatisfied  with  the  present  methods  of  collection 
and  distribution  of  the  necessities  of  life,  and  that  we  are  turn- 
ing first  to  one  thing  and  then  another  to  get,  if  we  can,  a  legal 
right  to  the  dollars  that  we  believe  morally  belong  to  us.  All 
of  us  agree  that  we  want  nothing  which  is  not  ours  by  right,  and 
what  is  ours  by  right  we  zvill  have  if  any  one  can  show  us  the 
way  to  get  it  without  the  use  of  force.  Co-operation  therefore 
resolves  itself  into  a  question  of  economics  and  enters  the  field 
of  political  economy,  which  works  out  beautifully  in  theory,  but 
in  practice  trade  is  controlled  fully  as  much  by  the  habit  of 
doing  business  in  a  certain  place  with  a  certain  man  in  whom 
we  have  confidence,  as  by  the  extra  dollars  we  receive.  Of 
course  trusts,  which  are  comparatively  a  new  element  in  political 
economy,  eliminate  all  phases  of  trade  except  the  dollar  prob- 
lem. The  friendship  of  the  buyer  and  seller  and  also  all  confi- 
dence which  unrestricted  trade  demands  are  gone ;  you  take  the 
goods  and  pay  your  money,  you  can  get  them  nowhere  else. 
Now  in  all  fairness  I  want  to  say  what  a  heaven  this  must  be 
to  the  man  who  has  got  absolute  control  of  the  source  of  supply, 
If  we  could  control  the  entire  output  of  apples  in  this  country, 
or  as  nearly  control  it  as  the  Standard  Oil  Company  does  the 
oil  supply,  why  I  would  call  off  several  old  scores  which  I  have 
been  trying  to  pay  for  years.  The  fact  is,  no  family  uses  one 
half  as  many  dollars  worth  of  oil  in  a  year  as  they  do  of  the 
various  kinds  of  fruit,  yet  the  Standard  Oil  Company  has  made 


io6  state;  pomological  socie:ty, 

fortunes  of  immense  size  for  dozens  of  men,  and  oil  was  not  a 
commercial  article  more  than  forty  or  forty-five  years  ago. 

But  farmers  produce  something  besides  fruit,  and  there  cer- 
tainly ought  to  be  a  dollar  somewhere  for  the  producer  or  the 
vendor  of  all  these  staples.  The  Standard  Oil  Company  can 
pay  a  fine  of  $29,000,000,  the  assessed  amount  of  all  the  wild 
lands  of  Maine,  and  Rockefeller  owns  up  that  he  is  worth  $300,- 
000,000  made  within  one  generation  on  one  staple.  Is  it  pos- 
sible that  in  staples  as  little  used  as  oil  the  foundations  of  such 
fortunes  as  this  are  laid?  We  can  scarcely  believe  our  ears. 
But  if  it  is  true,  what  ought  to  come  out  of  the  proper  handling 
of  the  big  staples  like  corn  or  wheat  or  potatoes  or  fruit? 

You  probably  will  ask  if  it  is  our  intention  to  control  the  sup- 
ply of  food  products,  and  in  reply  I  am  obliged  to  ask  if  there 
would  be  anything  illegal  about  doing  such  a  thing.  For  twenty- 
five  years  every  conceivable  kind  of  a  combination  has  flourished 
and  the  only  obstacles  they  have  encountered  have  been  here 
and  there  a  pious  exclamation  from  some  good  man.  No  legal 
obstacles  have  been  raised.  And  the  man  who  opens  his  eyes 
now  upon  present  business  transactions  after  his  sleep  of  twenty 
years  in  the  Catskills  will  be  more  disturbed  and  undone  than 
was  poor  old  Rip  by  the  events  of  the  Revolution. 

Let  us  not  make  the  mistake  of  apologizing  for  what  has  sur- 
"vived  the,  destructive  criticism  of  a  quarter  century.  It  has 
been  pruned  back  and  pruned  back  until  the  root  and  top  are  in 
the  healthiest  condition,  and  we  may  as  well  face  the  fact  that 
the  business  problems  of  the  future  are  the  problems  of  control- 
ling the  supply. 

We  have  organized  this  company  however  not  on  the  gigantic 
scale.  Until  recent  days  the  king  of  every  farm  was  going  to  be 
the  king  pin  of  the  whole  country,  and  there  is  too  much  of  this 
:spirit  yet  to  be  absolutely  certain  that  farmers  will  get  down  and 
pull  together.  So  we  have  begun  small  and  humble.  We  want 
— we  are  bound  to  win  the  farmers'  confidence,  to  have  him 
come  to  us  for  advice  as  to  what  to  do  with  his  stufiF,  and  we  are 
bound  to  give  it. 

We  are  bound  to  have  sufficient  capital  to  carry  through  any 
trade  without  loss  to  the  man  who  sells  to  us  or  intrusts  us  with 
his  wares.     We  hope  with  time  thus  to  build  up  a  confidence 


STATE    POMOI.OGICAL    SOCIETY.  10/ 

and  thereby  enable  us  to  form  a  larger  and  more  powerful 
company. 

Now  it  is  almost  impossible  for  a  board  of  directors  as  a 
whole  to  take  up  the  general  line  of  products  in  the  State  of 
Maine,  hay,  fuel,  butter,  apples,  potatoes,  etc.,  and  carry  it 
through ;  consequently  we  have  hit  upon  the  scheme  of  appoint- 
ing three  men  for  directors,  who  will  be  virtually  elected  by  the 
men  who  are  interested  in  apples,  to  look  after  the  apple  interest, 
to  be  responsible  for  it ;  three  directors  who  will  be  elected  and 
probably  recommended  by  the  potato  growers  to  look  after  that 
interest  and  be  responsible  for  it;  and  three  for  general  prod- 
ucts ;  and  the  nine  directors  as  a  whole,  as  a  body,  will  be  the 
advisers  of  the  president,  the  electors  of  the  general  manager, 
the  overseers  of  the  treasurer,  and  the  general  corporation, 
except  at  the  annual  meeting. 

Now  this  company  has  incorporated  itself  for  fifty  thousand 
dollars,  a  small  sum  to  do  a  large  business  with.  It  is  enough. 
You  understand  this  is  an  experiment — and  it  is  not  an  experi- 
ment entirely  either,  but  it  is  an  experiment  that  everybody  is 
trying.  I  see  by  the  papers  that  even  the  milk  producers  around 
Boston  are  tackling  the  same  proposition  and  tackling  it  in 
exactly  the  same  way,  only  they  don't  intend  to  cover  the  same 
general  field  that  we  do.  Of  course  we  are  not  in  the  milk 
producing  business.  This  is  a  general  company,  where  a  man 
can  send  a  bushel  of  apples  or  a  bushel  of  potatoes,  and  have  it 
understood  that  it  is  in  the  hands  of  his  friends,  that  it  is  going 
to  a  party  that  is  absolutely  reliable,  that  he  will  get  fair  usage. 
We  have  got  to  begin  to  do  business  somewhere.  You  under- 
stand we  could  not  open  an  ofiice  in  Portland  unless  we  did  it 
by  a  system  of  drumming  as  the  commercial  houses  do  and  go 
out  and  buy  a  car  load  of  apples  or  potatoes,  and  so  on  and  so 
forth.  And  Aroostook  county  is  very  much  alive  to  this  propo- 
sition, and  is  up  against  propositions  that  we  don't  meet  here, 
because  buyers  of  potatoes  down  there  are  in  league  and  won't 
pay  only  so  much  for  potatoes  anyhow,  and  they  have  notified 
the  wholesale  houses  in  Boston  that  if  they  receive  potatoes  from 
anybody  except  the  shipping  houses  that  the  shipping  houses 
will  blacklist  them  and  that  they  won't  ship  to  them.  Now  such 
a  case  as  that,  you  see  we  have  got  to  have  immense  transactions 


I08  STATi;    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIEITY. 

4 

and  we  have  got  to  have  a  perfect  system.  The  system  is 
worked  out  practically.  Now  I  can't  give  the  details  to  you, 
because  it  is  too  long  and  I  must  be  brief.  However  I  want 
you  to  get  some  idea  and  if  you  will  kind  of  follow  the  thing 
along  we  will  try  to  elucidate  it  to  you  in  private  or  in  public  or 
any  way.  We  have  got  to  start,  as  I  say,  doing  business  in  some 
particular  place.  For  instance,  if  you  buy  potatoes,  you  have 
got  to  have  a  potato  house.  That  means  a  responsibility.  Now 
potato  men  are  the  men  who  really  are  in  this,  who  happen  to 
be  sent  by  the  Pomona  Granges  of  the  State  to  form  the  organ- 
ization. We  however  don't  propose  to  turn  this  over  entirely 
into  a  potato  corporation,  because  we  see  the  apple  men  are 
meeting  the  same  proposition  and  the  same  problems  that  we 
meet.  Consequently  I  came  up  here  very  readily — although  I 
find  it  is  a  good  deal  of  a  cross  to  me  and  if  I  live  through  this 
I  don't  think  I  will  ever  get  in  another  such  a  scrape — to  say  to 
you  that  we  would  like  to  have  you  take  hold  of  this  proposition 
and  handle  it  from  your  standpoint,  that  is,  the  apple  side  of  it. 
I  don't  know  anything  about  that.  Of  course  I  raise  fifty  or 
sixty  bushels  of  apples  and  they  don't  turn  me,  well,  twenty-five 
cents  I  suppose  would  be  a  good  price  for  what  my  apples  turn 
me.  Sometimes  I  sell  a  few  bushels,  sometimes  give  them  tc 
my  hogs.  That  is  about  the  way  my  apple  crop  goes.  If  there 
was  a  company  I  could  send  them  to  and  knew  I  would  get  fair 
usage,  why  I  would  do  it  at  once  and  take  what  I  got  and  put  it 
in  my  pocket  and  call  it  a  present.  But  as  I  say,  we  were  potato 
growers,  most  of  us  up  in  Aroostook  county — this  man,  that  man 
and  the  other  man,  when  we  got  together  we  found  we  were 
potato  growers  instead  of  apple  growers.  We  decided  that  in 
order  to  start  business,  and  we  don't  expect  a  great  deal  of  capi- 
tal at  first,  perhaps  not  more  than  a  thousand  or  two  dollars, 
that  it  was  necessary  for  us  to  start  doing  business  in  some  place 
where  we  could  do  a  business  that  would  pay  these  men  that 
were  engaged  in  that  business  the  same  as  if  it  were  a  private 
corporation,  that  is,  as  though  it  were  not  intended  to  be  a  gen- 
eral corporation.  Consequently  we  are  going  to  try  to  begin 
to  do  business  up  in  Aroostook  county,  and  the  president  of  the 
company  at  the  present  time — it  is  only  a  temporary  organiza- 
tion and  there  is  no  probability  that  he  will  be  re-elected — is 


STATS    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY.  IO9 

Columbus  Hayford.  The  directors  are  composed  of  the  direct- 
ors sent  by  the  different  Pomonas  at  our  meeting  in  Augusta 
in  September.  We  hope  by  State  Grange  time  to  have  the  thing 
thoroughly  digested  so  that  we  can  ask  certain  men  to  act  in  this 
capacity  and  that  they  will  be  efficient  and  satisfactory  men. 

Now  when  we  get  it  so  that  it  will  work  in  one  town  in  Aroos- 
took county,  we  will  make  it  so  that  it  will  work  in  any  other. 
What  will  work  in  one  place  will  work  in  another.  After  we  have 
solved  the  problem  of  the  unit  we  have  solved  the  problem  of 
the  whole.  Some  people  say  to  me  that  are  interested  in  this, 
that  have  listened  to  it  and  followed  it  along,  "Well,  what  is  the 
first  thing  you  are  going  to  do  ?"  Well,  I  know  definitely  what 
is  the  first  thing  we  are  going  to  do  if  you  leave  it  to  me.  Of 
course  there  are  other  people  to  be  considered,  but  if  you  were 
to  leave  it  to  me,  I  know  definitely  what  I  would  do,  just  the 
same  as  though  I  were  a  young  man  and  had  studied  law  and 
was  going  out  to  practice  law.  What  is  the  first  thing  you 
would  do  in  such  a  case  as  that?  Why,  I  would  go  and  hang 
out  my  shingle  and  engage  a  room.  That  is  the  first  thing  I 
would  do.  The  next  thing  I  would  do,  I  would  join  the  Masons 
and  the  Odd  Fellows  and  the  Knights  of  Pythias,  and  I  would 
go  round  and  I  would  try  and  convey  the  impression  that  I  was 
decent  and  respectable,  and  I  would  go  to  some  business  man 
and  say  "If  you  have  got  some  case  that  don't  amount  to  much, 
that  your  regular  attorney  can't  attend  to,  I  would  be  much 
obliged  to  you  if  you  should  turn  it  over  to  me,"  and  the  old 
fellow  would  look  me  over  and  say  probably  it  will  help  the 
fellow  out  some  and  I  will  do  it,  and  he  would  give  me  some 
little  collecting  to  do ;  and  I  would  try  and  be  efficient  and  win 
his  confidence,  and  in  that  case  perhaps  he  would  turn  another 
over  to  me  and  before  I  knew  it  I  would  get  money  enough  to 
pay  my  board.  Now  that  is  an  essential  thing.  After  I  had 
done  that  I  would  work  along  and  by  and  by  before  I  knew  it 
the  old  gentleman  would  be  coming  up  to  my  office  sometime 
when  his  regular  attorney  would  be  out  of  town,  and  he  would 
have  some  important  case  on  hand,  and  he  would  say  "Can  you 
handle  this?"  •  I  would  tell  him  I  could,  and  if  I  couldn't  handle 
it  myself  I  would  go  and  get  somebody  to  inform  me.  That  is 
what  I  would  do  if  I  were  studying  law.     What  would  you  do 


no  STATE    POMOIvOGICAIv    SOCIETY. 

if  you  was  going  into  this  business?  Wouldn't  you  start  out 
and  build  up  a  business  of  taking  in  and  putting  out  products? 
It  is  the  confidence  we  are  after.  We  haven't  any  historic  past. 
We  have  had  a  couple  of  years  just  simply  a  meeting  of  a  lot 
of  men  from  all  over  the  State  for  an  hour  or  two  at  a  time  to 
discuss  a  problem  which  it  needs  days  and  months  and  years  to 
study  out.  As  I  suggested  when  I  began — I  would  be  very 
much  obliged  to  you  if  you  would  fire  questions  at  me,  and  I 
don't  care  how  impertinent  they  are,  nor  how  much  to  the  point 
they  are,  if  you  want  to  know  anything  about  this  company  that 
I  have  not  said,  or  what  we  intend  to  do,  or  how  we  are  trying 
to  work,  or  anything  of  the  sort,  and  I  will  try  and  answer  your 
questions  and  show  you  whether  we  have  studied  it  out  or 
whether  we  are  making  a  bluflf  at  it. 

Question.  Do  you  sell  stock,  and  what  is  the  price,  and  how 
much  does  a  man  have  to  buy,  to  get  in  ? 

Mr.  Guptill.  I  am  much  obliged  to  you.  I  ought  to  have  told 
that.  The  price  of  the  stock  is  $io  a  share,  and  so  as  to  have 
it  go  around  we  will  limit  it  perhaps  to  fifty  shares — that  would 
allow  a  man  to  have  $500  invested  in  the  company ;  perhaps  he 
wouldn't  want  only  ten.  But  if  he  subscribes  for  $10  it  makes 
him  a  voting  member  of  stock,  and  if  he  has  $20  it  makes  him 
a  double  voting  member,  and  if  he  has  thirty  he  has  three  votes, 
and  $100  he  has  ten  votes.  Of  course  such  things  are  deter- 
mined by  law.  The  shares  are  $10  apiece.  I  want  to  say  just, 
a  word  further.  If  there  is  anybody  that  wants  to  invest,  the 
certificates  of  stock  are  not  yet  issued  but  Mr.  A.  E.  Rogers  is 
the  secretary  of  the  company  and  if  you  will  give  him  $10  he 
will  give  you  a  receipt  for  it,  which  is  exchangeable  at  the  time 
the  certificates  of  stock  are  issued  for  a  certificate  of  stock. 
As  soon  as  you  pay  your  $10  you  will  be  eligible  to  vote  and 
will  be  a  member  of  the  society  at  the  State  Grange. 


W.  D.  HuRD,  Dean  of  College  of  Agriculture,  University  of 

Maine. 

It  is  perhaps  fitting  that  your  State  College,  the  University  of 

Maine,  and  especially  the  College  of  Agriculture,  a  part  of  that 

institution,  should  be  represented  at  this  time.     The  president 

and  secretary  of  the  Association  last  night  told  you  of  the  great 


STATE    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY.  Ill 

progress  that  had  been  made  in  horticultural  lines,  and  I  think 
if  you  were  to  look  over  the  factors  that  have  contributed  to  that 
great  progress,  you  would  find  that  progress  was  due  largely  to 
the  State  Colleges,  the  Experiment  Stations,  the  Farmers'  Insti- 
tutes, the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  the  State 
Departments  of  Agriculture  throughout  the  United  States  and 
the  agricultural  press.  I  only  wish  that  Dr.  Fellows,  the  dis- 
tinguished president  of  the  University,  was  here  to  bring  you 
greetings  from  that  institution.  But  I  will  say  that  I  bring  you 
the  greetings  of  the  institution  and  with  it  a  number  of  students 
that  I  am  sure  will  be  a  surprise  to  most  of  you.  There  will  be 
in  the  catalogue  that  is  now  in  the  hands  of  the  printer  788 
students  this  year  in  that  institution.  And  what  is  more,  I 
would  like  to  say  before  you  representative  men  and  women 
that  90  of  those  students  are  catalogued  in  the  College  of  Agri- 
culture, a  somewhat  larger  number  than  was  there  a  few  years 
ago.  I  don't  know  whether  Mr.  Hixon  is  here  or  not,  but  if 
he  is  I  would  like  to  say  to  him,  and  I  would  like  to  say  to  all 
of  you  that  we  who  are  laboring  along  agricultural  educational 
lines  are  glad  to  have  men  from  other  states  come  to  recognize 
our  work  as  Mr.  Hixon  did  yesterday,  and  if  Mr.  Hixon  had 
asked  for  a  show  of  hands  in  this  audience  as  to  whether  there 
were  men  who  had  sons  in  that  institution  studying  agriculture, 
he  would  have  seen  more  than  one  hand  raised.  If  he  had  asked 
of  the  ladies  if  there  were  any  here  who  had  daughters,  he  would 
have  seen  at  least  one  hand  raised,  for  I  know  the  mother  of 
one  young  lady  who  is  taking  agriculture  was  here  yesterday. 
I  think  that  is  a  good  indication. 

I  don't  know  that  I  could  do  anything  better  in  speaking  for 
the  College  of  Agriculture  of  the  University  of  Maine,  than  to 
tell  you  very  briefly  what  we  are  doing  or  trying  to  do  at  the 
present  time  to  directly  help  the  farmer.  The  main  idea  in  our 
agricultural  education  used  to  be  to  teach  courses  of  different 
lengths  in  the  colleges.  That  idea  has  changed  somewhat. 
President  Gibbs  of  the  New  Hampshire  Agricultural  College 
last  spring  in  a  conference  in  progress  in  Boston,  said  that  the 
greatest  problem  of  the  agricultural  college  today  was  how  to 
help  the  farmers.  Now  we  at  the  University  of  Maine  recog- 
nize the  duty  we  owe  to  the  farmers  of  the  State  as  well  as  to  the 


112  STATE    POMOLOGICAIv    SOCIETY. 

students  who  come  there  for  instruction,  and  I  will  briefly  men- 
tion some  of  the  things  that  we  are  now  doing  to  help  the 
farmers  of  the  State.  I  will  not  say  anything  of  the  Experiment 
Station.  Dr.  Woods  has  already  mentioned  that  work,  and  you 
all  know  of  the  worth  of  it.  I  am  simply  speaking  for  the 
College  of  Agriculture  now.  We  have,  of  course,  our  four  year 
course  in  agriculture,  in  which  we  are  teaching  scientific  agri- 
culture. There  never  was  a  time  when  there  was  the  call  there 
is  today  for  trained  men  in  these  lines,  and  I  would  not  agree 
with  Mr.  Hixon  in  the  four  years'  course  that  w^e  meet  the  boys 
half  way,  but  we  must  keep  that  course  up  to  the  standard  in 
the  medical  courses,  law,  and  all  other  professions.  Now  I 
would  agree  with  Mr.  Hixon  that  we  should  meet  the  boy  half 
way  in  other  courses ;  and  to  meet  the  boy  half  way,  the  boy 
who  is  not  fitted  for  a  college  education,  or  university  education 
and  a  graded  four  years'  course,  we  have  a  two  years'  course 
to  which  any  boy  can  come  who  has  had  even  a  common  school 
education  and  we  will  give  him  a  good  practical  education  that 
will  make  a  better  farmer  out  of  him.  So  much  for  what  we 
are  giving  at  the  University. 

Now  our  extension  work,  carrying  the  work  all  over  the  State. 
We  have  recently  established  a  department  just  for  the  benefit 
of  farmers,  beginning  January  7th  next,  which  covers  the  gen- 
eral lines  of  fruit  growing  and  general  farm  products,  and  dairy- 
ing and  animal  breeding  and  feeding.  Following  that  course 
we  shall  have  our  second  annual  farmers'  week.  The  first  one 
was  held  last  March  and  we  were  much  gratified  to  know  that 
116  men  and  women  representing  fourteen  counties  in  the  State, 
came  at  that  time.  They  asked  us  to  give  another  one  next 
March,  and  the  7th  of  next  ]\Iarch  we  will  have  another  farmers' 
week,  and  we  hope  the  number  will  be  trebled,  or  four  or  five 
times  as  large.  We  are  making  preparations  to  keep  every  one 
who  comes  if  we  have  to  go  to  Bangor  for  accommodations. 
Besides  that  there  is  a  poultry  course.  In  the  extension  work 
last  summer  we  tried  another  experiment.  We  oflfered  to  send 
men  who  carry  apparatus  with  them  all  over  this  State,  right  to 
the  farmers,  to  give  demonstrations.  The  fertilizer  question, 
the  question  of  testing  milk,  the  question  of  pruning  and  graft- 
ing, the  question  of  spraying,  are  important  enough  so  that  they 


STATE    POMOLOGICAI.    SOCIETY.  II3 

ought  to  be  taught  all  over  the  State,  and  we  sent  men  with 
pieces  of  apparatus  to  sixty  different  localities  in  this  State  last 
summer,  and  held  sixty  of  these  meetings.  They  have  proven 
very  helpful.  They  have  proven  valuable  and  we  are  going  to 
develop  this  work  further.  We  are  going  to  put  our  whole 
force  into  this  work  next  summer.  You  can  reach  the  farmers 
better  on  their  own  land  than  anywhere  else. 

Now  beside  that  I  shall  have  to  mention  some  other  things. 
At  the  present  time  we  are  sending  lecturers  all  over  the  State, 
simply  asking  that  their  travelling  expenses  be  paid.  We  have 
to  have  that.  We  couldn't  keep  five  or  six  men  travelling  all 
over  the  State  with  our  present  funds,  and  we  think  our  lectures 
and  talks  are  certainly  worth  the  expenses  of  the  lecturers. 

And  for  those  who  can't  come  to  the  University  at  all,  even 
for  the  one  week,  we  are  giving  correspondence  courses.  We 
have  over  lOO  now  taking  this  work  by  correspondence,  abso- 
lutely free,^  don't  even  charge  you  for  postage.  All  you  have 
to  do  is  to  send  in  your  name  and  we  will  send  you  a  circular 
describing  this  course.  How  far  this  work  is  going  to  be  a 
success  depends  largely  on  the  farmers.  We  believe  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  State  University  to  help  the  farmer ;  we  are  willing 
to  do  it  and,  as  I  say,  the  success  of  it  depends  largely  on  how 
much  the  farmers  of  the  State  want  it.  I  am  sure  the  trustees 
and  the  president  of  the  institution,  if  necessary,  will  hire  any 
number  of  men  to  carry  on  this  work  through  the  State  as  it 
develops.  So  I  hope  you  will  all  come  for  this  extension  work 
and  ask  for  more  of  it  than  you  have  had  in  the  past.  I  thank 
you. 


114  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 


THE  SIZE  OF  THE  APPLE  PACKAGE— THE 
BARREL. 

F.  H.  Morse,  Waterford. 

I  realize  that  at  this  time  my  subject  is  rather  a  dry  one  to 
bring  up  after  having  so  many  subjects  and  so  many  good 
speakers. 

Perhaps  some  of  you  who  attended  two  years  ago  remember 
my  speaking  of  the  difference  in  size  I  found  in  measuring 
different  barrels.  I  afterward  received  two  letters  from  Mr. 
F.  D.  Cummings,  the  apple  buyer  of  Portland,  to  whom  I  had 
sold  our  apples  for  two  or  three  years,  and  who  had  been  at  our 
house.  He  wrote  to  me,  saying  that  he  wished  I  would  use  my 
influence  with  the  State  Pomological  Society  to  induce  the  legis- 
lature to  pass  a  law  placing  a  standard  size  upon  the  apple 
barrel ;  that  there  was  nothing  in  his  opinion  that  would  so  help 
the  sale  of  our  apples  in  foreign  markets  as  to  have  a  standard, 
uniform  size  of  barrels. 

Before  I  go  into  the  barrel  question  any  further,  here  is  a 
letter  which  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Knowlton  in  answer  to  his  writing 
to  him  and  asking  him  up  here  at  this  meeting: — 

Inclosed  find  a  short  paper  on  the  question  of  apple  barrels. 
The  matter  is  of  great  importance  to  the  whole  State  and  I  trust 
will  receive  the  attention  which  it  deserves. 
Yours  truly, 

F.  D.   CUMMINGS. 

I  regret  exceedingly  my  inability  to  be  present  with  you  and 
to  render  what  assistance  I  could  in  the  discussion  of  a  question 
of  importance  to  one  of  the  industries  of  the  State. 

The  apple  industry  of  Maine  is  a  very  important  industry, 
and  is  capable  of  vast  increase  in  importance  and  profit  over 
what  it  is  at  the  present  time. 

In  no  place  in  the  world  can  better  Baldwin  apples  be  grown, 
with  proper  fertilization,  spraying,  pruning  and  care,  than  can 
be  grown  among  our  New  England  hills. 

Did  the  subject  for  discussion  permit,  I  should  be  pleased  to 
say  more  in  this  line  of  thought,  but  we  are  invited  to  discuss, 
not  apples,  but  barrels. 


1AINE     FARMER     PRESS,     AUGUSTA 


Specimen  tree  from  nine-year-old  orchard  of 
Horace  M.  Paine  of  Jay 


STATE    POMOLOGICAI.    SOCIETY.  II5 

Have  been  closely  connected  with  the  apple  business  in  this 
State,  both  as  a  buyer  and  exporter,  for  more  than  20  years,  I 
am  able  to  speak  from  a  good  amount  of  practical  experience. 

Take  any  product  you  please  and  tell  me  if  the  package  which 
contains  it  has  not  a  great  deal  to  do  with  your  being  attracted 
or  repelled  in  the  consideration  of  its  purchase. 

If  the  package  is  old,  or  broken,  or  dirty,  you  want  one  that 
is  not  old  or  broken  or  dirty.  If  they  vary  in  size,  you  want  to 
be  sure  as  to  which  size  you  are  to  get. 

There  are  three  qualities  which  an  apple  barrel  should  possess : 
namely,  neatness,  strength  and  uniformity. 

If  you  consider  my  experience  and  judgment  of  any  value, 
I  ask  you  to  consider  that  these  three  things  are  essentials. 
That  the  statement  is  not  merely  an  academic  or  theoretical 
notion,  but  hard,  stubborn  fact,  that  means  dollars  as  well  as 
pride  and  satisfaction. 

New  England  is  the  only  place  where  apples  are  packed  in  old 
flour  barrels. 

■\Iaine  seems  to  be  the  only  State  where  the  barrel  maker  has 
made  anything  he  pleased  for  an  apple  barrel.  Made  it  of  any 
size  and  out  of  any  sort  of  material.  Hooped  it  with  ash,  with 
elm,  with  gray  birch,  or  with  hay  wire,  and  called  it  an  "apple 
barrel."  Happily  the  worst  of  this  has  passed  away ;  but  there 
is  still  room  for  improvement.  Some  Maine  barrel  makers  are 
making  very  good  barrels.     Others  are  not. 

What  competition  does  Maine  have  to  meet  in  the  disposition 
of  her  apples? 

She  has  to  meet  the  competition  of  the  world !  What,  then, 
are  the  essentials  from  a  practical  business  point  of  view,  that 
we  may  be  able  to  meet  that  competition  with  success  ? 

The  fruit  must  be  of  as  good  quality,  must  be  as  well  handled, 
and  must  be  put  upon  the  market  in  as  attractive  form. 

Situated  at  the  seaboard  Maine  naturally  seeks  a  foreign 
market  for  her  apples.  In  that  market  Canada  is  our  great 
competitor.  Canada  does  not,  and  can  not,  grow  better  Bald- 
win apples  than  can  be  grown  in  ]\Iaine.  Her  fruit  sells  higher 
than  our  own  in  British  markets.     Why  is  it? 

There  are  two  reasons.  The  first  is  that  peculiar  quality  of 
the  British  mind  which  causes  it  to  pay  more  for  anything  grown 


Il6  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.     . 

or  produced  under  the  British  flag,  and  the  second  reason  is 
because  our  barrels  are  not  equal  to  the  Canadian  barrel. 

The  latter  objection  we  can  easily  overcome  if  we  will  wake 
up  and  get  out  of  the  rut,  and  by  using  the  same  sort  of  a  pack- 
age and  shipping  fruit  of  equal  reliability,  we  can  do  much  to 
overcome  the  former  reason. 

What  are  the  steps  to  be  taken  to  bring  about  the  use  of  a 
suitable  and  uniform  barrel  for  apples  in  this  State? 

First,  a  law  to  fix  the  dimensions  of  an  apple  barrel.  It  is 
just  as  righteous,  just  as  proper,  and  just  as  fair,  to  fix  the  size 
of  an  apple  barrel  as  it  is  to  fix  the  size  of  a  quart  of  milk  or  a 
gallon  of  molasses.  Just  as  proper  as  it  is  to  fix  the  size  of  any 
measure,  whether  it  be  a  quart,  a  peck,  a  bushel  or  a  barrel. 

Then  must  the  Maine  Pomological  Society,  with  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  Grange,  regulate  the  material  to  be  used. 

There  must  be  no  more  rough-sawed  and  unplaned  staves, 
no  more  soft  wood  heads. 

The  barrel  makers  will  gladly  conform  to  any  such  regulations 
which  their  patrons  may  adopt  and  require.  Co-operation  will 
soon  make  it  possible  to  establish  mills  for  cutting  staves  and 
making  hoops,  or  placing  large  orders  for  such  material  with 
those  in  a  position  to  furnish  what  is  required. 

Co-operation  in  production  or  purchase,  means  economy  as 
well  as  uniformity. 

A  barrel  maker,  guaranteed  the  sale  of  15,000  barrels  at  a 
given  price,  can  make  the  price  lower  than  he  otherwise  could, 
as  he  can  arrange  for  material  at  a  favorable  time  of  year. 

Then,  when  this  happy  day  for  the  Maine  apple  industry  has 
arrived,  the  prospective  purchaser  in  distant  lands  will  not  ask 
"What  sort  of  a  barrel  will  you  use?''  or,  if  he  does,  you  can 
proudly  say :  "We  Use  the  Standard  Apple  Barrel  of  the  State 
of  Maine." 

Thanking  you  for  your  invitation  to  address  you  and  assuring 
you  of  my  deep  and  sincere  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  Maine 
apple  business,  I  remain. 

Yours  truly, 

F.   D.   CUMMINGS. 

I  will  just  add  a  few  words  to  this  for  the  information  of 
those  who  have  never  taken  interest  enough  to  measure  the 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL,    SOCIETY.  II7 

different  sizes  of  barrels  which  are  at  the  present  time  being 
used  in  the  State.  When  I  first  began  to  sell  apples,  we  at  that 
time  used  wholly  old  barrels,  and  as  many  of  you  know  in  buy- 
ing those  we  got  a  good  many  of  what  we  call  small  sugar  bar- 
rels. Well,  I  thought  they  looked  pretty  large  and  I  took  time  to 
measure  one  of  them  one  day  and  I  found  they  held  so  much 
that  it  was  like  throwing  money  away  to  buy  them.  So  I  gave 
that  up.  So  two  years  ago  they  asked  me  pretty  high  for  new 
barrels,  and  knowing  that  they  had  the  same  size  of  heads  and 
the  same  length  of  stave  I  supposed  they  held  the  same  as  flour 
barrels,  and  having  an  opportunity  to  buy  two  or  three  hundred 
flour  barrels  at  a  good  deal  lower  price,  I  purchased  them.  But 
when  I  came  to  get  the  new  barrels  home  and  place  them  side 
by  side  with  the  old  ones,  I  thought  I  would  take  the  trouble 
to  measure  them,  as  I  raised  a  quantity  of  yellow-eyed  beans. 
I  filled  the  new  barrel  full  of  beans ;  then  I  turned  them  into 
a  Washburn  &  Crosby  barrel — a  good  many  of  you  know  what 
those  are,  a  short  thick-set  barrel — and  it  took  about  three  quarts 
to  fill  it.  Then  we  took  some  shaved  hoop  barrels  such  as  the 
all  round  flour  comes  in,  and  it  took  about  seven  quarts  to  fill 
that  if  I  remember  rightly.  Then  we  took  another  barrel  and 
it  only  took  fourteen  quarts  more  than  the  new  barrel  to  fill  that. 
Now  that  don't  seem  a  great  deal  on  a  barrel  of  apples,  but  I 
took  time  the  other  day  to  figure  it  out  to  see  what  difference 
it  would  make  on  this  year's  crop  of  apples  whether  I  sold  them 
in  these  new  barrels,  and  it  made  the  sum  of  $300,  about  that — 
whether  I  packed  them  in  the  new  barrel  or  the  larger  size  of 
old  barrels.  So  you  see  though  it  is  a  sort  of  dry  subject,  it  is 
really  a  subject  of  a  good  deal  of  interest  to  us  when  it  comes 
to  dollars  and  cents,  and  of  course  it  is  not  only  of  interest  to 
us  but  of  interest  to  the  one  who  buys  the  apples.  They  get 
considerably  more  for  the  money  with  a  large  barrel  than  with  a 
small  one. 

Now,  if  it  is  in  order,  I  should  like  to  make  a  motion  that  a 
committee  be  appointed  to  look  this  matter  up  more  fully.  Of 
course  we  can  do  nothing  about  a  law  this  coming  winter,  until 
after  we  have  another  meeting  a  year  from  now,  and  it  seems 
to  me  it  would  be  a  good  plan  if  there  could  be  a  committee 
appointed   to   look  up   the   matter.     As   perhaps   some  of   you 


ii8  state;  pomologicai,  society. 

know,  the  Canadians  have  adopted  a  different  style  of  barrel 
from  what  we  use  here.  They  use  a  30  inch  stave  and  a  Httle 
smaller  head,  holds  96  quarts,  I  think.  It  seems  to  me  that  a 
committee  could  look  this  matter  up  and  report  at  our  next  meet- 
ing, and  then  there  would  be  time  for  a  committee  to  take  the 
matter  before  the  legislature  if  it  was  thought  worth  while  at 
that  time. 

President  Gilbert.  The  chair  would  inquire  of  the  speaker 
if  we  haven't  a  legal  standard  of  a  barrel  already?  It  was  the 
impression  of  the  chair  that  we  had.  If  I  am  incorrect  I  would 
like  to  be  corrected  in  the  matter. 

Mr.  Morse.  A^  far  as  I  am  concerned  I  don't  know  anything 
about  it.     I  never  took  pains  to  look  that  up. 

President  Gilbert.  Has  Mr.  Pope  any  knowledge  in  regard  to 
that  ? 

Air.  Pope.     I  couldn't  say. 

Dr.  Woods.     I  think  the  only  legal  barrel  is  for  the  potato. 


THE  BOX. 
By  E.  L.  Lincoln  of  Wayne. 

The  committee  has  no  report  to  make  at  present  on  the  box 
question.  I  did  not  know  that  I  was  to  be  called  upon  to  say 
anything  on  this  matter  until  I  received  the  program.  Although 
it  being  a  short  notice,  I  will  make  a  few  remarks  concerning  the 
box  question. 

The  box  question  will  be  settled  when  co-operative  principles 
are  adopted  by  the  fruit  growers.  There  is  no  doubt  but  what 
with  a  different  system  in  buying  and  packing,  that  the  box 
under  co-operation  would  come  into  general  use.  When  I  was 
picking  my  Spies  this  season,  there  were  two  city  ladies  observ- 
ing them  as  I  was  hauling  them  in.  One  of  them  remarked 
"Aren't  those  nice !  and  where  do  all  the  good  apples  go  to  ? 
It  is  almost  impossible  to  get  a  good  apple  in  the  city.  They  are 
all  poor  and  bruised."  Well,  I  knew  the  reason  why.  It  was 
not  in  the  growing  of  the  fruit  but  in  the  packing  and  handling 
of  it.  I  would  rather  have  a  No.  2  apple  packed  in  a  box  as 
they  now  pack  them  in  some  sections  of  the  country,  than  to 


STATE    POMOLOGICAIv    SOCIETY.  II9 

have  a  barrel  of  No.  i  fancy  apples  packed  by  some  one 
unskilled,  with  a  hammer  and  nails  in  hand  and  a  barrel  header. 
He  commences  to  press  or  screw  them  down  which  jams  them — 
that  would  be  a  good  way  to  make  cider,  but  it  is  a  poor  way  to 
pack  apples.  Apples  should  be  packed  so  that  when  they  arrive 
at  their  destination  they  will  be  sound.  The  better  order  the 
fruit  is  in  when  offered  for  sale,  the  larger  quantity  will  be  con- 
sumed. Who  wants  to  buy  bruised  or  decayed  fruit?  All  this 
is  detrimental  to  the  grower,  especially  when  caused  by  packing. 
Honest  packing  and  knowing  how  are  what  pay  the  grower.  By 
■organization  you  can  accomplish  the  end,  but  an  individual  can- 
not get  the  jorice  that  an  association  can  by  its  expert  packers, 
and  that  is  what  pays  the  growers.  An  individual  will  use  a 
"barrel  to  get  them  off  his  hands,  while  an  organization  would 
use  a  box  with  their  expert  workmen.  If  we  want  to  have 
■standard  or  uniform  packages,  we  must  have  local  associations. 

What  we  want  to  do  is  to  organize  in  the  several  localities, 
and  then  we  can  bring  about  the  desired  results.  The  box  will 
-come  into  general  use  when  co-operative  principles  are  adopted. 
Now  perhaps  it  does  not  make  so  much  difference  about  the 
shape  or  form  of  the  box  or  package.  The  shape  may  be  like 
this  box  or  that  one,  but  it  is  the  results  of  the  system  that  we 
want. 

What  would  be  the  outcome  if  the  exhibitors  who  bring  fruit 
here  should  put  it  into  a  barrel,  round  the  barrel  up  at  the  top, 
then  take  a  barrel  header  and  press  the  apples  down?  What 
would  be  the  decision  of  the  committee  on  fruit,  beside  the  other 
exhibitors  ?  The  same  view  is  taken  by  the  consumer  when  such 
apples  are  placed  before  him  for  sale,  and  the  grower  is  the  loser. 

My  first  desire  in  purchasing  fruit  is  to  have  it  perfect  and 
sound,  whether  it  be  bananas,  oranges,  peaches  or  apples. 
■Quality  is  second  thought.  What  is  quality  with  a  half -decayed 
peach  or  apple  ?  Now  it  is  up  to  the  Society  to  help  bring  about 
this  end.  This  is  a  real  matter  to  decide.  The  President  has 
told  you  what  Oregon  apples  sell  for  in  boxes,  last  evening  in 
his  paper.  Mr.  Pope  can  tell  you  what  he  gets  in  boxes,  for 
apples  in  the  Boston  market. 

Mr.  Pope.  My  experience  in  packing  has  only  been  for  a  few 
years — a  short  time,  but  I    must    acknowledge  that    from    the 


120  state;  pomologicai,  society. 

experience  I  have  had  with  fancy  fruit,  that  is,  good  table  apples, 
will  bring  from  fifty  cents  to  two  and  three  dollars  more  per 
barrel  packed  in  boxes  than  they  will  in  barrels.  There  are 
several  reasons,  of  course.  One  is  the  consumer  in  our  cities 
as  a  rule,  apples  being  worth  from  five  to  eight  dollars  a  barrel, 
would  not  care  to  take  three  bushels  of  those  fancy  apples  home 
at  one  time;  they  prefer  to  take  one  bushel.  Secondly,  they 
arrive  there  in  so  much  better  shape,  less  bruised.  And  for 
these  reasons  alone,  of  course,  if  properly  handled  they  would 
bring  more  money.  Our  No.  i  Gravensteins  this  year  packed 
in  bushel  boxes  sold  for  $2.75.  We  should  have  been  obliged 
to  get  $8.25  per  barrel  to  be  equal  to  the  price  in  the  boxes.  The 
barrel  apples  were  selling  at  that  time  for  about  $5  to  $5.50. 
So  you  can  see  that  it  pays  if  it  is  done  correctly.  But  at  the 
same  time  you  find  that  very  few  parties  are  willing  to  take  the 
pains  to  put  them  into  boxes  and  put  them  in  in  shape,  because 
of  the  extra  trouble.  It  is  more  trouble  and  you  must  get  more 
in  boxes,  because,  in  the  first  place,  they  must  be  faced,  every 
box  must  be  faced  the  same  as  the  barrel  is.  Nail  the  cover  on, 
turn  the  box  over  and  face  the  apples,  and  you  come  to  face 
three  boxes  instead  of  one  barrel  and  there  is  extra  work.  Then 
when  we  come  to  fill  up  and  level  up  there  can  be  no  pressing 
as  there  is  in  the  barrel.  There  would  be  a  little  give  to  the 
apples,  and  the  large  distance  down  from  the  barrel  you  can 
press  a  little  and  the  apples  will  give  way.  But  in  the  box  there 
will  be  only  three  or  four  layers  of  apples.  And  are  we  ready  ? 
— very  few  of  us,  I  think,  are  ready  as  yet  to  sort  our  apples 
the  way  Oregon  people  do  and  have  every  apple  in  the  box  the 
same  size,  or  almost.  Then  what  are  we  going  to  do  with  our 
balance.  We  can  make  up  two  boxes  perhaps,  but  we  are  hardly 
yet  ready  to  go  to  the  pains  they  do  in  their  large  orchards,  their 
large  packing  houses.  You  will  notice,  you  go  into  the  market, 
and  you  see  the  Oregon  fruit,  you  will  find  that  the  whole  box, 
like  the  Southern  oranges  are  sorted  to  a  size  and  packed,  cer- 
tain boxes  taking  so  many  apples,  the  large  apples,  the  next 
grade  taking  an  apple  of  the  same  size  but  just  enough  to  put 
it  in  in  layers.  Our  apples,  as  we  are  packing  now,  must  be  put 
in  loose  from  the  face  and  then  it  is — and  well,  I  sometimes  told 
the  boys  that  were  with  me  when  I  was  levelling  up,  that  it 


STATE    POMOLOGICAI.    SOCIETY.  121 

required  a  great  deal  of  skill  and  perhaps  they  had  better  not 
have  their  ears  open  for  fear  I  might  say  some  large  words  when 
I  was  levelling  up  the  boxes  of  apples.  Nevertheless  I  could 
afford  to  take  considerable  pains  with  them  when  I  could  sell 
Gravensteins  for  $2.75  a  box,  which  would  probably  have 
brought  me  about  $1.50  in  the  barrel. 

Question.  How  much  more  does  it  cost  to  pack  in  a  box  than 
in  a  barrel? 

Air.  Pope.  I  never  kept  any  run  of  it  at  all,  but  I  know  you 
put  a  green  hand  levelling  those  boxes  up,  and  well  you  might 
want  to  put  cotton  in  your  ears  before  they  got  through,  but  in 
a  short  time  a  person  will  get  expert,  and  they  will  set  an  apple 
up  edgewise  if  you  want  to  take  up  a  little  more  room  and  bring 
it  nearer.  You  only  want  a  quarter  of  an  inch  above  the  box, 
give  it  that  slight  pressure,  because  it  won't  do  to  press  them. 
Another  place  you  may  have  to  take  a  large  apple  out  and  put  in 
one  a  little  smaller  to  bring  it  right.  An  expert  may  perhaps 
do  it  in  five  minutes,  where  it  would  take  a  green  hand  a  half 
an  hour  trying  to  level  it  up.  It  requires  that  skill  that  comes 
from  experience. 

Question.     Do  you  sell  to  commission  merchants? 

Mr.  Pope.     Yes. 

Question.     They  have  no  objection  to  the  box? 

Mr.  Pope.  When  we  first  began,  they  made  objection,  they 
didn't  like  to  handle  them,  but  lately  I  notice  they  say  "there  is 
a  call  for  boxed  apples  this  week,  good  fancy  apples,  send  them 
along." 

Question.  What  is  the  first  cost  of  the  box  and  the  barrel, 
how  do  they  compare? 

Mr.  Pope.  A  trifle  more  for  boxes.  You  buy  your  boxes 
in  shooks.  do  your  own  nailing,  and  the  shocks  will  cost  a  trifle 
more  than  the  barrels — three  boxes  equal  to  a  barrel. 

Mr.  Cobb.  Do  you  use  any  better  grade  of  apples  in  the  box 
than  in  Xo.  i  barrel  ? 

Mr.  Pope.  No,  we  calculate  to  make  a  No.  i  fancy  table 
apple,  suitable  for  any  gentleman  to  put  on  the  table.  We  don't 
propose  to  put  No.  2  apples  in  as  No.  i  apples,  whether  it  is  a 
barrel  or  a  box. 

Mr.  Lincoln.  There  is  where  organization  comes  in.  A 
farmer  who  had  small  amounts  of  apples  could  haul  them  in  and 


122  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

have  them  packed  by  an  expert.  Where  they  do  that  they  have 
got  the  apples  all  uniform.  They  haven't  got  to  take  small 
apples  and  big,  but  take  apples  one  size  and  fill  the  box. 

Mr.  Craig.  I  am  interested  in  this  discussion  of  the  box  and 
the  barrel.  I  think  we  are  not  just  in  a  position  here  in  Elaine 
to  adopt  boxes,  although  I  admire  the  system,  and  it  is  what  we 
would  call  a  higher  class  of  horticulture  to  use  boxes.  To  get 
down  to  the  bottom  of  this  thing,  we  have  to  learn  yet,  many  of 
us  in  the  apple  business,  that  horticulture  is  really  the  highest 
branch  of  agriculture,  and  until  we  can  learn  to  handle  our 
apples  in  the  orchard  in  better  shape  than  is  being  done  at  the 
present  time,  the  box  is  not  what  we  need — simply  because  the 
apple,  we  have  not  realized  yet  that  that  beautiful  fruit  is  simply 
a  ball  of  cells  covered  by  a  thin  coating,  and  when  that  is 
■dropped  the  length  of  itself  into  a  basket  or  a  barrel,  or  shaken 
off  the  tree  as  is  done,  it  is  injured  and  it  never  can  be  a  fancy 
article,  whether  wrapped  in  tissue  paper  in  a  box  or  not.  Now 
that  is  one  reason  why  we  in  Maine  can't  get  fancy  prices  as 
they  are  getting  elsewhere.  We  are  running  this  apple  business 
on  the  basis  of  potatoes  and  turnips — I  can't  express  it  in  any 
other  way.  And  until  we  learn  to  respect  the  apple  and  handle 
it  as  we  would  eggs, — and  grade  them,  put  our  fancy  apples  in 
boxes,  put  our  2s  if  we  have  them  in  barrels,  and  grade  them 
and  mark  them ;  then  our  men  from  the  old  country  come  over 
here  and  buy  our  apples  without  seeing  them,  if  we  establish  a 
grade  and  a  trade  such  as  they  have  in  other  places. 


STATE    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY.  I23 


A   MAINE   CRANBERRY    BOG. 
By  G.  D.  LiBBEY,  Gardiner. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  know  that  the  cranberry  is  one  of  our 
native  American  fruits,  which  has  been  cultivated  and  improved 
until  now  it  is  an  important  commercial  product.  While  Massa- 
chusetts raises  a  large  portion  of  the  berries  now  used  there  are 
many  grown  in  New  Jersey,  Wisconsin,  Michigan,  Indiana,  and 
some  in  Maine.  In  fact  they  can  be  raised  in  any  of  the  North- 
ern states,  where  nature  has  provided  conditions  suitable  for 
their  cultivation.  The  things  necessary  for  the  successful  culti- 
vation of  cranberries  is  a  level  peat  bog.  One  where  native 
berries  grow  is  said  on  good  authority  nearly  always  proves 
successful.  Good  clean  sand  near  by  an  ample  supply  of  water 
controlled  by  a  dam  and  available  at  all  times. 

I  will  tell  you  something  about  the  bog  owned  by  the  Kennebec 
Cranberry  Co.,  which  I  am  interested  in.  It  is  located  about 
seven  miles  from  Gardiner  near  Togus.  It  is  what  at  one  time 
was  the  bed  of  Alud  Mill  pond,  so  called.  Mr.  Wellman  of 
whom  we  purchased  the  property  started  the  culture  of  cran- 
berries there  over  25  years  ago,  in  the  first  place  cultivating 
berries  he  found  growing  wild.  From  this  start  he  increased 
and  extended  the  work  until  he  had  ten  acres  under  cultivation, 
and  has  raised  as  high  as  500  barrels  in  a  single  year.  He  has 
shipped  them  to  New  York  and  Boston  markets  getting  good 
prices  and  very  complimentary  letters  regarding  the  color,  flavor 
and  keej^ing  qualities.  We  have  been  interested  in  this  work 
only  three  years.  The  first  year  we  had  a  very  small  crop, 
owing  I  presume  to  a  frost  in  June.  Last  year  there  was  a  fair 
yield.  This  year  about  300  barrels  which  I  should  say  is  a  good 
average  crop  for  this  locality.  I  understand  this  to  be  a  small 
yield  for  Massachusetts.  We  are  now  laying  out  new  beds  the 
width  of  the  bog  which  is  about  60  rods  wide.  In  the  first  place 
we  put  a  ditch  around  the  whole  piece  with  enough  cross  ditches 
to  take  the  water  from  the  beds  with  dispatch  for  it  is  of  utmost 
importance  that  it  be  arranged  so  this  can  be  done  when  we  have 
to  flow  for  frosts  and  pick  the  next  day.  After  this  work  is 
done  the  whole  surface  is  turfed,  that  is  all  of  the  grass  roots 


124  state;  POMOI.OGICAI,  socie;ty. 

and  bushes  are  taken  off  and  the  beds  made  perfectly  level,  after 
this  the  whole  surface  has  to  be  sanded  from  three  to  four  inches 
deep.  Now  we  are  ready  to  put  out  the  plants  which  we  are 
very  particular  in  selecting.  The  larger  portion  we  shall  use 
are  those  raised  on  the  bog  known  as  the  VYellman  cherry  cran- 
berry, although  we  have  some  early  blacks  which  mature  earlier 
and  are  ready  for  market  about  two  weeks  earlier  than  the 
others.  They  do  not  keep  as  well,  and  bring  a  less  price  in  the 
market.  We  use  cuttings  for  setting  out  a  new  bog,  using  the 
sprouts  from  12  to  15  inches  long  of  good  vigorous  plants,  plac- 
ing them  in  rows  18  inches  wide,  about  10  inches  apart.  It  takes 
about  three  years  to  get  a  bog  to  bearing,  but  once  properly  made 
it  is  good  for  many  years. 

Harvesting  the  crop  begins  about  the  loth  of  September,  and 
takes  from  10  to  15  days.  We  use  pickers  secured  from  the 
maker  on  Cape  Cod  and  like  them  very  much.  This  can  be  done 
on  old  established  vines  but  new  vines  have  to  be  picked  by  hand 
as  the  pickers  would  do  more  or  less  damage  to  the  roots. 
The  berries  are  put  into  ventilated  crates  made  of  slats  and 
placed  in  a  house  built  for  the  purpose.  These  crates  are  packed 
in  so  there  is  a  circulation  of  air  around  them  all  the  time. 
When  we  are  ready  to  ship  them  they  are  run  through  a  sepa- 
rator which  takes  out  all  of  the  dirt  and  many  of  the  poor 
berries.  After  this  they  go  over  a  sorting  table  and  any  that 
are  not  perfect  taken  out  by  hand. 

I  don't  want  to  give  the  impression  that  this  is  all  that  has 
got  to  be  done  to  make  the  growing  of  cranberries  a  success,  for 
man}^  nights  without  sleep  is  the  lot  of  the  man  looking  after  a 
bog.  A  frost  in  June  may  destroy  a  large  portion  of  the  crop, 
and  the  early  frosts  in  the  fall  are  sure  to  do  damage  unless 
someone  is  there  to  watch  and  be  ready  to  turn  on  the  water 
when  the  thermometer  goes  to  freezing.  Besides  this  there  are 
insects  of  various  kinds  that  destroy  the  berries  and  vines  so 
it  requires  constant  care  and  attention  to  successfully  grow  cran- 
berries in  Maine  at  least.  But  I  am  satisfied  that  under  proper 
conditions  that  this  crop  can  be  grown  profitably. 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  1 25 

Hon.  A.  W.  GiEMAN^  Commissioner  of  Agriculture,  Augusta, 

Maine. 

I  just  want  to  say  to  the  people  that  I  am  very  glad  to  meet 
with  you  here  this  morning.  The  first  time  that  I  learned  that 
I  was  to  have  an  address  for  this  occasion,  it  came  from  my 
friend  Mr.  Boardman  of  Bangor.  He  wrote  me  that  he  wanted 
a  synopsis  of  the  address  that  I  was  to  deliver  here  this  morning. 
The  Department  of  Agriculture  is  very  much  interested  in  the 
State  Pomological  Society.  We  have  a  man  with  us  well  trained 
in  this  part  of  the  great  farm  work. 

The  apple  is  the  king  of  fruit  and  it  reigns  supreme  the  year 
round.  That  is  the  beauty  about  the  apple.  It  is  not  a  fruit 
that  is  for  a  little  while,  a  short  time,  but  it  is  year-round. 

I  have  with  me  today  on  my  force  a  gentleman  who  is  well 
versed  in  this  line  of  work.  Prof.  Card,  and  I  told  your  Presi- 
dent sometime  ago  that  if  he  would  let  us  know  when  this  meet- 
ing was  to  occur,  that  we  would  suspend  the  Farmer's  Institute 
and  I  would  bring  my  forces  down  here  and  we  would  take  you 
by  storm.  We  are  here  this  morning.  I  am  not  going  to 
deliver  an  address  along  the  line  of  fruits,  but  I  am  going  to  say 
this,  that  the  Department  of  Agriculture  through  Prof.  Hitch- 
ings  has  done  much  this  year  towards  this  special  line  of  work. 
You  know  that  news  came  to  us  that  a  larger  per  cent  of  our 
apple  trees  this  year  were  destroyed  than  any  previous  year,  and 
the  professor  set  himself — after  consulting  with  the  officers  of 
the  Pomological  Society  about  it — he  set  himself  to  work,  by 
employing  men,  to  see  if  he  could  investigate  and  learn  what  was 
the  cause,  and  to  prevent  it  in  the  coming  years  if  possible.  Just 
how  far  the  professor  has  got  along  with  this,  I  don't  know.  I 
haven't  seen  him  for  some  time.  I  assure  you  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  is  with  you  in  this  work.  At  any  time  and  under 
all  circumstances  you  will  have  the  entire  support  of  the  whole 
department. 

I  thank  you  for  the  opportunity  of  saying  this,  and  I  was  very 
glad  of  the  opportunity  when  you  asked  my  people  to  come 
down.  We  have  got  some  bright  men  on  our  force  doing  insti- 
tute work,  and  they  will  be  here  at  your  service  during  the  day 
and  the  evening ;  and  I  especially  want  some  of  you  people  to 
know  what  this  man  from  across  the  line  says  about  their  fruit 


126  STATE    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY. 

and  how  they  are  doing  over  there.  Prof.  Card  has  been  telling 
the  farmers  just  how  to  do  this  work  for  the  last  three  weeks, 
he  has  an  address  that  he  delivers  at  our  institute  along  this  line 
and  I  presume  it  will  afford  him  pleasure  to  talk  with  him  on 
thi'^  matter.    Mr.  President,  I  thank  you  again  for  your  !:indness. 


GRADING  AND  PACKING  OF  FRUIT. 
[Conducted  by  the  delegates  of  New  England  Horticultural 
Societies  in  attendance  at  the  annual  meeting.] 


REPORT  9F   SPECIAL   COMMITTEE   ON   GRADING, 
P-ACKING,      AND      BRANDING,      WITH      RECOM- 
MENDATIONS  FOR   FUTURE   ACTION. 
Dr.  G.  M.  TwiTCHELE,  Auburn,  Maine. 

At  the  session  of  this  State  Pomological  Society  November, 
1905,  after  a  full  discussion  of  the  subject  of  grading,  packing, 
and  branding  fruit  for  market  and  the  importance  of  action  to 
secure  official  inspection  and  protect  both  grower  and  consumer, 
it  was  voted  that, 

"This  Society,  recognizing  the  substantial  growth  of  our  fruit 
industry  and  realizing  the  necessity  for  a  more  critical  grading 
of  the  stock,  for  the  protection  of  the  grower,  declares  in  favor 
of  national  legislation  looking  to  a  Fruit  Marks  Act,  and  author- 
izes the  appointment  of  a  committee  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to 
correspond  with  the  officers  of  the  Fruit  Growers'  Associations 
in  the  several  states,  and  if  a  general  sentiment  is  found  favor- 
ing such  action  to  arrange  a  conference  for  the  purpose  of  out- 
lining national  legislation." 

In  the  wisdom  of  the  members  it  was  decided  to  create  a  com- 
mittee of  one  to  whom  the  sole  subject  should  be  referred  and 
the  speaker  was  selected.  No  one  at  that  time  dreamed  that 
within  two  years  a  conference  of  all  the  New  England  States 
upon  this  specific  subject  would  be  possible  yet  such  was  the 
interest  manifested  and  so  hearty  the  co-operation,  that,  in 
March,  1907,  delegates  were  present  from  each  of  these  states 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  \2J 

at  the  sessions  of  the  Massachusetts  Fruit  Growers'  Association 
at  Worcester.  This  association  freely  set  apart  one  session  and 
to  further  the  interest  provided  the  leading  speaker,  Prof.  Craig 
of  New  York.  The  result  of  the  discussion  was  to  intensify 
interest  in  the  subject,  while  urging  conservative  action.  The 
importance  of  more  critical  grading,  packing  and  branding  and 
of  such  legal  enactments  as  will  insure  this  was  freely  admitted, 
yet  everyone  felt  that  the  one  thing  to  do  was  to  make  haste 
slowly,  to  be  certain  that  when  legislation  is  attempted  it  will 
be  such  as  will  claim  the  earnest  support  of  individual  growers 
all  over  New  England  and  insure  lasting  benefits.  If  there  was 
fear  of  impulsive  action  on  the  part  of  any,  it  was  dispelled  at 
once  and  complete  unanimity  of  sentiment  characterized  the 
deliberations  of  the  entire  session.  The  consciousness  that  this 
coming  together  of  delegates  from  different  societies  had  in  it 
possibilities,  far  reaching  in  effect  to  our  fruit  interests,  was 
apparent  from  the  first  and  before  the  hour  of  closing  the  wish 
was  expressed  that  these  conferences  might  be  continued.  Sec. 
Knowlton  grasping  the  situation  cordially  invited  the  societies 
represented  to  send  delegates  to  this  meeting  of  our  State  Pomo- 
logical  Society  and  the  invitation  was  most  heartily  accepted. 

I  desire  here  to  express  my  personal  obligations  to  the  officers 
of  the  Alassachusetts  Fruit  Growers'  Association  for  assistance 
in  arranging  for  the  first  conference  and  for  setting  apart  so 
much  of  their  valuable  time  to  its  deliberations.  Without  this 
the  work  of  your  representative  would  necessarily  have  been 
greatly  delayed. 

As  the  consciousness  of  the  possibilities  resulting  from  yearly 
meeting  together  and  discussing  subjects  vital  to  the  interests 
of  all  has  grown  in  my  mind,  the  significance  of  the  step  inau- 
gurated by  this  Society  assumes  larger  proportions.  Wisely 
fostered  these  gatherings  may  be  made  of  great  practical  value 
to  every  man  in  New  England  who  is  turning  his  attention  to 
fruit  growing.  While  Maine  produces  the  larger  crop  of 
apples  each  and  every  State  is  directly  interested  in  the  perma- 
nent success  of  the  purpose  of  this  conference,  and  while  years 
may  elapse  before  legislation  is  attempted  these  gatherings  may 
be  made  the  means  of  stimulating  a  deeper  interest  in  fruit  sub- 
jects all  over  New  England  in  kindling  enthusiasm  for  insight 
into   the    mysteries   which    envelope    the    industry    in   arousing 


128  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

ambition  to  master  the  difficulties  and  multiply  the  orchards, 
and  in  concentrating  efforts  to  produce  only  the  best  fruit  pos- 
sible in  each  locality.  The  problems  hinted  at  are  so  profound 
and  far  reaching  that  they  may  well  claim  our  united  effort 
and  in  the  results  obtained  there  will  surely  follow  clearer  vision 
touching  the  fundamental  purpose  at  the  conception  of  this  con- 
ference. Well  may  we  of  Maine  rejoice  in  this  gathering  of 
the  students  and  workers  of  New  England.  Our  welcome  is 
cordial  for  our  obligations  are  fully  recognized.  This  Society 
is  honored  in  this  Conference  of  fruit  interests  and  the  industry 
in  Maine  must  receive  a  decided  impetus  from  the  presence 
and  counsels  of  these  representative  leaders  from  other  States. 
This  is  indeed  a  happy  hour  for  your  representative  who  finds 
his  most  profound  hopes  realized  in  this  coming  together.  It 
is  for  us  devoted  to  the  advance  of  the  fruit  industry  in  Maine 
to  drink  deep  draughts  of  inspiration  at  this  session  and  carry 
to  our  homes  the  valuable  lessons  these  gentlemen  will  present 
for  our  consideration.  We  as  a  Society,  have  taken  a  step  far 
reaching  in  its  significance  to  New  England  fruit  interests  and 
it  behooves  us  to  set  ourselves  in  line  to  realize  all  that  is  pos- 
sible today,  and  in  the  future,  as  the  result  of  this  union  of 
forces  for  specific  results. 

Asked  by  our  Secretary  to  present  recommendations  for 
future  work,  my  first  will  be  one  looking  to  a  permanent  organ- 
ization of  New  England  workers  for  the  specific  purpose  of 
holding  yearly  conferences  upon  fruit  and  kindred  topics;  for 
the  closer  acquaintance  df  each  others'  methods  and  for  the  con- 
sideration of  questions  vital  to  the  best  progress  of  rural  New 
England.  Set  off  in  a  measure  by  ourselves  it  is  peculiarly 
fortunate  that  we  may  thus  unite  and  so  wield  an  influence  not 
possible  for  either  State  alone. 

Time  is  presenting  great  questions  for  our  thoughtful  con- 
sideration. Rural  conditions  are  changing  rapidly  and  grave 
problems  rise  before  the  student  of  rural  progress.  The  multi- 
plicity of  helps  pouring  in  must  be  intelligently  directed  to  the 
good  of  the  greatest  number  or  they  will  lead  to  a  paucity  of 
ideas  upon  subjects  which  must  ever  supply  the  mainspring  of 
action  in  rural  life.  Before  satisfactory  results  can  follow 
legislation  there  must  be  public  sentiment  in  its  favor  and  the 
next  step  for  the  friend  of  the  apple  is  to  help  create  a  demand 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  I29 

for  choicer  fruit.  That  spirit  of  commerciahsm  which  is  satis- 
fied with  present  returns  must  yield  to  that  which  seeks  only  a 
permanent  standing  in  the  market.  To  insure  this  it  must  be 
established  that  the  contents  of  every  barrel  are  true  to  name 
and  the  brand  of  grade  absolutely  correct.  The  lack  of  uni- 
formity among  packers  works  injury  to  the  industry.  Respon- 
sibility for  relief  rests  with  the  grower.  Shipping  over  one 
million  barrels  this  year  Maine  loses  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
dollars  for  want  of  this  guarantee  of  uniformity  in  grading. 
The  legal  right  to  inspect  would  be  an  incentive  to  truer  grading. 
The  reputation  for  a  uniform  standard  of  grading,  packing  and 
iDranding  would  insure  millions  to  New  England  growers  in 
advance  over  present  receipts.  Education  can  do  much  but 
legislation  alone  can  finally  insure  protection.  That  legisla- 
tion must  be  either  State  or  National.  The  union  of  the  six 
New  England  States  covering  a  law  to  be  passed  by  the  legisla- 
tures of  these  States  is,  in  my  mind,  the  step  indicated  and  to 
arouse  to  the  necessity  and  benefit  of  such  legislation  our  pres- 
ent duty.  This  problem  will  never  be  settled  until  it  is  settled 
right  and  right  includes  the  highest  price  possible  for  the  grower 
and  the  absolute  guarantee  of  straight  grading,  packing  and 
branding  to  the  consumer.  To  this  we  must  bring  the  industry 
and  agitation  will  accomplish  the  result. 

\^'ell  will  it  be  if  we  set  ourselves  to  this  task.  Important 
and  necessary  are  the  lessons  which  centre  in  fertilization, 
selection  of  varieties,  protection  from  myriad  forms  of  insect 
pests,  growing,  picking,  grading,  storing  and  marekting  fruit, 
but  these  are  steps  to  one  end  and  that  end  must  also  claim  our 
thoughtful  attention,  else  nothing  permanent  is  likely  to  be 
gained. 

The  transcendant  demand  upon  us  is  to  promote  rural  pro- 
gress by  kindling  desire  in  every  man  to  know  himself,  his  capa- 
bilities, and  his  limitations,  that  knowing  these  he  may  find  the 
life  which  will  be  attuned  to  the  diviner  harmonies.  Co-opera- 
tion and  brotherhood  are  the  watch  words  of  the  hour  but  these 
may  both  be  used  as  efficiently  to  foster  vice  as  virtue,  to  work 
violence  as  to  build  the  walls  of  honor  about  the  citadel  of  the 
home.  If  the  city  is  to  be  made  safe  the  country  must  build 
the  defences.  If  the  standard  of  moral  rectitude  is  to  be 
advanced  the  conservative  rural  population  must  fix  the  princi- 


130  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

pies  of  honor,  virtue  and  sobriety  in  the  hearts  and  brains  of 
the  coming  generation.  Not  alone  good  fruit  and  a  well  estab- 
lished reputation  but  better  men  and  women  must  be  the  product 
of  these  gatherings  else  the  spirit  of  commercialism  will  bury 
us  under  the  crust  of  selfishness  and  greed.  Looking  to  the 
future  for  the  growth  of  our  orchards  the  increase  of  product 
therein,  the  better  price  through  improvement  of  the  same  and 
the  certainty  of  justice  in  the  market  we  must  also  be  directing 
our  gaze  intently  upon  questions  of  civic  righteousness  that 
when  the  fruits  of  the  harvest  are  gathered  we  may  enjoy  them 
in  peace.  Every  agency  set  to  the  betterment  of  financial  con- 
ditions is  called  to  direct  its  critical  attention  upon  questions 
of  civic  duties  that  the  name  of  sentimentalism  apparent  every- 
where which  finds  expression  in  indulgence,  may  give  way  to  the 
restraining  influence  of  love  and  the  building  of  self  centered, 
well  poised  characters.  Shame  be  upon  us  if  seeking  so  ear- 
nestly for  quality  in  our  fruit  we  neglect  to  toil  as  patiently  for 
quality  in  life. 

To  build  ourselves  into  full,  free  manhood  is  the  true  mission 
of  all  toil  and  he  who  conquers  most  may  see  most  of  what  that 
life  embraces.  Devoted  to  a  study  of  agriculture  and  pomol- 
ogy we  must  be  conscious  that  there  is  imperative  need  of  such 
reorganization  of  systems  and  methods  as  will  inspire  in  the 
young  the  will  to  know  more  of  natural  things.  The  education 
of  the  past  has  been  to  make  men  cultured,  that  of  the  future 
must  be  to  make  them  efficient.  Efficiency  is  the  cry  every- 
where coming  up  from  every  mill  and  factory,  from  every  farm 
and  shop,  and  this  can  never  be  gained  until  the  gray  matter  of 
the  brain  has  been  trained  to  see,  the  heart  to  feel  and  know  and 
the  hands  to  do.  Machines  can  do  much  but  back  of  these 
there  must  be  thinkers  and  they  come  only  as  they  reach  after 
the  knowledge  of  constructive  work.  The  past  has  had  to  do 
with  the  heads,  the  present  and  future  must  recognize  the  hands 
and  the  hearts.  Combinations  of  labor  and  capital,  conditions 
underlying  manufacturing  and  the  unduly  fostered  desire  to 
become  a  wage  earner  without  training  have  closed  the  door  to 
all  opportunity  for  learning  a  trade  and  so  mastering  an  indus- 
try. If  we  would  build  a  self  centered  citizenship  throughout 
rural  New  England  more  attention  must  be  given  the  steps  lead- 
ing thereto  by  those  who  recognize  the  value  of  industrial  train- 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  I3I 

ing.  Our  civilization  must  rest  upon  the  intelligence  of  the 
rural  population  and  that  must  be  gauged  by  the  ability  to  think 
promptly,  consecutively  and  understandingly.  The  whole  prob- 
lem centers  in  education  and  therefore  it  behooves  us  as  devoted 
friends  of  rural  life  to  unite  our  forces  for  such  study  of  the 
problems  of  rural  progress  as  will  most  rapidly  develop  knowl- 
edge of  the  industry  and  the  duties  and  obligations  of  citizen- 
ship. While  we  consider  details  let  us  not  forget  to  reach  out 
after  larger  control  of  all  questions  centering  in  rural  life  that 
the  results  of  our  combined  efforts  may  promote  zeal,  interest, 
enthusiasm,  and  desire  for  industrial  vocations  certain  that  this 
will  lead  to  a  safer,  more  stable,  more  patriotic  American  citi- 
zenship. The  time  is  ripe  for  us  to  organize  and  concentrate 
upon  subjects  facing  not  only  the  orchards  and  fields  but  the 
homes  and  streets  of  every  country  town  and  village.  Inter- 
woven are  these  problems  and  not  to  be  separated  without 
danger  to  each. 

There  are  great  possibilities  for  New  England  fruit  growers. 
They  far  surpass  our  widest  conceptions.  There  is  wealth  in 
all  these  hillsides  and  we,  or  those  who  come  after  us,  may 
pluck  it  from  the  trees,  but  these  possibilities  will  come  to  you 
and  me  only  as  we  reach  after  the  full  measure  of  well  balanced 
manhood  and  womanhood,  alive  to  the  call  of  the  trees  and  also 
the  call  of  the  street,  never  forgetting  that  life  only  is  secure 
where  moral  rectitude  and  civic  righteousness  are  reflected  in 
the  lives  of  the  men  and  women  of  the  community. 

Away  down  on  Cape  Cod  there  is  a  high,  steel  tower  with 
wires  running  from  the  ground  converging  to  a  common  centre. 
Did  you  ever  toss  a  pebble  into  a  pond  and  try  to  follow  the 
first  ripple  as  it  extended  farther  and  farther  its  circle  until  the 
whole  lake  had  been  reached  ?  So  goes  the  message  flashed  out 
from  those  wires  on  that  tower  and  if  three  thousand  miles 
away  a  receiving  instrument  is  attuned  to  the  same  vibrations, 
it  will  take  and  record  the  story  whispered  across  the  Atlantic 
over  silent  waves  of  air.  Only  a  Marconi  could  have  dreamed 
of  such  power  but  it  was  there  and  had  been  since  the  day 
when  first  the  morning  stars  sang  together.  So,  all  about  us, 
over  our  heads,  under  our  feet,  in  our  orchards  and  among  our 


132  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

animals  are  hidden  possibilities  to  be  uncovered  and  utilized  by 
man  for  man.  Only  he  who  knows  best  the  story  Mother 
Earth  would  tell  can  unlock  its  hidden  treasures,  only  he  who 
best  knows  himself  can  measure  the  heights  towards  the  Infinite. 
Only  he  who  has  been  trained  in  hand  and  head  and  heart  can 
fathom  the  depths  and  make  plain  the  path  for  others  to  walk 
to  greater  success. 


Wilfrid  Wheeler,  Concord,  Mass.,  Chairman  Committee  on 
Fruits,  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society. 
It  gives  me  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  to  be  down  here  at  one 
of  these  meetings  of  the  Society  which  is  doing  so  much  for  the 
promotion  of  horticulture  in  New  England,  and  I  feel  especially 
honored  at  this  time  to  be  able  to  represent  a  society  in  Massa- 
chusetts which  is  working  along  similar  lines.  We  are  striving 
to  bring  forth  the  quality  of  not  only  fruit,  but  vegetables  and 
flowers  in  the  State,  where  that  industry  has  been  more  or  less 
neglected  in  the  last  twenty-five  years.  It  seems  to  me  that 
the  possibilities  for  fruit  growing  in  Maine  are  not  confined  to 
the  apple  but  that  the  subject  of  small  fruits  ought  to  be  more 
prominently  brought  forth  in  a  community  of  this  sort.  You 
have  a  wonderful  state  here  for  the  growing  of  all  kinds  of 
fruits — not  only  the  apple  which  is  discussed  at  length  here  and 
seems  to  be  the  prominent  topic  of  this  Convention,  but  for 
small  fruits,  that  ought  to  be  grown  on  your  farms,  and  ought 
to  be  distributed  throughout  your  cities  and  through  your  rural 
communities  to  a  greater  extent.  Principal  among  these  is  the 
strawberry  which  is  by  far  the  leading  small  fruit  in  this  coun- 
try. It  is  a  fruit  that  lends  itself  to  any  climate,  to  any  situa- 
tion, to  almost  any  soil,  and  it  is  a  fruit  that  can  be  shipped 
great  distances ;  it  can  be  used  at  home,  it  can  be  used  in  pre- 
serving, and  in  many  other  ways,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
Maine  farmers  and  the  Maine  horticulturists  ought  to  consider 
this  question  very  seriously.  The  growing  of  small  fruits  is 
practically  a  simple  matter  if  taken  up  systematically.  A 
strawberry  can  be  planted  in  one  year  and  a  liberal  crop  reaped 
the  next,  which  you  cannot  do  with  apples  or  any  of  the  tree 
fruits.       And   it  can  be  grown  among  your  orchards.       For 


state:  pomoIvOGical  society.  133 

instance,  if  you  are  starting  an  apple  orchard  this  year,  plant 
three  or  four  rows  of  strawberries  between  and  keep  the  ground 
worked  up  well.  In  that  way  you  will  get  a  return  from  your 
land  long  before  your  apples  will  be  in  condition  to  pick.  Then 
again,  a  point  that  I  want  you  to  consider  well  is  the  matter  of 
shipping  strawberries  south.  You  can  grow  strawberries  at 
least  two  or  three  weeks  later  than  we  can  in  Boston.  Here 
is  Nova  Scotia  shipping  thousands  of  crates  to  Boston  after  our 
fruit  is  gone  and  realizing  prices  that  we  never  can  get  from 
our  own  native  fruit.  Why  can't  IVIaine  do  this  same  thing? 
Here  is  a  country  north  of  us  that  ought  to  grow  the  finest  kind 
of  strawberries  and  ship  them  down  to  Boston  and  the  Massa- 
chusetts cities  and  realize  a  profit  from  them  far  greater  than 
you  can  from  dairying,  potato  raising  or  any  of  those  other  hard 
labor  occupations.  That  is  a  question  that  Alaine  ought  to 
consider  well.  I  know  you  are  up  against  the  problem  of 
labor  for  picking  that  crop ;  but  if  you  were  to  take  it  in  time, 
plant  and  take  care  of  your  bed  so  you  will  produce  only  good 
fruit,  the  question  is  very  small,  and  you  can  ship  those  berries 
and  get  them  into  the  market  in  Boston  a  great  deal  quicker 
than  they  do  from  the  South,  which  takes  anywhere  from  forty- 
eight  to  sixty  hours  to  get  varieties  from  Norfolk,  Va.,  into  the 
Boston  market.  You  can  get  varieties  from  Maine  into  the 
Boston  markets  in  twelve  hours  and  they  will  wholesale  any- 
where from  fifteen  to  twenty -cents  a  quart.  It  seems  to  me 
that  point  ought  to  be  strongly  brought  out,  and  some  of  this 
land  that  is  now  lying  idle,  or  being  more  or  less  farmed,  would 
produce  that  strawberry  crop  and  supply  our  markets. 

Currants,  gooseberries  and  those  other  small  fruits  can  also 
be  grown  in  this  country  just  as  well.  The  idea  of  using  cur- 
rants is  becoming  more  strong  in  our  cities  every  year.  They 
are  being  used  largely  for  preserving,  I  think,  jelly  making.  It 
seems  to  me  an  industry  of  that  sort  should  be  worked  up  on 
the  farms.  I  just  happened  to  look  in  your  report  of  last  year 
and  I  saw  recommendations  of  home  work  for  women  on  the 
farm,  among  them  jelly  making  and  all  that  sort  of  thing. 
Right  here  the  small  fruit  comes  in  and  fills  a  place  that  nothing 
else  can.  I  feel  that  the  small  fruit  question  is  hardly  known 
here  in  New  England  as  yet.  We  produce  strawberries  around 
Boston  by  the  acre  in  great  quantities  but  we  over-supply  the 


134  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

market  and  we  have  to  ship  sometimes  into  Maine  and  into  New 
Hampshire  and  into  Vermont.  But,  at  the  same  time,  the  market 
is  not  used  in  the  right  way.  We  are  apt  to  ship  into  a  market 
at  short  notice  and  get  the  varieties  in  there  and  there  is  a  glut 
in  the  market  perhaps — no  way  of  storing  the  way  there  is  for 
apples.  So  the  market  has  got  to  be  studied  from  a  great 
many  points,  and  it  can  be  looked  into  carefully  by  the  Maine 
growers.  I  think  they  will  find  that  they  have  got  a  fine 
opportunity  for  growing  these  small  fruits  and  shipping  them 
south  after  our  crops  are  gone. 

Then  this  question  of  co-operation  among  societies — I  feel 
that  this  is  going  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  outcomes  of  these 
meetings :  We  are  going  to  get  together  and  give  each  other 
ideas  along  lines  that  we  can  all  work  together  on,  and  we  are 
going  to  get  mutual  benefit  from  these  meetings.  Among  other 
things,  there  is  one  thing  that  we  want  to  consider  well,  and 
that  is  keeping  the  young  men  home  on  the  farms.  You  know 
the  rural  communities  supply  the  cities  with  all  the  mechanics, 
clerks,  and  all  the  young  men  that  practically  work  the 
machinery  of  a  large  city,  and  the  farms  of  New  .England  are 
sufifering  on  that  account.  We  are  running  our  farms  largely 
with  old  men,  the  last  generation.  The  younger  people  are  not 
true  to  the  farms,  or  if  they  are  they  don't  go  out  and  study 
methods.  I  know  the  agricultural  colleges  are  doing  a  great 
deal  of  good  in  that  line,  but  at  the  same  time  if  that  isn't  tried 
at  home  you  never  get  the  benefit  from  it  that  the  agricultural 
colleges  should  give.  That  is  a  point  we  all  want  to  get 
together  on  and  devise  means  of  keeping  the  young  men  at  home 
on  the  farm.  The  most  important  asset  that  a  New  England 
farm  can  have  is  a  son  growing  up  ready  to  take  his  father's 
business  and  carry  it  on.  Farming,  agriculture  and  horticul- 
ture in  New  England  should  be  treated  as  a  business  and  have 
business  methods  applied  to  it  the  same  as  any  business  in  a 
large  city  is  run.  And  I  believe  that  a  larger  per  cent,  of 
money  and  a  larger  per  cent,  of  health  can  be  gained  from  the 
New  England  farm  than  from  any  other  business  or  occupation 
that  this  country  knows  at  present. 

And  a  word  on  the  apples,  while  I  am  speaking  of  the  horti- 
cultural interests  of  New  England.  What  we  want  particu- 
larly in  our  large  cities  is  not  so  much  quantity — we  are  getting 


STATE)    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  135 

quantity,  we  are  going  to  get  quantity,  and  we  are  going  to  get 
it  in  abundance  from  the  West  in  the  next  ten  years,  we  are 
going  to  be  filled  with  apples  from  the  Western  States,  apples 
of  very  questionable  quality, — good  in  appearance,  look  fine, 
sell  well,  but  when  the  buyers  come  along  and  know  that  they 
can  get  good  apples  and  get  quality  in  New  England,  I  believe 
they  are  going  to  stick  to  New  England.  At  present  we  are 
buying  in  Boston  apples  such  as  Jonathan,  Ben  Davis  and  that 
sort  of  apple,  which  looks  well,  appears  well  on  the  table — 
certainly  a  fine  apple  to  make  up  a  center  piece  on  a  dinner 
table  or  anything  of  that  sort,  but  they  have  not  the  quality. 
Now  we  can  grow  in  New  England  apples,  and  grow  them 
within  a  few  miles  of  the  large  cities,  apples  that  have  got  qual- 
ity, and  they  have  got  the  appearance,  and  that  is  what  we  want 
to  keep  at  in  New  England  here.  We  want  to  grow  quality. 
Of  course  there  are  chances  to  grow  at  the  same  time  a  quantity 
of  other  fruit  that  we  can  ship  greater  distances,  but  another 
thing  is  we  want  to  grow  more  early  apples.  Here  is  a  market 
in  Boston  for  early  apples.  Williams  were  selling  in  the  Boston 
market  this  year  for  three  to  four  dollars  a  barrel,  other  apples 
in  proportion,  whereas  later  apples  never  would  bring  those 
large  prices  when  grown  in  New  England.  I  believe  the  reason 
why  early  apples  have  been  neglected  in  New  England  is  because 
we  can't  grow  them,  and  haven't  grown  them  fancy.  We  have 
got  to  spray,  we  have  got  to  prune ;  this  matter  of  spraying  has 
got  to  be  brought  out  more  forcibly  here  in  Maine  than  any- 
where else.  You  are  going  to  have  all  the  gypsy  moths,  brown- 
tails,  scales  and  everything  else  we  have  in  Massachusetts,  and 
you  will  find  the  sooner  you  begin  to  spray  and  take  care  of  your 
orchards  the  better  profit  they  will  pay  you.  Spraying  may 
seem  a  lot  of  work,  but  it  has  got  to  come.  All  the  big  orchard- 
ists  in  the  West,  South  and  Middle  States  spray  just  as  system- 
atically as  they  are  picked,  and  they  are  pruned  and  thinned  just 
as  systematically.  And  we  have  got  to  spray  our  small  fruits 
just  the  same,  strawberries,  currants  and  gooseberries,  just  the 
same  as  we  would  larger  fruits.  And  those  methods  applied 
here  in  New  England  will  increase  our  profits  and  our  quality. 
What  we  want  to  look  after  is  quality  and  not  quantity,  so  that 
New  England  will  get  a  name  for  quality  unsurpassed  in  the 
country.     I  have  here  a   few  apples  that  I  bought,  grown  in 


136  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

Massachusetts.  And  chief  among  them  I  want  to  show  you  an 
apple  here — of  course  you  all  know  it — the  Mcintosh — which 
attains  in  Massachusetts  with  good  care,  spraying  and  thinning, 
a  remarkable  size  and  will  sell  in  our  markets  at  home  from  the 
first  of  October,  or  the  loth  about  they  begin  to  come  in  the 
market,  from  the  loth  on  until  this  time  they  will  sell  at  $4  a 
barrel.  That  apple,  I  believe  is  the  highest  type  of  quality  that 
is  grown  in  this  country.  It  cannot  be  shipped  to  England,  or 
from  California  or  Oregon  to  Boston  or  New  York.  But  it  can 
be  grown  here  in  New  England  and  it  can  be  grown  by  spraying 
and  thinning  and  pruning,  without  a  bit  of  scab,  just  as  clean 
as  that  apple.  I  have  seen  hundreds  of  bushels  grown  in  the 
orchard  this  came  from,  and  not  an  apple  with  a  scab  on  it,  and 
it  is  done  by  spraying,  thinning  and  pruning.  You  can't  let  the 
tree  overgrow,  you  can't  let  the  tree  overbear  in  order  to  get  a 
quality  like  that. 

Then  again  here  in  New  England  is  a  great  chance,  particu- 
larly around  Boston  and  the  southern  part  of  Maine  and  New 
Hampshire, — I  think  there  is  a  great  chance  in  pear  culture 
today.  There  are  pear  orchards  that  were  planted  at  the  time 
of  Marshall  P.  Wilder  and  those  old  horticulturists.  But  there 
is  hardly  a  pear  orchard  round  Boston  that  is  worthy  the  name 
today.  The  pears  in  the  Boston  market  either  come  from  Dela- 
ware or  some  of  the  Southern  states  and  are  generally  the  Keifer 
pear,  which  is  miserable  in  quality,  only  fit  for  preserving.  But 
today  I  believe  Massachusetts  and  certain  parts  of  Maine,  par- 
ticularly along  the  seacoast,  southern  New  Hampshire  and 
Rhode  Island  and  possibly  in  Connecticut,  that  pear  growing 
can  be  made  one  of  the  most  profitable  industries  that  we  know 
of  as  yet.  And  this  variety  of  pear  [showing  pear]  can  be 
grown  in  localities  where  no  other  pear  will  grow — that  is,  a 
russet  coat  will  grow  where  a  thin  skinned  Bartlett  pear,  or  the 
type  of  the  Bartlett,  will  be  sure  to  spot  even  with  the  best 
spraying.  This  is  the  Beurre  Bosc  pear,  and  attains  the  usual 
size  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Boston.  Those  pears  this  year, 
in  that  size,  were  put  into  cold  storage  by  the  buyers,  and  they 
are  oftentimes  sold  as  Western  pears,  as  they  have  a  name  in 
New  York  and  Boston  as  being  the  only  pears  that  are  sold 
that  have  the  quality.  But  this  pear  grown  right  here  in  Massa- 
chusetts has  the  quality  and  the  fiavor  of  the  best  pears  that  are 


STATE    POMOLOGICAIv    SOCIETY.  137 

grown  in  this  country.     I  don't  think  there  is  any  section  out- 
side of  Boston  that  can  equal  it. 

The  question  of  spraying  ought  to  be  more  prominently 
brought  up  here  at  this  time,  I  think,  and  more  forcibly 
impressed  on  you  than  I  can  do  it.  But  at  the  same  time  I  think 
you  are  alive  to  the  ravages,  to  the  danger  from  the  ravages  of 
the  gypsy  moth  and  the  scale  and  from  the  brown-tail  moth. 
We  in  Massachusetts  have  had  a  test  of  that  and  it  has  cost  us 
heavily.  The  legislature  has  appropriated  something  like  $500,- 
000  to  be  used  this  coming  year  for  the  suppression  of  the  gypsy 
and  brown-tail  moth.  I  hope  you  will  never  have  to  come  to 
that  because  it  is  certain  to  cost  you  dear  in  the  end,  even  if  you 
only  keep  it  in  suppression  for  a  while.  It  is  one  of  those  things 
that  is  sure  in  the  end,  I  think,  to  adjust  itself.  There  are  para- 
sites being  introduced  into  the  country  which  are  sure  to  find, 
their  level,  and  the  parasite  working  on  the  gypsy  moth  and  the 
brown-tail  will  be  sure  to  keep  it  in  check.  But  in  the  mean 
time  we  cannot  let  our  orchards  and  our  forests  and  our  other 
trees  go,  so  we  are  expending  this  immense  amount  of  money 
to  keep  it  in  partial  suppression  so  that  it  won't  spread  to  the 
other  states.  The  government  has  taken  some  interest  in  the 
matter  and  has  given  us  an  appropriation,  and  it  is  to  keep  that 
pest  confined  in  Massachusetts  where  it  is  at  present  that  the 
government  is  striving  to  do.  But  we  have  to  keep  up  a  large 
appropriation  in  order  to  get  the  government  money  to  carry  on 
the  work.  I  hope  you  won't  get  the  gypsy  moth.  The  brown- 
tail  isn't  so  bad.  I  think  the  gypsy  is  not  as  bad  as  the  scale  in 
a  fruit  orchard,  and  you  are  bound  to  get  that  more  or  less, 
trees  bought  from  nurseries,  bound  to  get  in  even  if  you  think 
the  trees  haven't  the  scale  or  are  fumigated  before  they  come. 

The  question  of  the  growing  of  quality  in  apples  I  think  ought 
to  interest  us  a  great  deal.  I  have  here  an  apple  grown  in 
Massachusetts,  to  some  extent  following  the  Granvenstein, 
called  the  Bay  State  apple.  I  don't  know  whether  it  would  do 
well  in  Maine  but  it  is  a  very  pretty  apple  as  grown  in  Massa- 
chusetts. It  is  of  about  the  same  quality  as  the  Gravenstein, 
comes  in  a  little  later,  just  at  the  time  before  the  Mcintosh  is 
ripe.  It  is  considered  one  of  our  best  table  apples  in  Massa- 
chusetts.    I  don't    know  as  it  would    ever  become    popular  in 


138  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

Maine.  I  don't  know  enough  about  the  hardiness  of  the  tree 
here;  but  in  Massachusetts  it  is  very  hardy,  it  stands  well,  and 
is  going  to  be  planted  more  extensively.  Many  orchards  are 
being  grafted  to  it,  in  the  western  part  of  the  state  particularly. 

The  question  of  small  fruits  ought  to  occupy  more  of  this  con- 
vention; I  believe  that  the  subject  has  been  very  lightly  touched 
upon  by  these  conferences  as  a  rule.  We  in  Massachusetts  of 
course  are  interested  in  it  largely  from  a  commercial  point,  but 
I  think  die  householders  ought  to  be  interested  in  it  more.  You 
ought  to  interest  people  who  own  a  small  amount  of  ground  in 
the  growing  of  these  fruits.  You  can  grow  all  kinds  in  a  small 
amount  of  ground  if  you  only  have  the  ideas  of  general  manage- 
ment in  mind.  You  can  take  strawberries,  raspberries,  black- 
berries, currants  and  gooseberries  and  grow  them  in  connection 
.with  your  larger  fruit  orchards,  in  a  small  garden.  And  it  is 
near  the  large  cities  that  people  ought  to  be  interested  in  this 
work  of  growing  their  own  fruit  gardens.  You  can  get  a  variety 
in  your  own  home  garden  on  the  farm  that  will  give  you  fruit 
from  June  until  the  following  June.  In  that  way  you  increase 
your  life,  you  increase  the  pleasures  of  country  life.  I  want  to 
quote  a  little  passage  from  one  of  the  ex-presidents  of  our  Horti- 
cultural Society,  who  said  at  one  of  our  meetings  :  "Plant  for  the 
people  of  the  distant  cities ;  plant  for  future  generations ;  plant 
for  yourselves ;  so  that  all  may  enjoy  earth's  great  blessing  with- 
>out  stint  or  measure."     Thank  you  for  your  attention. 

Prof.  Hitchings.  Just  a  word  in  reply  to  one  article  in  the 
paper  just  presented.  I  want  the  brother  from  Massachusetts 
to  know  that  Maine  appreciates  small  fruit  culture  and  that  there 
is  being  some  of  it  done  in  the  State,  especially  along  the  straw- 
iDcrry  line.  And  if  the  apple  is  the  king  of  our  fruit,  the  straw- 
iDerry  is  surely  the  queen.  We  have  men  in  the  State  producing 
or  cultivating  anywhere  from  two  to  six  acres  of  strawberries 
and  those  men  are  getting  a  yield  of  from  eight  to  thirteen 
thousand  quarts  on  the  acre  of  the  best  berries  ever  raised,  a 
better  quality  than  we  can  raise  in  A'lassachusetts,  and  the  net 
price  in  Boston  markets  is  between  ten  and  eleven  cents  a  quart, 
the  average  yield  being  about  8,000  quarts  to  the  acre.  So  you 
can  figure  the  profit  in  strawberry  raising  in  Maine. 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  139 

Mr.  Wheeler.    Isn't  that  done  mostly  near  Portland,  or  south? 

Prof.  Hitchings.  We  have  them  as  far  east  as  Hancock,  over 
almost  to  Washington  county. 

Mr.  Wheeler.  It  was  my  intention  to  apply  my  remarks  more 
to  the  northern  part  of  the  State,  growing  them  later  and  ship- 
ping them  south  to  us.  Your  berries  in  the  southern  part  of 
the  State  are  good  but  come  in  conflict  with  our  Massachusetts 
berries,  therefore  flooding  the  market  at  a  time  when  the  prices 
are  low  and  the  quality  of  the  berries  in  coming  that  distance 
might  not  be  able  to  compete  with  the  nearby  strawberries.  I 
had  more  the  idea  of  bringing  the  matter  home  to  the  northern 
part  of  the  State  where  you  would  be  able  to  reach  Boston  within 
fifteen  hours  of  shipment  possibly,  and  then  being  later  would 
be  able  to  supply  the  market  after  our  own  fruit  was  gone. 

John  W.  Clark,  North  Hadley,  Mass.,  representing  Massa- 
chusetts Fruit  Growers'  Association. 

I  am  glad  to  be  here  to  represent  the  fruit  growers  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  as  I  understand  it  the  question  before  this  meeting, 
before  the  delegates  from  the  different  societies  is  in  regard  to 
a  national  law  being  passed  to  control  the  packing  and  grading 
of  our  fruits,  the  apple  especially,  and  to  get  the  views  of  the 
different  organizations. 

Now  the  importance  of  this  question  no  one  disputes.  How 
it  shall  be  done,  and  when  it  shall  be  done,  may  be  a  question. 
But  it  is  an  important  question,  and  whenever  anything  is  done 
about  it,  I  think  we  should  carefully  consider  what  we  are  doing 
because  it  is  easier  to  go  slow,  you  will  get  there  quicker  to  go 
slow  and  not  do  a  thing  that  you  will  wish  you  had  not  done  and 
have  to  take  it  back. 

Now  this  is  a  very  important  question.  The  origin  of  this, 
I  suppose,  is  the  Canadian  Fruit  Marks  Act.  That  as  I  under- 
stand it,  I  am  sorry  that  I  cannot  give  you  all  the  details,  and  if 
any  one  here  knows  just  what  the  act  is  I  wish  they  would  cor- 
rect me,  because  I  would  like  to  know  exactly — provides  that 
a  No.  I  Baldwin  (I  take  the  Baldwin  for  that  is  our  chief  apple) 
shall  be  not  less  than  two  and  one-half  inches  in  diameter  and 
free  from  defects.  If  apples  different  from  that  are  put  into 
a  barrel  marked  "No.  i  Baldwins"  inspectors  are  appointed  to 


I40  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY, 

inspect  each  and  every  barrel,  if  they  see  fit,  and  where  they  see 
it  comes  below  that  standard  to  condemn  it.  Now  let  me  ask 
you  one  question.  Does  Maine  today  want  to  grade  their  No.  i 
Baldwin  apples  two  and  one-half  inches,  free  from  defects? 
If  so,  what  proportion  of  your  apples  will  be  No.  i  ?  I  don't 
believe  one-third  of  them  would  be  this  year.  Now  are  you 
willing  that  a  law  should  be  passed  that  says  you  shall  not  put 
in  a  barrel  of  apples  an  apple  less  than  two  and  one-half  inches 
in  diameter  and  free  from  defects  and  send  it  to  market  as  a 
good  apple?  I  am  afraid  when  you  think  it  over  carefully  you 
will  say  "Go  slow."  Now  I  don't  think — and  I  speak  from  the 
point  of  a  man  who  makes  his  living  growing  fruit — I  am  not 
here  simply  to  talk  theory — it  is  what  affects  my  pocket,  and  it 
is  my  fruit  that  fills  my  pocket  if  I  get  anything  in  it,  and  it  is 
for  my  interest  to  fill  it  as  full  as  I  can.  Now  you  take  this 
year,  the  dry  weather  and  the  heavy  crops  have  made  your  apples 
small,  under  size.  Now  in  grading  my  apples  my  rule  is  this, 
grade  my  apples  according  to  their  general  style,  of  the  whole 
crop, — if  my  apples  run  large  throughout,  to  make  them  run 
large;  if  they  run  medium,  to  make  them  medium  grade,  and 
if  they  run  small  to  put  in  smaller  apples  than  I  would  if  they 
were  medium  or  large,  provided  that  apple  is  perfect.  Because 
I  would  rather  have  in  a  barrel  of  No.  i  apples  an  apple  two 
inches  in  diameter  that  is  perfect,  well  colored,  not  wormy,  not 
a  defect  on  it,  but  a  smooth,  solid,  bright  colored  apple,  perfect 
in  form  and  free  from  defects, — I  would  rather  have  that  than 
an  apple  three  inches  through  that  is  wormy  or  has  hard  knots 
in  it.  It  will  give  better  satisfaction.  And  if  your  apples  run 
even,  they  won't  find  fault  with  them  either,  if  there  are  more 
or  less  of  this  smaller  grade ;  but  make  them  run  even  and  not 
put  the  large  ones  at  the  face  end  and  the  little  ones  at  the 
bottom.  Of  course  when  you  face  a  barrel  of  apples  you  face 
them  up  with  the  best  you  have ;  but  don't  put  any  more.  Just 
face  them  up  with  good  nice  apples  and  put  in  a  few  just  one 
layer  below  the  face  and  then  fill  your  barrel  up  just  as  the 
apples  run  from  the  face  end  to  the  top,  or  the  bottom,  which- 
ever that  may  be,  and  mark  them,  if  it  is  a  No.  i  grade  mark 
them  a  No.  i  grade,  and  when  they  open  that  barrel  they  see  just 
what  they  are.     Now  I  wouldn't  want  to  have  a  law  enacted  that 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  I4I 

would  tell  me  that  I  shouldn't  put  on  the  market  only  such  and 
such  apples.  It  don't  go  down.  It  don't  fit.  It  wouldn't  with 
me  anyway. 

Now  I  would  rather  see  this  done,  I  would  rather  see  a  law 
enacted  that  a  man  should  put  his  name  on  every  package  of 
apples  that  he  puts  on  the  market,  the  name  of  that  variety,  its 
grade,  and  the  place  where  he  lives ;  then  send  it  to  the  market, 
and  when  they  open  that  barrel,  if  a  man  buys  it  and  finds  it 
isn't  what  it  is  labeled,  the  grade  it  is  said  to  be,  if  he  goes  to 
market  the  next  day  and  sees  that  same  man's  name  there  he 
will  examine  that  barrel  of  apples  to  see  if  it  is  like  the  other, 
and  if  he  gets  bit  more  than  once,  you  may  rest  assured  that  he 
will  be  careful  not  to  get  bit  the  third  time.  In  that  way  we  will 
help  the  grading  of  apples.  Now  before  any  such  law  could  be 
enacted,  we  have  got  to  begin  at  the  bottom  and  that  is,  grow 
better  fruit.  Now  we  like  to  have  people  pat  us  on  the  back 
and  tell  what  nice  things  we  have,  what  nice  fruit  we  grow,  and 
that  we  can  do  better  here  than  anywhere  else  in  this  great  land, 
but  is  that  the  way  to  do?  That  don't  improve  us  one  bit. 
When  we  stay  at  home  and  look  at  ourselves,  we  think  we  are 
somebody.  When  we  go  away  and  mix  with  other  people,  we 
don't  know  where  we  are — we  are  not  half  as  big  as  when  we 
were  at  home ;  and  so  with  our  fruits.  We  have  got  to  begin  at 
the  bottom  and  grow  better  fruit,  for  we  don't  grow  our  fruits 
in  Massachusetts,  we  don't  grow  apples  in  Massachusetts,  and 
I  think  a  majority  of  you  here  in  Maine  don't  grow  apples. 
What  do  you  do  to  grow  them?  Set  out  the  trees,  gather  the 
fruit, — that  is  about  all.  Now  before  we  are  ready  for  any  such 
legislation  as  is  asked  for,  we  have  got  to  grow  better  fruit. 
And  then,  why  if  we  grow  better  fruit,  and  only  good  fruit,  why 
what  use  is  there  for  this  legislation?  You  are  smart  enough 
to  look  out  for  your  own  interests,  and  I  try  to  be  to  look  out 
for  mine  and  to  do  what  is  going  to  give  me  the  best  returns. 
Now  these  Western  apples — they  bring  up  instances  of  the 
Oregon  fruit,  the  Washington  fruit,  the  prices  they  get — yes, 
they  do  get  big  prices,  but  mark  this — are  you  willing  to  grade 
your  apples  the  same  as  they  do?  Their  rule  is  that  no  apple 
shall  go  into  a  box  that  has  any  defect  at  all, — even  if  while 
picking  the  stem  is  pulled  out  that  apple  is  not  packed  in  that 


142  STATE    POMOLOGTCAL    SOCIETY. 

box.       Do  you  throw  away  every  apple,  and  not  call  it  a  first- 
class  apple,  large  and  nice  apple  with  no  defect  about  it  except 
the  stem  has  been  pulled  out?     You  have  got  to  grade  your 
apples  a  great  deal  better  than  you  ever  did  yet,  I  am  afraid,  if 
you  are  going  to  bring  yourself  down  to  what  you  say  other 
people  are  doing  and  getting  the  best  prices.     So  that  I  say  again 
at  the  foundation,  the  growers  must  grow  better  fruit,  handle 
their  fruit  better,  and  as  they  do  they  will  for  their  own  defense 
put  their  fruit  up  well  and  send  it  to  market  and  get  good  prices. 
Now  a  commission  merchant  was  saying  to  me  the  other  day 
that  there  ought  to  be  a  law  passed  forbidding  anything  less 
than  two  inches  in  diameter  to  be  shipped  to  market  as  a  No.  2. 
I  said,  "You  don't  know  what  you  are  talking  about."       Says 
I,  "It  is  all  right  for  your  side,  but  it  is  not  all  right  for  the 
side  of  the  grower.       It  would  be  a  very  nice  thing  for  you  to 
have  nothing  but  nice  fruit  coming  here  to  market,  but  we  that 
grow  it  have  got  to  pay  our  bills,  and  we  have  got  to  be  careful 
that  we  get  out  of  our  fruit  all  that  there  is  in  it."       Now  take 
the  No.  2  apples,  take  one  case,  for  instance.       I  try  to  get  out 
of  my  No.  2  apples  enough  to  pay  me  for  handling  my  crop  and 
doing  a  larger  portion  of  the  work  so  that  the  No.   i  apples 
belong  to  me  after  paying  my  bills.      Now  you  see  No.  2  apples 
don't  bring  much.       Now  I  will  say  this  that  last  year,  and  I 
think  this  year  will  be  no  worse  than  last  year,  my  No.  2  apples 
sold   for  $2.25  in  Boston  a  barrel.       Why,  that  wasn't  a  bad 
price  for  No.  2  apples.       We  sold  them  in  January  and  Febru- 
ary.      If  you  put  your  apples  onto  the  market  now,  you  won't 
get  much  of  anything  for  them  after  paying  expenses,  that  is, 
your  No.  2  apples,  after  paying  expenses,  the  cost  of  barrels, 
commission   and   railroad   cost.        Everybody  is   shipping  their 
soft  fruit  that  is  not  going  to  keep,  to  stand  up  any  length  of 
time,  into  market  now  or  they  won't  get  anything  for  it.      Now 
if  you  can  arrange  it  so  that  you  can  hold  back  that  fruit  until 
the  market  is  cleared,  there  is  demand  for  such  fruit.       Not 
every  one  in  the  cities  can  buy  a  barrel  of  apples — of  nice  choice 
apples,  or  a  bushel  of  nice  choice  apples ;  they  won't  do  it.     But 
there  is  a  large  number  there  that  will  buy  a  cheaper  grade  of 
fruit  when  they  wouldn't  buy  any  fruit  at  all  if  it  wasn't  for 
this  cheaper  grade.       And  as  long  as  there  is  a  call  for     this 
cheaper  grade  of  fruit,  put  it  up  for  what  it  is,  send  it  to  market 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY,  143 

for  what  it  is,  and  let  it  be  sold  for  what  it  is.  No  one  is 
cheated.  If  you  should  put  your  fruit  up  as  No.  i  and  sell  it 
as  No.  I,  with  a  peck  of  No.  i  fruit  at  the  face  end  and  the  rest 
poor,  why  then  of  course  there  would  be  deception;  but  if  you 
put  it  up  honestly  it  will  sell  honestly  and  it  is  an  honest  trade 
all  the  way  through.  You  are  benefited  and  the  buyer  is 
benefited.  I  know  that  it  is  important  that  we  send  good  fruit 
to  market.  It  is  for  our  own  interest  to,  but  I  don't  want  to 
see  a  law  enacted  that  tells  me  I  shall  do  this  and  I  shan't  do 
that.  It  goes  against  me,  and  I  know  it  does  you  too.  My 
disposition  is  not  so  much  different  from  what  the  rest  of  you 
have.  I  would  like,  as  I  said  before,  to  see  a  law  enacted,  and 
that  would  harm  no  one,  that  every  man  shall  put  his  name  on 
his  barrel,  the  grade  of  fruit  it  is,  the  name  of  the  fruit  and 
the  place  that  he  lives.  That,  I  think,  is  all  that  is  necessary  to 
do  today.  By  and  by,  if  you  want  to  do  more,  when  you  get  up 
to  this  and  grow  your  fruit  good  enough, — that  is  the  time  I 
think  to  bring  the  question  of  legislation,  to  have  restrictions 
put  on  the  packing  and  grading  of  fruit,  and  not  now. 

Now  this  is  about  all  I  have  to  say  on  this  line,  and  I  know 
in  speaking  on  this  question — I  am  satisfied  at  least — that  I 
speak  just  about  the  same  as  all  our  practical  fruit  growers,  for 
it  was  brought  up  at  our  meeting  last  year,  and  I  think  it  was 
when  your  representative  was  there  and  spoke  in  regard  to  it, 
and  one  or  two  just  touched  on  it  after  he  spoke  of  it,  and 
then  I  got  up  and  I  told  just  what  I  thought  as  near  as  I  could, 
and  I  said — I  used  our  friend,  Dr.  Twitchell's,  own  story,  I 
stole  a  little  of  his  thunder,  I  said  I  thought  we  were  just  about 
in  the  same  position  that  the  little  boy  was  when  the  minister 
asked  all  that  wanted  to  go  to  heaven  to  raise  their  hands,  and 
all  but  one  raised,  their  hands,  and  he  turned  to  him :  "Johnnie, 
don't  you  want  to  go  to  heaven  ?"  "Not  yet."  And  so  I  think 
in  regard  to  this  law,  it  is  simply  "not  yet."  Thanking  you  for 
your  time  and  attention. 


T.  L.  Kinney,  South  Hero,  Vermont,  President  of  Vermont 
Horticultural    Society. 
I  shall  have  surely  to  dififer  from  my  brother  on  this  matter 
of  going  slow.       I  never  met  an  audience  in  New  England  yet 


144  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

where  I  felt  at  liberty  to  say  "Go  slow."  We  must  put  out 
more  energy  and  go  faster.  How  do  any  of  us  expect,  even 
farmers,  to  ride  in  an  automobile  if  we  don't  go  fast.  Now  the 
only  question  is,  to  keep  your  balance  when  you  turn  the  cor- 
ners. But  you  have  got  to  go  fast,  and  the  apple  growers  of 
New  England  have  got  to  stir  and  move  quickly.  We  have 
got  to  grow  up  apple  trees  that  will  bear  fruit  in  less  years ;  a 
few  years  ago  we  thought  it  took  twelve  or  fourteen.  The  day 
has  gone  by  when  slow  action  is  asked  for  in  New  England. 
We  have  got  to  move  quickly  and  this  matter  of  the  Fruit 
Marks  Act  of  Canada  is  something  that  we  want  to  consider 
today  and  with  a  great  deal  of  vigor  and  determination  and 
energy.  Now  we  have  learned  how  to  grow  good  fruit,  as 
these  tables  exhibit  to  you.  We  have  learned  how  to  put  it  on 
the  table  in  the  condition  that  it  will  show  well,  and  we  never 
any  of  us  think  of  such  a  thing  as  bringing  our  fruit  here  and 
exhibiting  it  in  a  poor  condition,  with  good  apples  in  the  top  of 
the  box,  and  poor  ones  in  the  middle  when  we  ship  them  to 
market,  as  our  brother  has  said.  Now  an  apple  that  comes  to 
market  and  sells  for  No.  i  is  to  be  two  and  one-half  inches  in 
diameter.  Now  don't  think  that  you  are  to  be  frightened,  or 
scared,  if  you  have  sold  a  barrel  of  apples  according  to  the 
Marks  Act  of  Canada  and  there  is  one  poor  apple  found  in  it 
you  are  going  to  be  taken  up  and  sent  to  jail  or  prison  for  it. 
There  is  a  provision  there,  as  there  is  in  every  law,  a  provision 
in  that  Marks  Act  that  says  that  if  there  is  more  than  a  certain 
amount  of  apples  in  that  package  that  don't  come  up  to  the 
standard  then  they  will  be  called  to  account.  They  are  liberal. 
A  very  liberal  amount  is  allowed  by  the  law.  And  officers  are 
provided,  inspectors,  to  take  that  matter  into  consideration,  and 
they  are  not  allowed  to  take  up  a  man  becaus.e  of  a  few  apples 
found  in  a  barrel  of  good  apples.  But  the  law  is  that  we  shall 
protect  ourselves  and  our  customers  by  putting  up  just  what  we 
have  marked  to  be  put  up. 

Now  what  is  the  condition  of  things  in  New  England  today? 
I  know  it  is  in  Vermont,  and  I  feel  quite  sure  it  is  in  Massachu- 
setts, New  Hampshire  and  Maine,  where  apples  are  grown, 
there  are  a  great  many  farmers  that  won't  risk  their  apples,  to 
sort  a  barrel  of  apples  today.  Why,  there  is  nothing  to  govern 
that  package,  govern  the  sorting  of  that  package  after  it  gets 


STATE    POMOLOGICAI.    SOCIETY.  145 

to  market — nothing  to  govern  it — and  how  does  he  know,  what 
has  he  got  to  tell  him  what  is  a  No.  i,  what  is  a  No.  2?  There 
isn't  half  the  apple  growers  in  Vermont  that  know  that  two  and 
one-half  inches  is  required  by  the  commercial  societies  of  the 
country  for  a  No.  i  apple,  that  two  inches  in  diameter  is 
required  for  a  No.  2  apple.  Now  what  they  want  to  know  is 
to  know  just  what  a  No.  i  apple  is.  Why,  it  is  a  sound,  per- 
fect apple,  two  and  one-half  inches  in  diameter  or  more.  Now 
is  any  one  fearful  of  putting  up  a  box  or  barrel  of  apples  with 
those  conditions?  No,  just  as  quick  as  they  know  that  to  be  a 
fact.  Then  if  a  quart,  or  peck,  or  whatever  the  law  states,  is 
found — then  you  are  convicted,  not  otherwise. 

Now  the  Marks  Act  requires  that  those  inspectors  watch  care- 
fully the  producers.  They  are  working  for  the  producer  as 
much  as  they  are  for  the  consumer.  They  are  to  watch  them 
carefully  and  if  they  think  there  is  an  inclination  for  fraud  on 
the  part  of  the  farmer  or  speculator  who  is  buying  the  apples 
and  shipping  them,  then  go  for  them  strong.  That  is  the  way 
with  us  Yankees  here  in  New  England,  we  want  the  law  first  to 
act  upon,  and  then  we  are  going  to  use  good  judgment  in  the 
action  of  that  law. 

Now  we  want  that  law  just  as  quick  as  we  can  get  it.  Don't 
go  slow.  Don't  wait.  We  want  to  consider  that  today.  Isn't 
it  sensible,  isn't  it  right,  that  any  product  which  we  may  produce 
in  the  form  of  apples,  the  standard  fruit  of  New  England, 
should  have  a  standard  by  law  which  makes  it  entitled  to  its 
position  on  the  market  or  anywhere  else?  Isn't  it  entitled  to  it? 
Then  if  it  is  entitled  to  it,  give  it  the  benefit  of  your  legislation. 
Give  it  the  benefit  of  your  Government  legislation.  If  the 
Government  doesn't  legislate  to  this  efifect,  some  of  the  states 
are  going  to  at  the  next  session  of  their  legislatures.  We  almost 
had  such  a  legislation  in  the  State  of  Vermont  nearly  two  years 
ago.  The  bill  almost  went  through,  and  I  am  sorry  it  didn't. 
It  was  just  that  slow  condition  of  our  old  New  England  farmers 
at  just  the  last  minute.  We  don't  want  any  more  of  that  slow 
action.  That  bill  should  have  passed  two  years  ago  and  we 
should  have  had  two  years'  experience  today  to  show  to  the 
people  of  Maine  what  the  conditions  were  after  trial.  What 
is  the  use  of  waiting  for  an  automobile  if  you  have  got  the 
money  to  buy  it  and  you  want  to  ride  fast?      Now  is  the  time 


146  STATE    POMOI^OGICAIv    SOCIETY. 

to  do  it  before  it  is  out  of  fashion.  It  is  just  so  in  this  legisla- 
tion business.  Remember  that  it  is  the  people  here  at  home^ 
it  is  the  fruit  growers  in  this  assembly  here  that  are  going  to 
push  this  matter  up  or  down;  we  are  going  to  be  energetic  or 
we  are  going  to  be  slow,  and  we  are  going  to  make  that  law  if 
anybody  does.  The  politicians  in  this  country  are  not  going  to 
make  that  law  unless  they  are  driven  to  it  by  the  people  who  are 
interested  in  apples. 

Now  we  want  to  consider  just  a  little  more  the  very  conditions 
which  we  are  laboring  under  today  as  a  commercial  growing  cen- 
ter of  the  best  late  keeping  winter  apples  there  are  in  the  world. 
You  may  talk  about  the  Pacific  coast — there  is  no  place  on  the 
face  of  the  earth — perhaps  the  Canadian  provinces  can  grow  as 
good  a  winter  apple  as  we  can,  but  no  better,  they  have  got  their 
markets  for  theirs,  they  are  going  across  the  water  and  into  the 
Northwest — we  have  got  these  great  markets  to  fill  here  in  the 
United  States.  I  don't  care  if  we  never  ship  another  barrel 
to  Europe,  we  can  consume  them  all  here.  What  we  want  to 
do  is  to  put  these  apples  on  the  market  in  a  condition  that  they 
will  bring  the  best  price  and  that  nobody  will  be  afraid  to  buy 
them. 

Now  the  matter  was  brought  up  here  by  the  Massachusetts 
gentleman  the  other  day  about  those  poor  apples  in  Vermont, 
and  those  poor  apples  found  here  in  your  little  town.  Now  I 
don't  think  it  is  any  disgrace  that  those  poor  apples  were  found 
out  here  in  this  store.  There  may  be  some  persons  so  poor 
that  they  feel  that  they  can't  afford  to  pay  more  than  ten  cents 
for  that  package  of  apples — and  it  wasn't  a  big  price  for  them. 
I  don't  care  if  they  were  too  poor  to  peel, — they  could  be  eaten 
without  peeling  by  some  poor  child  who  hadn't  money  enough 
to  buy  anything  better.  Now  then,  the  Marks  Law  in  Canada 
and  the  one  we  are  going  to  have  in  the  United  States,  isn't 
going  to  forbid  us  from  sending  our  poor  apples  to  market  at 
all.  When  you  consider  as  the  gentleman  has  considered,  the 
No.  2  is  worth  more  money  to  the  person  who  wants  just  actual 
worth  in  those  apples  than  the  No.  i.  Why?  Because  the  No. 
I's  are  very  large  apples,  many  of  them  much  larger  than  two 
and  one-half  inches  in  diameter,  and  there  isn't  so  much  weight 
as  in  the  small  grade  of  apples.  You  don't  expect  you  are 
going  to  get  an  apple  more  than  two  inches  in  diameter — or  not 


STATB    POMOLOGICAI,    S0CIE;TY.  I47 

many  of  them,  for  No.  2;  but  they  are  going  way  above  two 
and  one-half,  many  of  them,  in  a  barrel  of  Northern  Spies  such 
as  are  shown  here.  In  a  No.  2  barrel  they  will  be  restricted 
down  to  about  two  inches.  You  may  put  larger  ones  in,  but 
what  would  be  the  use  when  they  can  go  into  the  No.  i  ?  Now 
then,  that  No.  2  barrel  and  a  No.  i  don't  amount  to  much  this 
year — I  should  prefer  this  year  in  putting  up  my  stock  to  have 
all  No.  2 — I  should  prefer  in  sending  my  apples  to  Boston  this 
winter,  and  I  have  got  seventeen  hundred  barrels,  not  to  send 
one  No.  i  barrel  if  I  could  have  a  law  that  would  protect  me  on 
No.  2.  But  what  does  the  market  think  of  No.  2s?  Why, 
they  think  a  No.  2  is  no  good  at  all — they  don't  know  whether 
they  are  getting  an  apple  or  slops.  It  is  a  jockey  package,  that 
is  the  way  they  consider  it  on  the  market.  They  don't  care 
what  you  send  them  as  an  apple  grower  if  you  will  only  let 
them  know  just  what  is  in  that  barrel.  If  it  is  slush  in  the 
middle  or  isn't  very  good,  he  has  got  a  place  to  trade  that  off, 
there  are  lots  of  people  that  look  for  that  kind  of  goods.  Now 
if  we  had  an  act  saying  that  No.  is  shall  be  such  and  such.  No. 
2s  shall  be  such  and  such,  to  accommodate  the  condition  of  our 
apples  today,  I  would  prefer  all  my  apples  should  be  put  up  as 
No.  2S — I  could  face  them  so  nicely  and  they  would  look  so 
nicely,  no  one  would  consider  them  under  the  head  of  No.  2, 
When  he  speaks  about  the  man's  name  being  placed  on  the 
apples, — the  man's  name  has  got  to  be  placed  under  the  Marks 
Act  in  Canada,  and  the  grader,  or  both — or  the  owner  or  both — 
so  that  they  can  trace  them  right  back.  It  don't  matter 
whether  they  find  that  apple  in  Montreal  or  across  the  water 
or  somewhere  else,  they  can  trace  it  right  back.  Your  apples 
have  got  to  be  marked  just  the  same  by  this  Marks  Act  as  the 
gentleman  asked  you  to  have  them  marked.  But  what  do  we 
care  about  our  name  specially,  if  we  have  this  grade  mark? 
That  makes  all  clear.  We  have  got  as  good  apples  in  Mame  as 
in  Vermont,  and  just  as  good  in  Vermont  as  in  Maine.  The 
question  today  is  the  packing,  the  grading,  the  marking  and  the 
shipping.  We  are  working  today  to  this  combination,  this 
gathering  together  of  representatives  from  other  societies  and  * 
we  know  it  is  going  to  help  our  societies  to  be  heard  and  go  back 
and  report  what  we  see  here  and  learn  here,  and  we  hope  it  will 
10 


148  STATE    POMOLOGICAI.    SOCIETY. 

be  some  gain  to  you.  Now  when  we  get  together,  so  that  we 
can  work  in  combination  and  on  equal  terms  all  over  this  great 
country  of  ours,  how  much  better  it  will  be  for  the  whole  of  us. 
How  much  better  it  will  be  for  the  smallest  apple  towns  here  in 
Maine.  Now  the  buyers,  do  you  know  what  they  are  doing? 
Some  years  they  come  and  they  want  the  largest  apple,  they 
won't  touch  a  No.  2.  A  year  ago  they  wouldn't  buy  No.  2 
Russet,  Bellflower,  Talman  Sweet,  wouldn't  have  them.  They 
would  take  No.  2  if  we  gave  them  No.  i  to  have  them.  Look 
at  the  schemes  of  these  commercial  men.  You  know  that  cor- 
porations are  sometimes  said  to  have  no  souls.  That  means  a 
good  deal;  that  means  more  than  just  a  soul,  sometimes,  doing 
all  their  business  through  an  agent.  They  have  an  agent  in  the 
office  in  New  York,  wherever  the  association  is  located;  he 
does  all  the  fighting.  They  have  another  one  to  go  about  the 
country  and  find  out  what  the  supply  is  and  what  the  demand  is 
going  to  be ;  they  have  another  agent  to  go  into  the  community 
and  see  what  they  can  do  with  the  farmer,  and  they  beat  you 
down  and  down  and  down  until  they  get  them  as  low  as  they 
can,  and  then  they  will  make  their  purchase.  Now  then  when 
apples  are  plenty  and  they  have  got  a  good  market  for  winter 
apples,  in  order  to  make  good  sales  and  good  returns  they  are 
not  going  to  put  any  slush  in  the  middle  of  the  barrels  that  year. 
They  won't  take  the  No.  2s.  This  year  they  w^ant  everything 
they  can  get  and  they  are  putting  everything  into  the  middle  of 
the  barrel. 

Now  where  is  my  reputation?  My  reputation  is  at  stake  in 
the  hands  of  these  speculators  in  New  York  who  care  no  more 
for  Maine  orchards  than  they  do  for  any  other  people  any- 
where else.  Now  give  us  this  legislation.  Give  it  to  us  now. 
If  you  can  get  the  thing  going  any  quicker  or  any  better  by 
starting  it  in  your  Maine  legislature,  commence  here  and  work 
out  into  the  National  legislation.  If  you  can  do  better  to  go 
right  to  the  National  legislature,  go  right  off.  The  dairymen 
have  a  law  to  protect  their  butter,  and  it  is  worth  more  today 
than  ever  before.  We  want  to  protect  the  apple  just  the  same. 
I  don't  know  but  the  day  will  come  when  we  will  protect  our 
orchards  from  insects  and  pests  of  every  kind  through  legis- 
lation. I  may  have  a  neighbor  who  won't  care  much  about  the 
good  condition  of  the  orchards  for  the  next  few  vears  and  he 


state;  pomological  socie;ty.  149 

lets  the  insects  go  where  they  are  a  mind  to.  Legislation  is 
something  we  need  along  every  line  of  business  transaction, 
whether  it  is  in  commercial  lines,  whether  it  is  insurance  offices, 
banking  institutions,  trust  companies,  or  on  the  farm — the  law 
is  what  stands  and  the  law  is  what  we  are  going  to  stand  by,  and 
let  us  make  these  laws  when  they  are  needed  and  make  them 
just  as  well  as  we  can.  Don't  go  slow.  Study  up  these  laws, 
read  the  Fruit  Marks  Act,  and  read  the  considerations  of  the 
societies  along  these  lines  in  other  states.  Look  at  the  State  of 
Oregon.  Just  a  few  years  ago  Oregon,  when  they  first  com- 
menced to  produce  those  beautiful  apples  that  are  almost  beat- 
ing the  world  today — some  other  sections  are  keeping  up  with 
them, — their  apples  were  all  bought  by  men  in  California,  rich 
corporations.  They  marked  those  packages  California  fruit 
and  they  went  out  to  the  world  as  the  finest  fruit  that  ever  was 
grown.  California  can't  today,  and  never  could,  grow  so  fine 
an  apple  as  they  did  in  Oregon.  Pretty  soon  Oregon  found  it 
out.  What  did  they  do?  Did  they  go  slow?  The  people, 
the  fruit  growers  of  Oregon,  got  together  and  they  called  upon 
the  legislature  to  pass  a  law  that  every  package  of  apples  that 
went  out  of  Oregon  should  be  labeled  "Oregon  Fruit."  Simple 
law.  Plain  law.  No  use  going  slow  about  that.  Grown  in 
Oregon,  let  it  be  marked  "Oregon."  Don't  let  California  carry 
ofif  the  honors  for  this  fine  fruit.  And  after  that  California 
people  went  down  to  buy  the  fruit  and  they  had  to  sell  it  as 
Oregon  fruit,  and  Oregon  stands  high  in  the  estimation  of  the 
world  today.  And  we  in  New  England  by  proper  legislation, 
and  proper  agitation,  and  proper  work,  and  prompt  work,  and 
quick  work,  may  bring  our  standard  as  high  as  Oregon  or  any 
other  State  in  the  United  States.     Thank  you. 

Sec.  Knozvlton.  Considerable  has  been  said  here  in  regard 
to  the  Fruit  Marks  Act,  and  I  think  with  many  of  us  it  is  not 
quite  understood  what  that  act  has  accomplished  and  is  accom- 
plishing in  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  Now  a  gentleman  from 
Ontario  is  here  and  he  can  give  us  some  idea,  I  think,  of  what 
that  law  has  done  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  Only  a  few 
years  ago,  before  this  law  went  into  effect,  Maine  fruit  rated 
in  the  EngHsh  market  higher  than  the  Canadian  fruit.  At  that 
time  as  a  rule  I  think  the  Maine  fruit  was  put  up  better  than  the 
Canadian    fruit.     They  went  to  work   and    passed  this    Fruit 


150  state;  pomological  society. 

Marks  Act,  and,  through  its  influence  I  think,  the  situation  has 
been  changed.  Canadian  apples  are  worth  more  there  than 
Maine  fruit.  And  I  want  these  people  to  hear  from  Mr.  Elliott 
of  Ontario  in  regard  to  the  operation  of  that  law  in  Canada. 

Mr.  Elliott.     When  I  look  over  this  large  assembly  of  fruit 
growers  through  the  State  of  Maine  and  think  of  some  other 
assemblages  of    people    of    Canada,  my    own    Province,    fruit 
growers  also,  I  am  somewhat  in  the  position  of  a  certain  hotel 
man  when  he  was  entertaining  a  large  number  of  members  of 
the  legislature  in  a  legislative  town.     He  thought  that  they  were 
getting  just  a  little  mixed  in  the  corridors  of  his  hotel  and  he 
put  up  a  notice  reading  something  like  this  "The  members  of 
the  legislature  will  come  in  to  their  meals  first  and  the  gentlemen 
afterwards."     Well,  he  thought  that  hardly  conveyed  the  right 
idea  and  he  put  another  below  it.     "N.  B.     Loafers  and  black- 
guards are  not  allowed  in  the  corridors  of  this  hotel  mingling 
with  the  members  of  the  legislature  because  it  is  hard  to  tell  the 
one  from  the  other."     I  can  hardly  realize  that  I  am  across  that 
imaginary  line  and  on  that  side  of  it  where  the  stars  and  stripes 
rule  supreme.     There  is  no  emblem  in  this  hall  that  tells  me  I 
am  in  the  United  States.     I  want  to  tell  you  that  if  you  were  in 
the  city  of  Toronto,  if  there  was  only  one  solitary  representa- 
tive from  across  the  border — what  would  we  do?     Why,  we 
would  have  the  flag  of  Great  Britain  that  for  a  thousand  years 
has  braved  the  battle  and  the  breeze,  and  we  would  have  the 
American  flag^,  both  draped  together,  emblematical  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  all  this  ought  to  be.     The  two  flags  together — what 
could  they  not  accomplish?     They  could  make  war,  but  they 
would  not  make  war.     They  could  command  peace,  and  the 
golden  wings  of  peace  would  descend  upon  the  earth.     Those 
two  flags  together — what  do  they  represent?     They  represent 
alike  the  liberty  of  the  subject;   they  represent  alike  that  great 
principle  that  every  man  is  entitled  to  happiness  as  long  as  in 
the  pursuit  of  happiness  he  does  not  infringe  upon  any  one  else's 
happiness ;    they  represent  education ;    they  represent  civiliza- 
tion ;    they  represent  civil  and  religious  liberty.     And  this  they 
represent,  and  will  continue  to  represent,  as  thus  they  are  draped 
together. 

I  am  sorry  that  I  am  not  a  fruit  grower  to  any  great  extent,  and 
I  am  more  sorry  that  the  Canada  Fruits  Act,  that  I  have  carried 


STATE    POMOLOGICAIv    SOCIETY.  I5I 

in  my  grip  ever  since  that  grip  was  sent  to  me,  was  left  at  home 
only  a  few  weeks  ago.  I  am  not  going  to  give  you  what  I  say 
as  being  absolute  authority.  In  some  respects  it  may  be  wrong. 
I  want  to  say,  however,  that  to  quite  an  extent,  I  disagree  with 
some  of  Ihe  men  who  have  spoken.  I  am  speaking,  you  under- 
stand, from  across  the  line;  while  we  have  a  fairly  good  local 
trade,  we  have  come  to  depend  upon  a  foreign  market  for  our 
trade.  And  what  of  the  conditions  of  that  market?  I  don't 
need  to  tell  you  that  the  Englishman  is  the  most  conservative 
man  in  the  world.  He  wants  exactly  what  he  does  want,  and 
he  doesn't  want  you  to  dictate  to  him  what  he  does  want;  and 
he  is  willing  to  pay  and  pay  liberally  for  what  he  gets.  And 
if  you  don't  offer  him  what  he  wants  and  don't  cater  to  his 
prejudices,  you  are  not  going  to  deal  with  him.  An  illustration 
of  that  we  have  in  the  great  bacon  industry.  The  Englishman 
says,  I  want  none  of  that  pure  white  outside  skin  on  the  bacon 
and  the  shoulder  and  the  ham,  and  we  went  to  work  and  singed 
it  just  to  cater  to  them.  It  didn't  make  a  snap  of  difference  as 
far  as  the  quality  was  concerned.  We  must  do  that  in  every- 
thing that  we  send  them.  I  have  understood  since  I  came  here 
that  the  State  of  Maine  has  sent  and  is  pouring  in  about  a  mil- 
lion of  barrels  of  apples  more  or  less  per  year,  and  the  question 
in  my  mind  is — Where  do  they  come  from?  I  haven't  the 
slightest  doubt  that  they  competed  with  the  Canadian  in  the 
British  market,  and  here  is,  I  believe,  where  legislation  has 
stepped  in.  The  question  has  been  brought  forward  that  every 
man  should  put  his  name  on  the  package.  This  ought  to  be. 
But  bear  this  in  mind,  that  tens  of  thousands  of  barrels  of  apples 
are  sold  across  the  water,  where  it  is  a  national  mark  that  sells 
the  article,  and  it  is  only  as  the  national  reputation  is  good  that 
that  fruit  sells.  You  go  to  London,  Liverpool,  Glasgow,  and 
you  will  see  thousands  of  barrels  rolled  off  those  vessels.  The 
man  who  buys  them  pays  no  attention  to  who  grows  them,  but 
if  they  are  sent  out  as  Maine  apples,  and  if  that  word  on  those 
packages  means  that  they  are  exactly  as  they  are  represented, 
then  those  apples  will  sell  by  the  ten  thousand  barrels.  If  five 
out  of  every  six  of  the  men  shipping  from  this  State  ship  a 
first-class,  nicely  put  up  article,  but  the  sixth  man  does  not,  and 
his  barrel  drops  into  the  hands  of  a  large  retail  dealer,  a  man 


152  STATS    POMOLOGICAIv    SOCIETY. 

perhaps  selling  one  hundred  thousand  barrels  a  week,  that  bar- 
rel is  not  as  represented  to  be, — it  is  not  the  man  who  is  blamed 
but  the  whole  State  of  Maine  suffers.  We  want  some  inspection 
by  which  the  dishonest  man  shall  be  compelled  to  put  up  an 
honest  product,  in  order  to  protect  the  five-sixths  or  nine-tenths 
of  the  people,  as  it  may  be,  who  are  honest.  That  is  the  reason 
why  I  want  some  inspection,  and  I  don't  believe  you  can  have 
it  too  rigorous  in  order  to  establish  a  reputation.  Reputation 
is  essential  in  the  business  world.  Without  it  we  cannot  do 
business.  We  have  got  to  trust  to  every  man.  We  ought  to 
have  a  rigorous  inspection  as  regards  the  smaller  package.  This 
year,  for  instance,  living  within  about  four  miles  of  a  manu- 
facturing town  of  some  eight  or  nine  thousand  inhabitants,  we 
happened  to  have  a  certain  number  of  barrels  of  Snows,  very 
nice;  we  were  offered  $2.50  a  barrel  for  them  but  thought  we 
could  do  better.  They  were  put  up  in  baskets  and  sold  readily 
for  from  60  to  75  cents  a  basket.  We  are  looking  more  at  the 
quality  than  the  quantity.  Do  you  suppose  that  the  manu- 
facturers of  breakfast  food  could  get  ten  or  twenty-five  cents 
for  a  hundred  pounds  such  as  they  sell  to  you  in  the  package  ?  It 
is  the  small  package — they  look  at  the  package  and  don't  ask 
the  price.  I  put  in  some  six  weeks  in  British  Columbia  on  the 
coast,  and  among  the  Institute  delegation  there,  there  was  a 
young  man  who  was  an  expert  in  British  Columbia.  He  had 
been  sent  by  the  Dominion  Government  over  to  the  Hood  river 
to  get  the  latest  ideas  about  the  packing  of  fruit.  He  came 
back  with  certain  ideas,  and  went  round  giving  exhibitions  of 
just  how  fruit  ought  to  be  packed.  And  I  learned  something 
there.  The  boxes  were  different  from  anything  I  see  here. 
They  were  supposed  to  hold  about  forty  pounds.  They  were 
slatted  sufficiently  strong  so  that  while  they  might  spring  a  little 
bit  there  was  no  danger  of  the  box  breaking.  I  found  out,  for 
instance  you  throw  down  enough  of  apples  to  make  two  boxes 
of  the  same  kind,  and  almost  without  selection  he  would  put 
four  rows  of  apples  in  one  box,  the  very  select,  the  next  box  he 
would  put  four  rows  and  a  half  into  it,  and  there  was  hardly 
any  difference  in  the  appearance  of  those  two  boxes — one  box 
contained  the  big  apples,  but  the  second  looked  about  as  well  as 
the  first  because  they  had  been  separated  from  each  other.     I 


STATE    POMOLOGICAIv    SOCIETY.  153 

am  in  the  habit  of  buying  lambs — you  will  see  the  point — get  a 
couple  of  hundred  lambs,  some  60,  some  70,  some  80,  90,  100; 
I  keep  them  perhaps  a  month  or  three  months.  I  would  never 
think  of  putting  those  lambs  on  the  market  in  that  shape.  Why? 
Because  the  drover  will  object — I  can't  sell  those  big  ones. 
There  is  a  lot  of  small  things  there,  I  have  got  to  reject  those 
altogether,  give  you  less  price.  I  don't  give  him  the  chance.  I 
divide  them  up  into  lots.  When  he  goes  to  the  various  pens, 
they  are  all  alike  and  he  does  not  object  to  the  big  lambs;  he 
takes  the  small  ones.  Grade  them  honestly  and  we  can  sell  the 
goods  better. 

Then  another  matter,  we  packed  apples  in  Vancouver  Island, 
on  the  islands  lying  in  the  channels,  in  the  Chilliwack  Valley 
up  into  the  districts  further  north,  and  in  the  Fraser  Valley 
and  the  Okanagan  Valley,  and  we  found  this,  that  a  40  lb.  box 
of  apples  there  would  just  bring  as  much  money,  because  they 
were  so  very  much  better.  I  prefer  to  do  that  than  to  sell  a 
larger  product  for  a  small  price  because  I  am  dealing  on  a 
higher  level  and  I  realize  the  higher  the  level  of  my  business, 
the  better  man  I  am  and  the  better  citizen  I  am.  I  sometimes 
say — of  course  I  won't  say  it  here  because  it  isn't  along  the 
same  line — that  the  farmer  who  deliberately,  systematically, 
knowingly  and  wilfully  handles  the  poorest  scrub  he  can  put  his 
hands  on  and  is  satisfied  with  it,  he  does  not  do  that  very  long 
before  he  becomes  a  scrub  himself.  I  want  to  handle  a  high 
grade  of  material  in  order  that  I  may  be  a  better  man.  In  that 
very  line,  I  may  say,  if  I  go  into  the  market  to  hire  a  man  to 
work  on  my  farm,  if  I  can  get  hold  of  a  man  who  can  harness 
his  horse  properly,  draw  a  straight  furrow,  deep  and  solid  and 
level,  and  continue  that  straight  furrow,  and  can  do  all  the  kinds 
of  work  on  my  farm  in  the  very  best  manner  possible,  I  not 
only  have  a  man  who  is  worth  a  great  deal  more  money  to  me, 
but  I  have  a  man  who  from  the  very  fact  that  he  can  do  that 
is  a  better  citizen  and  a  better  man.  Right  doing  leads  to  right 
thinking. 

To  come  back,  may  be  you  think  I  am  a  Scotchman,  but  you 
are  mistaken,  I  am  a  Canadian.  I  don't  belittle  the  Scotchman 
a  bit.  I  tell  you,  I  believe  that  from  those  rugged  hillsides  of 
Scotland  have  come  the  best  horses,  the  best  cov^s  and  the  best 


154  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

men  that  ever  trod  upon  the  heather.  That  doesn't  hit  a  great 
many  people  here,  because  you  never  trod  on  heather.  If  you 
ask  me  the  reason,  I  will  tell  you  this,  it  is  because  the  Scotch- 
man has  to  work  every  day  of  his  life  from  the  time  he  is  five 
years  old  doing  something,  and  that  is  the  reason  why  the 
Canadians — but,  no,  I  won't  say  it.  Do  you  know  what  I  was 
going  to  say,  why  the  Canadian  is  a  little  bit  better  than  the 
American — I  was  going  to  say  that  too,  but  I  won't. 

In  conclusion,  I  will  simply  say  this,  that  we  are  not  com- 
peting against  each  other  to  any  extent.  The  people  of  the 
United  States  and  the  people  of  Canada,  have  alike  the  same 
great  duty  devolving  upon  them,  that  is,  feeding  the  rest  of  the 
world ;  they  have  also  the  duty  resting  upon  them  to  take  those 
immigrants  every  day  coming  to  our  shores  by  shiploads,  and 
by  such  a  school  system  and  such  a  system  of  government  as  we 
have  to  convert  them  into  good  American  and  Canadian  citi- 
zens. We  are  working  together  for  the  same  beneficial  pur- 
pose, the  benefiting  of  the  human  race. 

Dr.  Tzvitchell.  I  did  not  discuss  this  afternoon  the  Fruit 
Marks  Act,  because  two  or  three  times  before,  in  previous  years, 
we  have  had  it  up  before  us  and  gone  through  it  in  detail.  This 
in  explanation  to  our  visitors  why  more  time  has  not  been  given 
to  it  today. 

This  much  we  can  say  for  1906, — Maine  apples,  New  England 
apples,  were  sold  in  the  Liverpool  market  at  an  average  of  fifty 
cents  per  barrel  less  than  Canadian  fruit,  because  of  the  Fruit 
Marks  Act  there,  and  because  our  crop  was  not  so  graded  and 
so  protected  by  law.  That  is  what  we  lost  last  year  in  the 
European  markets  on  our  fruit  from  the  State  of  Maine.  I 
have  here  a  clipping  from  one  of  our  exchanges,  taken  from  a 
report  of  the  American  Pomological  Society  recently  held,  in 
which  President  Goodman  dwelt  at  length  upon  this  subject  and 
finally  put  before  the  meeting  a  resolution,  which  was  unani- 
mously and  immediately  passed : 

"The  subject  is  that  of  the  truthful  labeling  of  each  and  every 
package  of  fruit  put  upon  our  markets.  The  dishonesty  which 
is  the  more  common  practice  of  not  labeling  the  barrels  and 
boxes  according  to  the  grade  of  fruit  actually  put  in  them  is  the 
meanest  thing  in  American  horticulture,  as  many  see  it,  and  the 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  155 

effort  in  this  case  was  to  take  steps  to  remedy  the  evil.  In 
Canada,  as  Mr.  McNiell  fully  explained,  there  has  been  a  law 
in  force  for  six  years  past,  known  as  the  Fruit  Marks  Act.  He 
stated  that  it  had  been  opposed  at  first  by  some  growers  and 
dealers,  but  now  nearly  all  agree  that  it  is  very  beneficial  and 
favor  it.  It  requires  the  truthful  statement  of  the  contents  of 
the  package  by  a  brand  or  mark  indicating  the  same,  and  a 
penalty  which  will  be  felt  is  imposed  for  violation  of  the  law. 
The  resolution  at  this  meeting  looked  to  the  enactment  by  our 
Congress  of  a  similar  act.  We  surely  need  it,  and  we  can  get  it 
if  the  people  push  for  it.  Not  only  will  our  dealers  sell  what 
they  claim,  and  the  consumers  get  what  they  pay  for,  but  our 
fruit  will  be  in  better  repute,  and  bring  a  better  price  abroad. 
The  Canadians  are  now  ahead  of  us  in  all  these  respects,  and  it 
is  to  our  shame  and  loss." 

It  seemed  to  me,  knowing  the  sentiment  of  the  other  New 
England  States,  and  somewhat  in  our  own  State,  that  it  was 
wise  to  push  immediately  the  matter  of  legislation,  and  because 
through  some  correspondence  with  the  officers  of  the  societies 
over  the  country  as  far  west  as  Oregon  and  California,  and  also 
in  the  Middle  and  Southern  States  we  find  such  a  diversity  of 
opinion  regarding  what  legislation  should  be,  I  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  wisest  thing  for  us  to  do  is  to  move  in  the 
New  England  States  for  legislation  by  our  separate  legislatures 
— we  are  cut  off  by  ourselves  a  little  mite  out  of  the  world — 
and  now  we  can  stand  together;  Boston  is  our  great  shipping 
point,  excepting  southern  Connecticut,  and  there  is  where  the 
grading  and  inspection  might  possibly  be  done.  And  if  it  is 
arranged  that  we  accept  the  invitation  of  the  Connecticut 
Society  and  meet  with  them  in  February — the  delegates  present 
of  the  different  societies  of  course  can  only  speak  for  their  own 
— Mr.  Burlingame  and  Mr.  Hixon  both  assured  me  that  they 
would  have  a  representative  there,  and  if  we  can  arrange  a 
meeting  in  Connecticut  in  February,  there  will  be  a  bill  formu- 
lated before  that  time  and  presented  for  discussion,  specific  bill, 
which  may  be  adopted  by  individual  states  or  may  not,  but  which 
will  aim  at  some  legislation  looking  to  conservative  action,  not 
extreme. — but  looking  to  the  protection  of  both  classes,  and  with 
such  penalties  as  may  be  desired;    the  matter  to  be  discussed 


156  STATE    POMOLOGICAI.    SOCIETY. 

and  then  to  be  taken  up  by  the  several  states  in  after  meetings, 
and  in  the  hope  that  legislation  may  come  out  of  the  discussion 
and  the  education  and  the  work,  which  it  seems  to  me  is  vital  to 
us  along  these  lines,  whether  it  comes  in  one  year  or  ten.  We 
have  taken  hold  of  this  in  the  State  of  Maine  and  we  don't  pro- 
pose to  let  go  until  we  get  something  tangible.  I  voice  the  sen- 
timents of  a  great  majority  of  this  society,  and  yet  I  do  not  know 
of  one  who  seems  to  be  in  a  hurry  about  it.  Let  us  find  out 
what  we  want  and  then  take  hold  unitedly  and  go  to  the  legisla- 
ture and  demand  of  our  State  legislature  that  they  give  us  pro- 
tection. But  that  protection  would  be  very  little  for  us  unless 
we  could  have  you  co-operate  with  us.  New  Hampshire,  Ver- 
mont and  Massachusetts.  It  seems  to  me  this  matter  is  of 
transcendent  importance  to  the  fruit  interests,  in  order  that  we 
may  reach  what  Mr.  Elliott  has  touched  upon,  those  higher 
levels.  We  all  recognize  the  fact  that  he  has  presented,  that 
it  is  only  the  man  who  is  doing  the  very  best,  only  he  who  is 
striving  to  improve,  who  grows,  who  is  making  his  mark  in  the 
world  or  who  is  accomplishing  anything.  So  this  work,  it  seems 
to  me,  not  only  helps  the  man  who  is  trying  to  help  himself,  but 
it  forces  others  to  lifting  up  of  the  standard  of  work  in  their 
orchards,  to  the  growing  of  a  better  quality  of  fruit,  and  there- 
fore to  a  better  reputation  in  the  market  for  us  all.  I  wish  I 
could  ask  of  the  representatives  present,  Mr.  Wheeler,  and  Mr. 
Kinney  and  Mr.  Clark,  if  they  think  it  would  be  safe  for  us  to 
accept  the  invitation  and  meet  with  the  Connecticut  Society  in 
February.  I  have  an  invitation  passed  me  by  Mr.  Knowlton 
from  Mr.  Miles,  Secretary  of  the  Connecticut  Society,  and  also 
a  letter  from  Mr.  Rogers,  their  representative,  expressing  his 
regret  that  he  could  not  be  present,  and  giving  us  an  invitation 
to  meet  with  them  in  February.  Will  your  society  send  a 
delegate  there? 

Mr.  Clark.  I  think  it  will  be  so  arranged  although  we  have 
no  meeting  before  then.  I  think  arrangements  could  be  made, 
and  it  is  so  near  I  think  some  one  would  be  there  any  way. 

Mr.  Wheeler.  I  know  perfectly  well  that  our  society  would 
be  only  too  glad  to  send  representatives  to  that  meeting  in  Feb- 
ruary to  discuss  this  matter  further.  I  was  rather  unprepared 
to  discuss  the  question  here  today,  but  I  know  we  have  men  that 


STATE    POMOLOGICAI,    SOCIETY.  157 

can  and  will  talk  on  that  subject  and  will  go  to  Connecticut 
well  prepared  to  act  in  accordance  with  the  rest  of  New  England 
on  the  subject.  It  is  a  subject  that  certainly  is  of  very  great 
importance  to  fruit  growers. 

Mr.  Kinney  accepted  the  invitation  in  behalf  of  his  society. 


OPPORTUNITIES   FOR   YOUNG   PEOPLE. 
By  Prof.  Fred  W.  Card  of  Pennsylvania. 

I  thought  I  would  talk  tonight  a  little  about  the  opportunities 
for  young  people.  This  is  a  day  of  opportunities.  We  see 
them  in  all  lines  of  work.  We  see  men  who  have  reached  high 
attainments,  have  begun  in  low  places  and  worked  their  way  up. 
The  other  day  all  the  wheels  of  one  of  the  great  railway  systems 
in  the  West  stopped ;  not  a  wheel  turned  for  five  minutes  in 
honor  of  the  man  who  had  been  its  president,  the  man  who 
begun  at  the  very  bottom  of  the  ladder,  who  climbed  his  way 
step  by  step  to  the  highest  position  in  that  railroad. 

Sometimes  we  think  perhaps  that  those  chances  for  growth, 
for  progress  have  gone  by  largely,  that  all  those  opportunities 
have  been  utilized,  have  been  taken,  and  that  at  the  present  time 
the  young  man  does  not  have  the  chance  which  he  had  before. 
But  I  think  this  is  a  mistaken  notion,  that  the  opportunities  are 
still  with  us  if  we  have  but  eyes  to  see  them,  whether  it  be  in 
the  lines  of  business,  professional,  mechanical,  or  any  calling 
whatsoever. 

But  I  am  concerned  chiefly,  as  we  all  are  perhaps,  most  of  us 
at  least  here  tonight,  with  the  opportunities  offered  in  agricul- 
ture, because  we  are  here,  a  meeting  of  agriculturists — one 
phase,  I  believe  the  best  phase  of  agriculture,  but  many  of  my 
friends  would  differ  with  me  as  to  that.  Now  what  are  the 
opportunities  which  agriculture  offers  to  the  young  men  or  the 
young  women — I  wish  there  were  more  of  them  here  tonight. 

In  the  first  place  there  are  opportunities  for  bright,  intelligent 
men  as  teachers  and  experimenters.  Our  agricultural  colleges, 
our  experiment  stations,  are  constantly  calling  for  more  and 
more  men.  Men  are  dropping  out  to  take  up  other  callings, 
and  new  men  are  needed.     Those  institutions  are  growing.     I 


158  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

don't  know  how  many  are  employed  in  the  United  States  at  the 
present  time,  but  I  think  it  is  safe  to  say  that  every  state  in  the 
Union  employs  from  ten  to  fifty  men,  perhaps  some  of  them 
more  in  connection  with  the  college  and  experiment  station  work. 
The  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington  employed,  the 
last  time  I  knew,  something  like  3,500  men  in  agricultural  lines, 
in  different  lines  of  agriculture. 

There  are  opportunities  also  for  the  men  who  have  the  train- 
ing and  the  executive  ability  to  handle  funds  and  handle  busi- 
ness, to  take  the  capital  belonging  to  other  men  and  utilize  that 
to  bring  a  return  in  agricultural  lines.  Men  of  wealth  are  con- 
stantly seeking  for  an  opportunity  to  place  that  wealth  where 
it  may  be  safely  employed  and  yield  them  a  business  return. 
They  don't  ask  for  fancy  returns ;  they  know  that  those  fancy 
returns  are  not  to  be  gotten  with  safety;  if  they  can  get  straight 
business  returns  on  their  capital,  they  will  be  glad  to  put  their 
money  into  land.  Many  of  them  would.  There  have  been  in 
the  last  few  months  particularly  good  opportunities  for  invest- 
ment in  securities,  but  look  at  the  condition  today,  how  the 
value  of  those  securities  has  dropped  fifty,  one  hundred  per  cent 
in  some  cases,  and  the  man  who  thought  himself  worth  $50,000 
six  months  ago  may  find  himself  worth  $25,000  or  $30,000  at 
market  prices  today.  Now  money  put  in  land  does  not  meet 
with  that  great  fluctuation,  and  there  are  shrewd  business  men 
who  are  looking  for  opportunities  to  put  their  money  in  that 
way.  Many,  many  more  of  them  would  do  it  if  they  could  have 
the  men  to  manage  that  land  when  they  get  it.  There  are  few 
men  who  can  take  a  business  proposition  and  carry  it  through 
to  a  business  issue.  Now  the  young  man  cannot  expect  to  do 
that  when  he  graduates  from  college,  because  to  make  a  success- 
ful business  requires  an  ability  which  cannot  be  imparted  in  the 
•class-room.  It  requires  natural  business  ability.  It  requires 
executive  ability  which  can  only  come  with  age  and  training. 
The  man  who  has  within  him  the  possibilities  for  that  line  of 
work  *may  readily  get  the  experience  and  grow  into  positions 
■of  that  kind. 

More  and  more  men  are  seeking  summer  homes,  who  find 
their  homes  in  the  city  and  are  looking  back  to  the  farm  as  they 
grow  older.     It  is  the  almost  universal  experience,  you  meet  a 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  159 

man  past  fifty  years  of  age  who  has  spent  his  Hfe  in  other 
calHngs,  he  wants  to  go  back  for  at  least  part  of  the  time  to  a 
farm;  and  after  he  has  the  farm,  then  he  needs  some  man  to 
manage  it.  There  are  opportunities  for  men  in  those  positions, 
and  many  of  them  are  most  admirable  ones  so  far  as  salaries 
are  concerned. 

But  I  am  concerned  more  particularly  with  the  opportunities 
which  the  farm  itself  offers  to  the  young  man  or  the  young 
woman,  and  I  believe  there  lies  one  of  the  best  opportunities 
that  can  be  offered  today  in  any  line  of  effort.  What  does  the 
farm  offer  to  the  young  man  who  has  a  taste  for  it?  Now  let 
me  say  right  here,  that  this  of  course  goes  back  to  that  old  ques- 
tion. Should  the  young  men  leave  the  farms?  Should  they 
follow  some  other  calling?  And  let  me  say  right  at  the  outset 
that  I  believe  there  is  no  special  virtue  in  being  a  farmer.  The 
character  of  the  man  lies  far  and  away  above  the  calling  which 
he  follows.  But  there  are  young  men  who  may  well  stay  on 
the  farm  and  there  are  young  men  who  ought  not  to  stay  on  the 
farm.  And  first,  of  those  who  ought  not  to  stay,  there  is  the 
young  man  with  a  special  bent.  There  are  boys  and  there  are 
girls  who  nearly  from  the  time  they  are  out  of  the  cradle  are 
designed  for  some  special  calling  in  life.  There  is  the  boy  who 
has  a  natural  talent  for  medicine ;  another  one,  perhaps,  has  a 
natural  talent  for  mechanics ;  another  one  for  law,  it  may  be ; 
another  one  possibly  for  commence;  those  boys  who  have  that 
special  bent  for  some  one  thing  ought  to  follow  that  lead,  and  it 
is  a  great  mistake  if  we  attempt  to  carry  them  away  from  it. 
Now  there  is  another  class  of  boys  that  I  believe  ought  not  to 
be  kept  on  the  farm,  and  that  embraces  a  very  large  class, — the 
boys  who  are  willing  to  be  led.  Too  many  men  in  this  world 
are  willing  to  be  led ;  few  men  are  willing  to  lead.  Now  the 
man  who  is  willing  to  have  his  work  blocked  out  for  him  to 
follow  some  one  else's  lead,  some  one  else's  direction  so  long 
as  he  lives  can  probably  get  along  and  get  a  living  easier  in  some 
other  calling  than  he  can  on  the  farm.  He  can  at  least  until 
he  reaches  the  age  line  late  in  life.  The  man  who  expects  to 
succeed  in  farming  must  lead ;  he  must  take  the  reins  in  his 
hands,  have  resourcefulness,  be  ready  to  meet  emergencies  when 
they  come.  He  must  not  expect  to  depend  on  some  one  else  to 
tell  him  what  to  do. 


i6o  state;  pomologicaIv  society. 

There  are  some  boys  who,  I  beHeve,  ought  to  stay  on  the 
farm,  and  that  is,  first  of  all,  the  boy  who  loves  the  farm. 
There  are  such  boys,  and  let  me  say  right  here,  that  I  believe 
there  would  be  far  more  such  boys  but  for  the  parents'  misap- 
prehensions. As  a  teacher  in  agricultural  college  work,  over 
and  over  again  have  I  met  this  situation;  a  father  or  a  mother 
comes  to  an  institution  with  a  son,  or  perhaps  with  a  daughter, 
and  they  express  themselves  something  like  this :  I  want  my 
boy  to  do  something  where  he  can  get  his  living  easier  than  I 
have  got  mine.  That  father  thinks  that  farming  is  the  hardest 
calling,  that  something  else  will  be  much  easier.  It  is  but 
natural.  We  all  see  the  bright  side  of  the  other  man's  occupa- 
tion, because  we  cannot  see  behind  his  door  to  see  the  unpleasant 
things.  Concerning  him  we  can  see  the  bright  side.  Perhaps 
we  see  too  plainly  the  unpleasant  things  which  concern  us  and 
we  overlook  to  a  certain  extent  the  blessings  which  we  find  in 
our  own  calling.  But,  I  say,  there  are  boys  who  love  the  farm, 
and  those  boys  ought  to  stay  there,  because  the  opportunities 
are  as  good  as  at  any  other  calling,  I  believe. 

Then  there  is  another  large  class  of  boys  who  I  think  may  well 
stay  on  the  farm,  that  is,  the  boys  who  may  interest  themselves 
in  anything.  That  embraces,  I  suppose,  by  far  the  larger  class. 
It  is  the  exceptional  boy,  the  fortunate  boy  I  may  say,  who 
knows  just  what  he  wants  to  do.  The  most  of  us  had  to  grope 
around  and  flounder  about  to  try  to  find  out  what  we  were  good 
for,  and  perhaps  we  never  found  out.  The  most  of  boys  can 
interest  themselves  in  anything.  You  put  them  at  a  machine, 
they  become  interested  in  it;  put  them  at  the  study  of  a  plant 
and  they  become  interested  in  that;  the  study  of  an  animal, 
mathematics,  language — the  bright,  intelligent  boy  will  interest 
himself  in  anything.  Now  we  may  well  show  to  that  type  of 
boy  the  opportunities  which  the  farm  offers.  And  what  are 
some  of  those  opportunities  ? 

In  the  first  place,  it  offers  the  opportunity  for  healthful 
employment.  Over  and  over  again  do  men  as  they  come  along 
late  in  life  find  their  health  failing,  and  some  of  our  most  suc- 
cessful farmers  are  men  who  have  been  driven  late  in  life  to  the 
farm  by  failing  health,  obliged  to  get  out  from  some  calling. 
It  is  hard  work.     Anything  is  hard  work  which  succeeds.     But 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  l6l 

it  is  healthful  work,  and  an  occupation  which  we  need  not  fear 
at  all  so  far  as  health  and  enjoyment  are  concerned. 

Again,  the  farm  offers  a  continued  livelihood.  I  asked  a 
business  man  with  wide  experience  some  months  ago  what  per- 
centage of  men  who  invested  their  money  in  mercantile  lines 
and  manufacturing,  were  able  to  receive  their  money  and  con- 
tinued livelihood  so  long  as  they  lived — what  percentage  lost 
their  money?  Thinking  it  over  a  little,  he  said  he  could  only 
give  a  matter  of  judgment,  but  he  said  he  thought  perhaps  fifty 
per  cent  of  those  who  put  their  money  into  commerce  were  able 
to  get  a  livelihood  from  it  through  their  life,  and  perhaps  eighty 
per  cent  through  manufacturing;  but  he  thought  of  that  fifty 
per  cent  in  commerce  a  large  proportion  would  finish  by  working 
for  some  one  else, — in  this  way :  a  man  may  be  established,  we 
will  say,  in  the  shoe  business  in  a  town.  The  department  store 
comes,  and  he  becomes  the  head  of  the  shoe  department  in  that 
great  establishment.  Perhaps  he  may  remain  there  so  long  as 
he  wishes  to  remain ;  but  more  than  likely,  as  he  grows  a  little 
old,  not  quite  so  alert,  not  quite  so  up-to-date  in  finding  the  best 
styles  and  bringing  about  sales,  a  younger  man  is  wanted  and 
he  is  obliged  to  drop  out.  I  am  reminded  of  a  story  of  a  gentle- 
man in  the  city  of  Quebec,  who  on  an  icy  morning  started  to 
go  down  a  long  flight  of  steps,  and  who  losing  his  footing  went 
down  bumpety-bump  onto  the  ice  below.  As  he  got  well  started 
he  was  somewhat  chagrined  to  see  a  lady  ahead  of  him.  He 
was  not  able  to  steer  his  course  very  well  and  the  consequence 
was  he  ran  into  the  lady,  she  sat  down  on  his  lap,  and  together 
they  went  bumping  down  the  steps  to  the  bottom.  When  they 
reached  the  bottom  they  were  both  somewhat  disconcerted,  and 
she  not  getting  up  quite  so  quick  as  he  thought  she  ought  to, 
he  said  "Pardon  me,  madam,  but  this  is  as  far  as  I  go."  Now 
many  a  man  reaches  early  in  life  a  point  which  is  as  far  as  he 
can  go.  He  reaches  that  dead  line  which  faces  every  man  who 
is  working  in  the  employ  of  others,  and  it  is  coming  early  in  life 
in  the  city  in  these  days.  Young  men  are  wanted,  men  who  are 
alert,  active,  bright,  energetic,  and  the  man  who  has  the  experi- 
ence perhaps  may  find  that  that  experience  does  not  count 
against  the  alertness,  the  energy  of  the  young  man,  and  he  may 
be  obliged  to  step  out.     And  what  is  that  man  going  to  do? 


l62  STATE    POMOlwOGICAL    SOCIE^TY. 

He  finds  himself  in  a  very  unenviable  position,  because  he  has 
done  that  one  thing  and  he  is  not  able  to  take  up  the  other  lines 
of  work  which  he  may  need  to  take  up  for  anything  which  will 
afford  him  a  livelihood.  Now  the  farm  has  the  advantage  that 
it  offers  an  all-round  development.  I  know  of  no  calling  in 
these  da3^s  which  makes  so  much  a  full  man  as  the  work  of  the 
farm.  I  went  through  the  other  day  a  large  paper  mill  in  your 
State  and  I  saw  men  doing  various  pieces  of  work.  I  saw  one 
man  picking  blocks  out  of  a  large  tank  of  water,  throwing  those 
blocks  into  a  machine  which  cut  them  up  into  chips — taking  up 
one  block,  throwing  it  into  that  machine,  taking  another  block, 
throwing  it  in,  hour  after  hour,  block  after  block,  day  after  day, 
week  after  week,  year  after  year  perhaps.  What  was  there 
in  that  calling?  Monotony, — can  you  think  of  anything  more 
monotonous.  That  is  only  a  type  of  the  kind  of  work  which 
all  those  men  were  doing,  one  thing  over  and  over.  What  was 
the  training  ?  What  is  that  man  worth  for  anything  else  by  the 
time  he  has  spent  ten  years  putting  blocks  into  that  machine? 
That  is  simply  typical  of  all  lines  of  manufacture,  and  it  is  one 
— I  was  going  to  say  the  curses — perhaps  not  in  the  broad  com- 
mercial sense,  but  it  is  a  curse  so  far  as  mankind  is  concerned 
that  our  present  day  system  drives  men  to  do  one  thing,  which 
narrows  their  life  down  to  the  narrowest  possible  horizon — 
little  more  than  that  of  the  horse  which  we  stand  in  our  stable, — 
indeed,  less  variety  in  it. 

The  man  who  works  on  the  farm  not  only  gets  this  broad 
training,  but  he  has  opportunity  to  bring  into  play  all  the  educa- 
tion, all  the  training  which  he  may  have. 

Again,  the  problems  which  confront  him  are  numerous  and 
varied.  He  has  opportunity  to  observe  all  phases  of  nature, 
all  phases  of  his  work.  Perhaps  in  no  calling  is  there  a  better 
opportunity  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  an  education  than  upon  the 
farm. 

Further,  the  farm  offers  a  modest  financial  return.  I  can- 
not say  to  you  that  there  is  a  prospect  of  becoming  a  millionaire 
by  means  of  farming,  and  indeed  I  am  glad  there  is  not,  because 
what  does  one  gain  by  becoming  a  millionaire?  We  get  such 
a  wrong  sense  of  proportion.  We  are  constantly  striving  after 
dollars.     We  think  that  that  is  the  great  desideratum  in  life. 


STATE    POMOIvOGICAL    SOCIETY.  163 

We  chase  after  it  day  after  day,  year  after  year.  When  we 
catch  it,  then  we  have  forgotten  what  we  wanted  of  it.  We 
don't  know  how  to  use  it.  We  think  that  it  is  going  to  make 
us  happy,  but  when  did  dollars  ever  add  to  happiness?  Certain 
things  we  must  have.  We  must  have  food,  shelter,  clothing, 
but  beyond  that  what  we  get  has  nothing  to  do  with  happiness. 
What  matters  it  whether  the  front  of  our  home  is  brown  stone 
or  clapboards?  Whether  the  carpet  we  walk  upon  is  rags  or 
Wilton? — nothing  to  do  with  happiness.  "Seek  happiness  o'er 
all  the  earth  and  she  shall  but  follow  on  thy  trail  or  sit  patiently 
on  thine  own  door-step  and  wait  thy  return."  Yet  we  are  all 
seeking  for  dollars,  and  it  is  right  that  we  should  in  a  measure, 
and  the  farm  furnishes  a  moderate  financial  return.  And  per- 
haps in  that  line  it  is  only  just,  and  I  am  glad  to  speak  of  the 
opportunities  of  Maine  in  fruit  growing.  It  seems  to  me  that 
we  have  here  in  Maine,  just  along  the  line  of  this  meeting  today, 
most  admirable  and  splendid  opportunities.  Why  does  fruit 
growing  offer  good  opportunities?  In  the  first  place,  it  calls 
for  only  a  moderate  investment.  In  many  other  lines  of  effort 
today  the  investment  demanded  is  so  great  it  is  very  difficult  for 
a  man  to  get  a  foothold  and  to  establish  an  independent  business 
in  commerce  or  manufacturing;  it  is  almost  impossible  except 
as  he  unites  with  others  to  do  it.  But  in  agriculture  he  can 
begin  with  a  moderate  investment  in  various  ways.  Now  in  the 
first  place,  if  we  take  apple  growing  for  instance,  the  first  value 
of  that  land  is  only  small.  We  do  not  need  to  have  expensive 
lands ;  in  fact,  the  very  lands  are  oftentimes  the  least  valuable 
which  are  the  best  for  orcharding  puqooses.  Then  there  is  only 
a  moderate  investment  needed  in  the  way  of  buildings  and  equip- 
ment. The  buildings  are  not  expensive.  The  equipment  is  far 
less  expensive  for  fruit  growing  than  it  is  for  dairying  or  many 
other  kinds  of  work.  The  trees  are  not  costly.  Indeed  we  may 
begin  and  propagate  them  with  very  little  expense  except  for 
labor  if  we  are  willing  to  wait  a  little.  And  then,  above  all, 
we  have  an  appreciating  investment  rather  than  a  depreciating 
one.  Build  a  manufactory  or  a  dairy  barn,  complete  it  today, 
tomorrow  it  is  worth  less  than  it  was  when  you  finished  it. 
Each  day  and  each  year  reduces  the  value  of  that  building  or 
that  factory.  Plant  an  apple  tree  and  tomorrow  it  is  worth 
II 


164  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

more  than  it  was  today.  That  investment  is  growing  better  all 
the  time.  It  reaches  a  good  age  before  it  begins  to  go  the  other 
way.     That  is  an  important  factor  in  fruit  growing. 

The  labor  problem  is  the  greatest  problem.  For  instance, 
compare  the  dairy  with  fruit  growing,  and  compare  the  feed 
of  the  cow  with  the  feed  of  the  tree.  Now  feed  for  the  cow  is 
expensive,  but  in  fruit  growing  the  fertilizer  bill  is  the  least  of 
any  line  of  agriculture  I  know  of.  We  can  get  all  the  nitrogen 
we  want  from  the  clover  plants  we  turn  under.  So  from  the 
financial  standpoint  fruit  growing  offers  excellent  opportunities. 
It  offers  a  safety  of  investment.  I  know  of  no  line,  even  of 
agriculture,  that  offers  more  safety  than  that,  and  agriculture 
offers  the  greatest  safety  of  any  line.  In  many  lines  of  invest- 
ment a  little  turn  in  the  tide  of  affairs  may  take  the  value  out 
from  under  them.  It  is  not  so  with  the  farm.  Conditions  may 
be  unfavorable,  returns  low  for  a  series  of  years,  but  the  invest- 
ment stands. 

You  have  here  excellent  advantages  for  marketing  fruit  and 
the  more  fruit  you  grow  the  better  will  those  advantages  be.  I 
have  been  impressed  in  the  last  weeks,  travelling  through  the 
State,  with  the  great  potato  houses  I  have  seen  all  along  the  rail- 
road to  handle  this  crop 'which  you  grow  so  extensively.  The 
fact  that  you  grow  potatoes  in  large  quantities  aff'ords  you  far 
better  opportunities  for  marketing  them  than  you  could  possibly 
have  if  only  here  and  there  a  man  grew  potatoes.  If  instead 
of  here  and  there  a  man  growing  apples,  you  had  hundreds  of 
orchardists,  you  would  have  the  same  conditions  for  marketing 
apples.  The  buyers  would  be  here  seeking  them.  You  would 
have  train  service  and  shipping  facilities  from  all  points. 

Then  it  seems  to  me  that  here  in  Maine  you  have  some  partic- 
ular advantages  for  apple  growing.  You  have  the  climate 
which  gives  you  the  very  best  of  color.  In  few  localities  in 
the  whole  country  could  you  go  into  an  exhibit  and  see  such  high 
colored  fruit  as  you  find  here — perhaps  in  the  Northwest  and 
Minnesota,  but  they  are  limited  greatly  in  the  varieties.  Why, 
you  can  get  the  highest  quality,  and  then  you  can  get  apples  out 
of  season  as  compared  with  a  large  part  of  the  apple  growing 
region  of  the  country.  I  was  astonished,  coming  into  the  State 
here  since  the  first  of  November,  to  have  given  me  a  Porter 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  1 65 

apple,  kept  in  an  ordinary  cellar.  In  northern  Pennsylvania 
that  Porter  apple  would  have  been  gone  by  the  middle  of  Sep- 
tember at  the  latest.  Perhaps  we  never  think  of  it  as  anything 
but  a  summer  apple.  You  can  grow  those  summer  varieties  and 
put  them  in  after  the  apples  from  other  localities  would  be  gone. 
It  seems  to  me  there  must  be  a  decided  advantage  in  that. 
There  are  some  of  the  advantages  which  are  offered  in  a  finan- 
cial way. 

The  farm  offers  also  an  opportunity  for  usefulness.  As  I 
said,  we  make  a  mistake  in  thinking  it  is  all  dollars.  It  is 
not  all  dollars ;  we  want  something  more  than  that.  We  want 
a  life.  We  want  the  opportunity  to  make  our  life  count  for 
something  in  the  world.  Now  no  calling  monopolizes  the  oppor- 
tunities for  usefulness.  In  all  fields  of  effort  a  man  can  make 
himself  useful  to  the  community.  Perhaps  you  may  think  that 
the  farm  is  circumscribed,  narrow,  that  it  does  not  give  you  a 
field  for  making  yourself  felt  in  the  community.  But  if  you 
were  to  go  into  the  city  where  you  know  not  your  next  door 
neighbor,  just  one  little  atom  in  that  whirl  and  swarm,  what 
chance  have  you  to  make  your  influence  felt  as  a  young  man 
under  those  conditions?  In  a  farming  community  you  know 
every  one.  The  young  man  who  has  within  him  the  ability  can 
make  his  life  count  for  far  more  for  the  upbuilding,  political, 
moral  and  in  every  way,  in  a  community,  than  he  can  in  a  larger 
community.  And  the  man  who  takes  his  place  on  the  farm  can 
make  his  life  count.  We  need  good  farmers,  men  who  shall  set 
good  examples  of  how  to  grow  good  crops  and  get  good  returns, 
but  we  need  educated  men,  men  who  will  take  their  place  in  the 
community  and  stand  for  the  best  in  life,  more  than  we  need 
farmers. 

The  farm  oft"ers  above  all  things  an  opportunity  for  home 
making,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  in  that  lies  one  of  its  deepest 
appeals.  It  is  the  one  thing  which  appealed  to  me  more  than 
anything  else  in  all  the  years  I  was  teaching.  As  a  teacher  my 
position  was  reasonably  secure,  but  I  never  could  have  a  home 
in  the  full  sense  of  the  word.  I  never  could  even  plant  a  straw- 
berry bed  and  be  sure  I  could  pick  the  fruit  from  that  bed. 
Perhaps  the  landlord  would  for  some  reason  want  that  house, 
or  I  would  decide  to  move  to  another  house.     Two  or  three 


1 66  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

times  I  have  done  just  that  thing,  planted  a  strawberry  bed  and 
moved  and  let  somebody  else  pick  the  fruit.  Now  the  man 
and  the  woman  who  liv€  on  a  farm  have  the  opportunity  to 
make  the  home  which  is  the  best  home  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
And  here  lies  the  chief  opportunity  of  the  young  woman.  There 
are  fields  open  to  her  in  these  lines  of  agriculture.  She  may 
succeed  commercially  in  farming.  She  may  succeed  as  a 
farmer;  she  may  succeed  as  a  landscape  gardener.  There  are 
plenty  of  fields  for  her  to  succeed  in,  salaried  positions,  but 
above  all  her  opportunity  lies  in  making  the  farm  home  the  best 
home  it  is  possible  to  make.  Now  that  home,  it  seems  to  me, 
should  be  something  more  than  a  place  which  contains  merely 
the  comforts  of  life.  Every  woman  wants  her  home  to  be 
something  more.  She  tries  to  make  it  just  as  beautiful  and 
attractive  within  as  she  can  make  it;  she  adorns  it  with  tapes- 
tries; sometimes  she  is  very  dissatisfied,  nevertheless  she  tries 
to  make  of  that  home  the  best  possible  home  which  she  can 
make.  Now,  I  want  to  think  more  of  the  outside  of  the  home. 
I  want  to  make  a  plea  for  the  surroundings  of  the  home. 
Because  as  I  have  passed  through  this  State  of  Maine,  I  have 
seen  neat  farmhouses,  neatly  painted,  tidy,  but  there  has  been 
very  little,  almost  nothing  of  ornament  about  those  homes  out- 
side. Of  course  you  have  a  hard  climate — it  is  not  like  the 
climate  farther  south,  but  nevertheless  there  are  plenty  of  things 
which  thrive  here — must  be — which  would  beautify  these  homes. 
Now  when  we  start  to  plant  about  a  home  to  make  it  attractive, 
what  can  we  do?  We  may  set  out  a  plant  because  we  admire 
the  flowers  that  plant  produces.  We  usually  set  out  a  rose  bush 
because  we  admire  the  roses,  not  the  bush  on  which  the  roses 
grow.  We  may  put  out  a  plant  because  we  admire  the  plant 
itself  for  its  beauty.  We  may  set  out  plants  because  we  can 
make  a  pattern  bed,  as  we  see  so  oftentimes  about  railway  sta- 
tions and  places  of  that  kind.  But  better  than  all,  we  can  put 
that  plant  in  as  a  part  of  one  picture,  of  the  scene  as  a  home, 
which  shall  help  to  make  the  other  surroundings  of  that  home 
a  scene  which  is  attractive  from  all  points  of  view.  Now  the 
canvas  upon  which  we  must  paint  that  picture  is  the  greensward, 
and  we  must  never  lose  sight  of  that.  We  must  never  fritter 
it  away.     We  want  to  preserve  the  open  lawn  in  front  of  the 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  1 67 

buildings.  Then  we  want  to  plant  about  the  borders,  about 
the  house  itself,  the  shrubbery  and  the  flowers  which  shall  make 
of  it  an  attractive  picture.  Now  the  landscape  painter  when  he 
starts  to  put  a  picture  upon  canvas  meets  with  fewer  limitations 
than  we  meet  with  in  working  that  picture  in  living  plants.  If 
he  thinks  his  picture  will  be  more  beautiful  putting  a  mountain 
or  water  scene  in  the  distance,  he  can  put  it  in.  In  the  first 
place  he  selects  the  point  of  view.  We  must  accept  it  and  look 
at  his  picture  from  one  point  of  view.  Then  he  can  improve  it 
in  those  ways.  He  makes  a  picture  which  remains  always  the 
same.  We  must  make  a  picture  which  changes  from  day  to  day, 
season  to  season,  year  to  year.  It  calls  then  for  the  highest 
artistic  ability  to  make  that  picture  as  it  should  be.  The  essen- 
tials are  first,  the  law,  and  then  the  grouping  of  shrubbery, 
flowers  and  trees  about  the  borders  of  that  lawn  and  about  the 
home.  And  we  want  to  remember  to  preserve  all  the  most 
attractive  views  from  that  home;  to  sit  by  the  windows  which 
you  use  most  and  see  what  are  the  attractive  scenes,  and  take 
care  that  there  are  openings  in  those  groups  which  enable  you 
to  look  at  the  view  in  the  distance — it  may  be  a  bit  of  water; 
it  may  be  only  a  church  spire ;  it  may  be  only  a  set  of  farm 
buildings ;  but  if  you  frame  that  object  with  plantings,  so  that 
you  look  through  and  see  that,  it  becomes  at  that  moment  attrac- 
tive. There  may  be  objects  which  are  unattractive  likewise, 
and  we  want  to  shut  those  out.  Now  we  can  put  about  the 
homeliest  farm  buildings  a  very  little  planting  which  shall  par- 
tially screen  those  from  view  and  transform  an  unattractive 
scene  into  one  which  becomes  attractive.  A  little  thought,  a 
little  study  can  make  of  any  home  a  delightful  place  and  a  pic- 
ture. And  then  we  want  to  do  all  that  we  can  do  to  make  the 
home  within  as  bright  and  happy  as  it  may  be.  Let  us  realize 
that  the  children  within  that  home  are  of  more  importance  than 
the  dollars  which  we  are  seeking  to  bring  to  it.  It  is  of  far 
more  importance  that  we  help  those  children  to  the  noblest 
impulse  of  life,  that  we  help  them  to  make  the  home  a  home 
which  they  will  always  think  of  with  pleasure  and  be  glad  to 
return  to  even  if  they  leave  it  for  some  other  calling,  realizing 
that  boys  and  girls  are  worth  more  than  dollars  and  land.  Now 
we  do  not  need  to  go  into  the  distance  to  find  the  opportunities. 


l68  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

You  all  remember  the  legend  of  the  rainbow,  that  if  we  could 
find  the  end  of  the  rainbow  we  should  find  a  hidden  pot  of  gold. 
How  often  we  have  thought  that  perhaps  at  that  point  we  should 
find  something— in  some  other  climate,  some  other  calling,  lies 
the  opportunity  which  shall  enable  us  to  make  something  of 
life,  make  more  of  life  than  we  can  here.  But  opportunity  lies 
not  in  the  distance,  it  lies  in  the  man  who  can  see  it.  All  over 
this  country  we  find  men  who  have  seen  an  opportunity,  have 
developed  it,  and  have  made  a  business  and  a  name  for  them- 
selves in  every  way.  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  to  distant  climes 
to  get  the  opportunity.  They  lie  about  us  everywhere.  Some 
eye  views  the  rainbow  arch  which  ends  upon  your  head. 
Beneath  your  feet  lies  the  hidden  pot  of  gold. 


TID-BITS    FOR   THE   GARDINER   BANQUET. 
President  G11.BERT. 

If  the  fruit  growers  haven't  a  right  to  be  happy,  where  shall 
we  look  for  enjoyment  and  pleasure.  As  the  old  song  has  it 
"Weep  when  we  must,  but  now  be  gay;  life  is  too  short  to  be 
sighing  long,"  so  let  us  this  evening  express  our  joy,  respond  to 
our  feelings,  and  especially  on  an  occasion  of  this  kind  celebrate 
the  joy  we  feel  and  the  bounty  with  which  we  have  been 
rewarded  for  our  year  of  effort. 

I  was  born  and  brought  up  in  an  orchard.  In  my  boyhood 
days,  we  boys  in  the  morning,  in  our  pajamas,  would  run  out 
the  back  door  for  the  High-Top  Sweetings  that  had  dropped 
from  the  trees  during  the  night,  vying  with  each  other  who 
should  get  there  first  through  the  dews  of  the  morning.  It  has 
stuck  to  me  to  the  present  time.  I  planted  the  seeds,  grew  the 
trees  that  are  now  rewarding  my  labors  with  their  bounty  of 
fruit.  I  was  planting  some  of  those  trees,  my  little  boy  was 
with  me  and  he  had  been  teasing  me  as  boys  are  desirous  of 
wearing  the  apparel  of  men,  for  a  pair  of  rubber  boots.  I  didn't 
feel  that  he  was  quite  old  enough  to  put  on  the  rubber  boots. 
I  suggested  to  him  that  I  couldn't  afiford  to  buy  the  boots  then. 
As  he  played  around  the  tree  that  I  was  setting,  he  says, 
"Father,  can't  I    have  some  boots  when    these  trees    begin    to 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  169 

bear?"  This  autumn  this  Httle  boy  has  helped  pick  500  barrels 
of  fruit  from  those  trees.  He  can  have  the  rubber  boots  now. 
He  has  helped  me  to  grow  those  trees,  he  has  been  a  faithful 
son,  and  is  today  exemplifying  the  efforts  he  was  then  trying 
to  make  in  my  assistance.  I  appreciated  it.  I  appreciated  the 
trees.  I  appreciate  what  they  are  doing.  I  can  further  see 
greater  possibilities  in  the  planting  of  trees.  It  has  been  my 
pleasure  to  encourage  others  to  go  and  do  likewise,  and  I  have 
seen  the  bounty  bestowed  in  many  orchards  from  that  time  to 
the  present  time  that  my  own  hands  were  instrumental  in  start- 
ing and  producing  the  results  that  are  now  gathered  from  those 
trees. 

I  look  upon  it  as  a  laudable  work  that  this  Society  is  engaged 
in  to  encourage  the  planting  of  trees,  which  have  been  rewarding 
my  early  efforts  in  those  directions,  and  I  only  wish  that  the 
seed  that  this  Society  has  been  sowing  and  their  endeavors  which 
they  have  been  performing  with  so  much  of  intelligence  and 
so  much  of  earnestness  and  so  much  of  willingness  shall  result 
in  bountiful  rewards  in  the  end.  There  is  no  limit  to  what  we 
can  do  in  fruit-growing  in  our  State.  I  wish  that  the  general 
public  could  appreciate  what  I  know  can  be  done  and  what  the 
land  planted  to  orchards  will  do  for  an  intelligent  effort.  There 
has  been  marked  progress  in  recent  years.  The  fruit-growers 
of  our  State  have  learned  lessons  that  they  are  now  putting  into 
efforts  and  receiving  the  bountiful  reward  which  to  the  indus- 
trious and  intelligent  hand  is  ever  ready  from  nature.  It  is  a 
pleasant  occupation.  Do  you  wonder  that  we  boys  enjoyed  run- 
ning into  the  orchard,  and  enjoyed  the  fruits  of  the  orchard? 
Do  you  wonder  that  enjoyment  has  filled  us  all  these  days  of 
these  busy  years?  And  are  we  not  entitled  to  something  of  the 
pleasures  of  life,  and  shall  we  not  celebrate  the  annual  return 
of  the  pleasures  and  this  reward  in  which  we  have  been  engaged? 
I  look  upon  it  as  a  laudable  effort.  I  look  upon  it  that  an  occa- 
sion of  this  kind  in  celebration  of  the  annual  harvest  is  a  fitting 
thing  for  this  Society  and  its  friends  to  engage  in,  thus  drawing 
our  attention  to  the  advantages  we  are  enjoying  and  to  the  pos- 
sibilities of  further  endeavors  in  this  connection. 

We  are  present  on  this  occasion  in  the  city  of  Gardiner,  near 
to  the  center    of    fruitgrowing  in  our    State.     This    Kennebec 


170  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

river,  this  Kennebec  valley,  with  its  immediate  vidnity,  if  not 
in  this  particular  city  itself,  the  progressive  fruit  growing  of  the 
State  of  Maine  emanated.  It  has  gone  out  from  here  and 
traveled  across  the  broad  State  of  Maine,  covering  its  entire 
limit  from  south  to  north,  from  east  to  west,  not  in  the  same 
bounty  in  all  places,  but  in  no  place  with  greater  bounty  than 
has  rewarded  the  efforts  in  this  and  near  by  this  locality.  We 
are  here  by  invitation  of  the  city  of  Gardiner.  Some  one  today 
mentioned  the  fact,  or  hinted  the  idea  that  Gardiner  was  doing 
homage  to  the  city  up  the  river — wasn't  that  so,  or  am  I  mis- 
taken about  it?  It  is  our  privilege  tonight  to  do  homage  to  the 
city  of  Gardiner.  And  well  we  may  do  so.  So  far  our  stay 
here  has  been  pleasant  in  the  extreme.  So  far  the  endeavor  that 
we  brought  with  us  has  been  rewarded  in  the  full  bounty  of 
the  most  lavish  expectation.  You  have  attended  not  only  on 
our  wants,  but  you  have  attended  on  our  efforts.  You  appre- 
ciate what  we  are  here  for.  Your  appreciation  of  what  we  are 
here  for  is  an  encouragement  to  us  to  push  our  efforts.  It  is 
just  to  our  Society  for  me  to  say  at  this  point  that  the  efforts 
of  this  Society  from  its  start  up  to  the  present  time,  the  efforts 
we  have  put  forth  individually  and  collectively,  have  been 
entirely  without  the  reward  of  money,  but  for  the  promotion 
of  the  business  which  we  represent.  I  often  query  whether  my 
associates  in  this  work  want  to  exchange,  or  would  if  they  could 
today,  the  pleasures,  the  satisfaction,  the  results  that  have  come 
from  their  gratuitous  efforts,  for  money.  There  is  a  pleasure 
in  laboring  for  the  good  of  a  cause  without  the  thought  of  a  per 
diem  or  a  compensation  coming  along  with  it  to  mar  those  fruits 
in  any  degree  whatever.  We  are  worshipping  too  much  the 
almighty  dollar,  and  while  the  effort  of  all  hands  is  VQry  largely 
in  the  direction  of  the  compensation,  and  I  believe  we  are  culti- 
vating too  much  an  idea  in  that  direction,  and  especially  with 
the  young  that  the  real  thing  to  work  for  in  life,  and  I  fear 
sometimes  the  only  thing  we  are  encouraging  them  to  work  for 
in  life,  is  the  almighty  dollar — too  much  so, — it  is  well  for  us 
sometimes  to  sit  down  and  bring  to  mind  that  there  are  other 
things  to  reward  us  for  our  labors  than  money;  other  things 
that  are  more  valuable ;  other  things  that  will  make  us  richer  in 
the  end  and  give  us  satisfaction  in  the  end  that  money  never  can 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  I /I 

iill.  We  are  to  work  so  I  believe  in  a  good  cause.  We  are 
glad  to  know  that  you  appreciate  that  fact  and  that  you  do  us 
honor  by  your  presence  at  the  meetings  that  we  have  had  and 
by  this  entertainment  that  you  have  so  sumptuously  provided 
this  evening  and  graced  with  your  presence  in  so  large  numbers, 
as  you  have.  Let  it  go  on  record  to  the  credit  of  the  city  of 
Gardiner  and  its  people  and  their  hospitality.  So  it  is  fitting 
for  us  to  do  honor  to  this  city  of  the  Kennebec. 


Mayor  Will  C.  Atkins,  Gardiner. 
I  supposed  that  when  I  spoke  my  piece  last  evening  that  ended 
my  connection  with  the  speaking  part  of  the  program.  I  sat 
here  tonight  in  all  serenity  and  security,  and  I  felt  a  good  deal 
as  Daniel  is  said  to  have  felt  when  he  was  thrust  into  the  den 
of  lions  and  looked  around  upon  the  hungry  beasts,  and  finally 
said — "Well,  if  there  is  going  to  be  any  after  dinner  speaking 
here  tonight  I  will  not  be  the  one  to  do  it."  Now  in  the  short 
space  of  five  minutes  it  will  be  impossible  to  tell  you  all  the  good 
things  about  Gardiner  so  I  am  going  to  refrain  and  do  as  all 
speakers  are  supposed  to  do  at  after  dinner  speeches,  either  tell 
a  story,  sing  a  song  or  read  a  poem.  Aline  will  be  a  story  and 
it  will  be  short.  When  the  visitors  began  to  come  in  in  such 
numbers  and  it  was  doubtful  if  they  could  be  entertained,  I 
thought  it  might  be  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  the  expedient 
employed  by  the  country  hotel  keeper.  Late  in  the  evening  two 
drummers  struck  a  small  country  village  and  coming  to  the  hotel 
found  that  it  was  completely  filled.  It  seemed  that  the  land- 
lord of  the  hotel  was  also  the  sexton  of  the  church  and  the 
church  was  situated  next  to  the  hotel.  They  asked  the  landlord 
if  they  could  have  entertainment  for  the  night  and  he  told  them 
that  he  was  completely  filled  up,  but  as  they  were  leaving  much 
disappointed  he  called  them  back  and  said,  "I  am  the  sexton  of 
the  church  here  and  perhaps  if  you  would  like  you  can  go  in 
there  and  spend  the  night."  In  the  absence  of  a  better  place  of 
entertainment  they  chose  the  church.  Along  about  midnight 
the  bell  of  the  church  began  to  ring  and  the  landlord  was  awak- 
ened from  his  slumbers  and  he  ran  over  to  the  church.  He 
rapped  on  the  door.     It  was  locked,  and  after  a  considerable 


172  state;  pomological   society. 

knocking  one  of  the  drummers  came  to  the  door,  and  the  land- 
lord says  "What  does  this  mean,  your  ringing  the  bell  this  time 
of  night?"  "Well,"  he  said,  "this  is  an  adjunct  to  the  hotel  and 
when  you  want  anything  we  supposed  you  had  to  ring  for  it." 
"Well,"  he  says,  "what  is  wanted?"  He  says  "We  would  like 
to  have  you  send  two  cocktails  to  pew  13."  Now  we  didn't 
think  you  would  take  advantage  of  the  last  part  of  that  story, 
but  we  didn't  know  but  what  we  might  be  obliged  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  first. 

I  want  to  tell  you  one  little  experience  I  had  in  my  somewhat 
extensive  practice  before  the  justices  of  the  peace  in  this  county, 
and  it  seems  to  me  quite  funny.  Perhaps  some  of  you  have 
heard  it;  perhaps  not.  I  was  trying  a  very  desperate  criminal 
for  the  ofifense  of  breaking  the  Sabbath  day  and  after  the  justice 
had  heard  all  the  evidence  he  fined  the  respondent  $2.  My 
client  took  the  $2  out  of  his  pocket,  threw  it  down  on  the  judge's 
desk  and  said  "Now  Judge,  I  want  a  receipt."  The  judge  said, 
"We  don't  give  any  receipts  in  criminal  cases  but  I  will  minute 
the  fact  on  the  docket."  He  says  "I  know.  Judge,  but  I  want  a 
receipt.  When  I  go  to  heaven  and  I  get  up  there  before  the 
recording  angel,  and  he  opens  the  debit  side  of  my  account  and 
he  finds  there,  debtor  to  breaking  the  Sabbath  $2,  then"  he  says 
"with  those  cherubim  and  seraphim  a-singing  and  a-dancing  all 
around  me,  I  don't  want  to  have  to  leave  that  beautiful  place  and 
go  hunting  all  over  hell  for  you  and  your  docket." 


Mr.  Whitmore,  President  Gardiner  Board  of  Trade. 
On  behalf  of  the  board  of  trade  I  extend  to  you  a  very  hearty 
welcome  to  our  city.  Though  your  accommodations  may  not 
have  been  as  large  as  we  could  have  furnished  before  the  Coli- 
seum was  burned,  still  I  hope  that  the  lack  of  the  accommoda- 
tions is  more  than  made  up  by  the  hospitality  of  the  members 
of  our  board  and  the  citizens  of  Gardiner.  I  also  wish  to  say 
that  we  were  very  much  pleased  with  your  program  of  last 
evening.  I  was  considerably  surprised  at  the  number  of  apples 
shipped  from  this  State ;  though  I  knew  the  crop  had  been  large, 
I  had  no  idea  that  there  had  been  so  many  sold  or  shipped  out 
of  the  State.     And  I  was  also  surprised  some  seasons  ago  when 


state;  pomoi^ogical  society.  173 

I  returned  from  one  of  my  trips  in  the  south  and  landed  in  New 
York,  to  find  a  very  fine  apple,  a  very  fine  flavor  and  color, 
shipped  from  the  state  of  Oregon.  That  is  the  first  time  I  ever 
knew  that  apples  were  raised  to  any  great  extent  in  the  state  of 
Oregon.  I  was  also  much  surprised  at  one  time  when  I  was  in 
Havana  and  was  quite  apple  hungry,  in  going  into  the  markets 
there  and  looking  over  the  fruit  and  seeing  what  poor  fruit  there 
was  for  sale,  and  I  purchased  one  apple — and  that  apple  was 
called  the  Ben  Davis — and  what  do  you  suppose  I  paid  for  it? 
ten  cents  for  a  Ben  Davis  apple,  but  I  was  apple  hungry  and  I 
wanted  it.  That  reminds  me  of  the  first  time  my  attention  was 
called  to  the  raising  of  that  apple  in  this  State,  and  that  was  a 
man  by  the  name  of  Benner  who  lived  in  West  Gardiner  but  has 
since  died.  He  purchased  nursery  stock  of  a  salesman  thinking 
they  were  Baldwins,  but  when  the  fruit  appeared  they  were  an 
apple  that  neither  he  nor  his  neighbors  ever  heard  of.  They 
shipped  them  to  Boston  and  from  there  they  went  to  Liverpool 
and  he  got  the  highest  price  of  any  apples  that  he  ever  sold, 
somewhere  between  three  and  four  dolars  per  barrel,  and  he 
derived  an  income  from  that  orchard  larger  than  he  derived 
from  all  of  his  other  crops. 

Secretary  Knowlton — About  thirty  years  ago  this  Society  held 
one  of  its  earlier  meetings  here  in  the  city  of  Gardiner.  Only 
two  or  three  of  them  are  present  at  this  banquet  tonight.  It 
was  considered  then  an  excellent  meeting.  I  have  read  the 
report  in  years  back,  how  they  got  together,  and  did  good  work 
and  had  a  most  excellent  meeting.  I  wish  some  of  those  men 
who  have  passed  away — one  a  prominent  citizen  of  your  own 
city  here  who  took  a  great  interest  in  the  Society  for  many  years 
of  his  life.  I  wish  some  of  those  men  could  look  down  upon 
us  here  tonight  as  we  are  assembled  at  this  banquet,  and  as  we 
have  assembled  across  the  way,  and  compare  results  and  see 
what  progress  we  have  made.  It  would  be  no  reflection  upon 
their  work,  but  it  would  show  to  them  that  the  work  they  did 
has  progressed  and  gained  in  power  and  strength  as  the  years 
have  rolled  along. 

Now  I  am  exceedingly  proud  of  this  meeting.  And  I  am 
proud  of  the  work  accomplished  at  this  meeting.  There  are 
certain  elements  which  have  entered  into  this  meeting  and  its 


174  STATE    POMOI.OGICAL    SOCIETY. 

organization  that  have  contributed  to  this  grand  result.  The 
first  of  all  is  the  cordial  invitation  and  the  cordial  reception 
which  came  from  your  board  of  trade  here  and  the  citizens  of 
Gardiner.  The  first  time  I  came  here  after  the  committee  was 
chosen,  the  chairman  of  the  board  of  trade,  represented  by  your 
mayor,  said  to  me  "Tell  us  just  what  you  want  and  we  will  do 
it."  Well,  now,  that  was  a  beautiful  sentiment,  and  that  seems 
to  be  the  sentiment  that  has  actuated  all  the  local  movements 
here  from  the  beginning.  What  we  have  wanted  them  to  do 
they  have  done.  Yes,  they  have  done  more  than  that,  and  to 
them  we  owe  a  special  debt  of  gratitude  as  a  society  for  what 
we  are  doing  and  what  we  are  accomplishing  here  at  this 
meeting. 

Then  there  is  another  factor  which  I  wish  to  speak  of  because 
it  is  one  of  the  most  potent  factors  in  the  State  in  promoting  the 
very  business  which  this  Society  is  working  for,  and  that  is  the 
hearty,  whole-souled  co-operation  and  assistance  which  the  press 
has  given  us  from  the  first.  I  am  glad  that  so  many  representa- 
tives of  the  press  have  been  here.  I  only  wish  that  I  could  have 
devoted  a  little  more  attention  to  them. 

Another  thing  which  has  contributed  very  much  to  the  success 
of  this  meeting  came  about  through  a  meeting  which  was  held 
in  the  city  of  Worcester.  I  won't  attempt  to  tell  you  what  that 
meeting  was  called  for,  but  it  was  a  meeting  at  which  were 
assembled  representatives  of  all  the  horticultural  societies  in  the 
New  England  States.  It  occurred  to  me  while  I  was  there  that 
if  a  meeting  of  that  kind  could  be  held  down  here  in  the  State 
of  Maine  with  us,  that  it  would  be  one  of  the  finest  things  we 
ever  had,  and  so  in  behalf  of  the  Society  I  took  the  liberty  of 
inviting  the  various  societies  there  represented  to  send  delegates 
down  here,  not  so  much  to  help  us  as  to  bring  the  fruit  interests 
of  the  societies  into  harmonious  touch  and  action.  A  hearty 
response  came  and  we  have  with  us  here  today  or  have  had  with 
us  at  our  meetings,  the  representatives  of  all  the  societies  except 
two.  One  delegate  was  chosen  to  be  here  and  expected  to  be 
but  sickness  in  his  family  kept  him  at  home.  I  am  well  pleased 
with  having  these  representatives  here. 

Now  there  are  one  or  two  other  things  along  this  same  line. 
Yes,  there  are  two — I  will  try  and  not  forget  one  while  I  am 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  1/5 

talking  of  the  other.  One  is,  that  for  the  first  time  since  the 
commissioner  of  agriculture  was  created  so  to  speak,  or  since 
the  office  was  created,  we  shall  have  with  us  tomorrow  Commis- 
sioner Oilman  and  his  full  corps  of  institute  workers  to  take 
part  and  assist  us  in  our  meeting.  It  is  a  grand  idea,  because 
it  brings  us  into  harmonious  touch  with  the  agricultural  depart- 
ment which  is  doing  such  excellent  work  in  the  State. 

Another  thing  which  I  feel  proud  of  and  want  to  speak  of  is 
the  generous  outpouring  of  representatives  who  have  come  from 
the  University  of  Maine  and  the  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station,  and  I  hope  that  being  with  us  on  this  occasion  in  the 
way  they  have  come  may  be  one  of  the  features  of  future  years 
in  the  affairs  of  this  Society. 

I  have  been  very  proud  in  looking  over  the  records  of  the 
Society,  in  noting  wdiat  kind  of  work  the  Society  has  been  doing 
in  this  State.  And  the  most  prominent  thing  I  see  is  that  all  the 
time  from  the  very  first,  since  this  Society  was  organized,  the 
Society  has  stood  boldly  and  squarely  for  the  best  things  in  fruit 
cultare.  They  have  advocated  the  best  varieties,  the  best  cul- 
ture and  the  best  methods  of  selling  their  fruit.  Those  are  the 
three  things  above  all  others  for  which  this  Society  has  stood. 
I  am  proud  to  be  connected  with  an  organization  that  always 
stands  up  for  and  advocates  the  best  things.  And  I  am  pretty 
sure  of  another  thing,  and  that  is  the  grand  success  of  this  meet- 
ing which  we  are  having  here  now  will  be  such  that  the  good 
people  of  Gardiner  and  of  Kennebec  county  \x\\\  want  us  to  hold 
another  meeting  here  before  a  great  many  years,  and  for  one, 
if  I  am  a  member  of  the  Society  then,  I  shall  take  pride  in  being 
here  with  you. 

]\Ir.  T.  L.  Kinney,  President  \'ermont  Horticultural  Society. 
A  few  years  ago  I  had  the  opportunity  of  visiting  various 
parts  of  this  State  for  a  few  days.  We  rode  down  from  Mon- 
treal, through  this  beautiful  State,  down  to  Portland,  and  up 
this  beautiful  river  this  morning,  and  the  exercises  of  today 
indeed  have  filled  me  with  such  overflowing  anxiety  for  the 
horticultural  and'the  pomological  interests  of  not  only  the  State 
of  Maine  but  of  New  England,  that  I  don't  know  bar  lly  what 
to  sav.     It  seems  to  me  that  as  I  think  over  the  State  of  Maine 


176  ■  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

and  what  it  is  doing  in  horticultural  lines  that  you  grow  more 
and  more  wonderful  in  my  mind,  the  more  I  know  of  you.  And 
yet,  it  is  no  wonder  that  you  are  a  great  State,  with  your  neigh- 
bors from  the  south,  from  the  north,  pressing  down  on  you  with 
all  their  force  for  the  products  of  your  soil— no  wonder  that  the 
State  of  Maine  can  grow  the  biggest  Irish  potatoes  in  the  world, 
that  you  can  grow  the  most  beautiful  red  apples  that  were  ever 
grown.  These  calls  are  making  a  demand  upon  you,  and  when 
you  have  the  natural  resources  of  course  you  respond  to  them, 
and  I  am  glad  to  see  evidences  of  this  in  your  exhibits.  And  as 
I  look  over  the  audience  here  tonight  and  look  over  this  wonder- 
ful spread,  these  beautiful,  bright,  intelligent  countenances, 
indeed  I  feel  grateful  that  I  am  here  tonight.  It  seems  to  me 
that  if  I  were  to  live  my  life  over  again,  and  should  have  a 
dozen  boys,  that  I  should  send  eleven  of  them  up  here  to  Maine, 
and  that  other  one,  that  twelfth  one,  of  course  it  would  be  the 
dearest  one  of  all,  the  last  one  always  is,  well,  after  your  Presi- 
dent has  been  telling  us  about  those  500  barrel  boots,  I  should 
send  him  here  too.  Whenever  I  see  in  the  agricultural  papers, 
as  I  very  often  do,  an  article  from  the  State  of  Maine,  I  read  it 
through  and  through,  and  I  never  have  failed  to  find  something 
that  was  worthy  of  attention,  worthy  of  study,  something  that 
is  solid  like  your  hills  and  your  mountains  and  your  soil  and  the 
products  you  exhibit  today.  And  I  am  proud  of  the  State.  As 
I  read  these  and  become  better  and  better  acquainted  with  you, 
and  converse  with  you  as  I  have  today  and  expect  to  tomorrow, 
I  feel  that  I  am  proud  and  happy  to  think  that  I  am  in  Gardiner 
tonight,  and  the  State  of  Maine. 


A.  A.  HixoN,  Secretary  Worcester  Horticultural  Society. 
Now  there  are  plenty  of  people  who  will  tell  you  all  about 
fruits,  and  what  you  ought  to  do,  and  the  benefits  to  be  derived 
from  growing  of  fruits,  and  I  have  only  got  five  minutes  and  it 
is  not  time  enough  for  me  to  say  much  of  anything  to  you  about 
fruits ;  I  should  want  more  time  than  that.  But  I  want  to  call 
your  attention  to  one  thing,  a  crop  that  you  don't  think  of,  and 
a  crop  that  the  State  of  Maine  will  have  to  produce  or  you  won't 
raise  any  fruit,  and  that  is  boys  and  girls.     You  have  got  to 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  1 77 

raise  them  or  you  will  go  out  of  the  fruit  business.  And  I  am 
sorry  to  say  that  the  American  family  is  not  producing  as  much 
as  it  ought  to;  it  isn't  producing  the  right  number  per  family 
that  it  ought  to  today.  And  that  is  a  crop  that  you  have  got  to 
raise.  Now  I  say  this  in  the  interests  of  horticulture  and  pomol- 
ogy, and  I  hope  that  you  will  raise  a  good  crop  of  children  in 
the  State  of  Maine  as  well  as  a  good  crop  of  Northern  Spies  and 
Baldwins. 


Edwin  H.  Burlingame,  R.  I.  Horticultural  Society,  Provi- 
dence, R.  I. 
I  am  here  from  a  small  state  and  I  don't  think  anybody  needs 
to  be  told  that  a  state, — well  it  hardly  equals  territorially  some 
of  your  counties,  it  don't  equal  Aroostook  county  and  I  think 
there  are  two  others  that  are  larger  than  that  state — that  it  has 
made  no  great  progress  in  pomological  work.  Our  State 
[Experiment  Station,  the  State  Agricultural  College  in  line  with 
it — has  been  doing  splendid  work.  The  state  at  large,  taken 
commercially,  is  not  an  apple  growing  state  at  all.  You  can 
count  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand  all  the  orchards  of  any  size  in 
the  state.  It  has  one  thing  to  talk  about  or  think  of  in  the  past. 
Every  one  of  you  fruit  growers  raising  Greening  apples  knows 
that  you  owe  that  apple  to  Rhode  Island.  The  original  tree — 
although  there  is  a  question  as  to  whether  it  is  one  or  the  other — 
"but  there  is  one  that  claims  the  honor,  two  hundred  years  old, 
and  standing  today.  We  have  given  the  Greening  apple  to  the 
country.  We  can  boast  in  other  ways :  we  haye  given  to  it 
cotton  spinning  and  the  whole  cotton  industry.  And  more  than 
that,  while  I  see  religious  subjects  are  barred,  I  will  say  this, 
that  the  noblest  man  that  ever  spoke  for  religious  thought  and 
freedom,  Roger  Williams,  was  the  man  who  founded  the  state. 
I  don't  need  to  tell  you,  but  there  it  is. 


1/8  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

John  W.  Ceark,  North  Hadley,  Mass. 

I  come  from  Massachusetts,  and  I  bring  you  their  welcome,, 
and  also  congratulate  you  for  them  upon  the  bountiful  crop  of 
fruit  you  have  this  year.  Providence  has  smiled  on  you  more 
than  it  has  on  us.  The  winter  was  very  severe  with  us — it  has 
been  the  last  three  or  four  winters  although  we  are  further  south 
than  you,  and  our  fruit  shows  more  or  less  injury.  But  I  hope 
that  next  year  we  can  welcome  some  one  from  your  Society, 
or  some  ones,  the  more  the  better,  to  our  Society  meeting,  and 
you  can  congratulate  us  on  what  Providence  has  done  for  us — 
not  that  we  wish  you  to  have  any  less  fruit  but  we  would  like 
to  have  the  conditions  the  same  as  this  year  when  other  people 
haven't  much  and  you  have  a  great  deal  and  prices  are  good; 
because  that  is  a  very  important  item  in  the  last  wind  up,  that 
prices  are  good  and  that  we  get  something  for  our  work. 

And  I  also  want  to  thank  your  mayor  for  his  generosity  to  us 
in  making  this  afternoon  pleasant  to  us  in  giving  us  the  trip  to 
Togus.  I  know  I  speak  for  myself,  aijd  I  think  for  all  the  partjf 
that  took  advantage  of  his  generous  offer. 

I  am  glad  for  you  that  you  have  such  a  broad  outlook,  that 
nature  has  done  so  much  for  you  throughout  your  State,  and 
though  I  don't  belong  here,  still  I  have  had  the  privilege  of 
seeing  considerable  of  your  State,  as  I  think  this  is  the  sixth 
or  seventh  time  that  I  have  been  down  here,  and  I  have  been 
over  your  State  not  quite  from  one  end  to  the  other,  and  still 
in  quite  a  number  of  places  and  I  have  noticed  that  you  can 
produce  good  fruit ;  but  don't  think  that  you  are  doing  anything" 
to  what  can  be  done.  Although  some  don't  like  to  hear  me  say 
it,  I  simply  say  we  don't  grow  any  fruit  yet.  The  ground  hasn't 
been  broken.  We  don't  get  anything  the  results  that  we  should. 
The  possibilities,  the  half  has  never  been  told.  It  is  here  in 
your  soil.  Your  fruits  as  they  stand  in  the  market  have  a  name 
that  very  few  states  can  claim.  Your  fruits  are  solid  in  texture^ 
bright  in  color,  and  have  the  name  of  keeping  equal  if  not  supe- 
rior to  any.  But  there  is  one  thing  that  I  will  say  here — in  the 
markets  they  are  a  little  under  size.  Now  that  simply  says  that 
you  want  to  grow  them  a  little  better,  and  if  you  will  you  will 
find  it  will  pay  you  big  interest  on  the  money  that  you  put  in. 
I  know  one  time — I  can't  tell  you  just  when — I  was  at  an  insti- 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  1 79 

tute  meeting  and  I  was  speaking  of  the  advantage  of  thinning 
fruits,  that  is  thinning  an  apple  tree,  picking  off  the  fruit.  Well, 
three  or  four  years  after  I  was  in  the  state  again  and  some  one 
came  up  to  me,  a  stranger  to  me,  and  said :  "I  was  at  such  a 
place,  such  a  time,  when  you  were  there  and  you  were  telling 
us  something  about  thinning  fruit,  and  I  went  home  and  I  tried 
it  on  a  part  of  one  tree,  and  you  have  no  idea  the  difference  it 
made  in  the  looks  of  the  fruit."  "Yes,  I  do,  that  is  just  what  I 
was  telling  you."  And  I  felt  well  paid  by  what  that  man  said 
to  me.  I  thought  that  I  had  done  something  that  had  done  some 
one  some  good.  And  if  you  never  have  tried  that,  when  you 
have  a  crop  of  fruit,  try  it  and  you  will  be  surprised  in  the  differ- 
ence it  will  make  in  the  looks  of  your  fruit.  It  isn't  the  amount 
of  fruit — it  is  to  grow  good  fruit.  xA.nd  it  isn't  to  set  out  more 
trees,  many  of  us,  but  to  give  better  care  to  our  trees  and 
produce  better  fruit  on  those  trees.  I  will  simply  say  to  those 
who  are  going  into  the  fruit  business,  don't  try  to  do  too  much, 
but  grow  more  on  a  little  space, — because  things  are  changing 
even  in  the  time  that  I  can  remember,  and  I  am  not  so  very  old 
yet,  I  hope — conditions  have  almost  entirely  changed  and  just 
now  those  that  don't  understand  the  situation  may  be  discour- 
aged in  going  into  the  fruit  business,  with  the  insects  and  dis- 
eases that  we  have  to  contend  with.  But  let  me  tell  you  this, 
don't  get  frightened.  It  is  the  best  time  for  anybody  who  is 
willing  to  go  into  fruit  to  go  into  it  now,  understanding  that  he 
has  got  to  grow  the  fruit ;  it  won't  grow  itself ;  because  those 
who  will  not  take  care  of  the  fruit  are  going  to  be  driven  out 
of  the  business,  and  those  that  are  willing  to  pay  the  price  are 
going  to  get  returns  for  their  investment.  Don't  be  afraid  of 
the  insects,  the  gypsy,  or  the  brown-tail,  or  the  San  Jose  scale. 
We  were  never  floored  yet  and  we  never  will  be.  When  the 
San  Jose  scale  first  appeared  in  the  eastern  states,  the  fruit 
growers  were  alarmed  and  didn't  know  but  what  they  had  got 
to  go  out  of  the  business.  But  as  time  has  gone  on  they  have 
found  that  they  can  control  the  scale.  If  you  don't  do  it,  you 
are  poor  and  for  that  reason ;  these  careless  growers  are  going 
soon  to  be  out  of  the  business,  and  your  markets  are  going  to 
be  more  clear  of  this  refuse,  cheap  fruit ;  you  are  going  to  have 
the  markets  to  yourself.  Fruit  growing  is  to  become  a  specialty. 
12 


l8o  STATE    POMOI.OGICAL    SOCIETY. 

Prices  are  going  to  be  better  and  you  are  going  to  make  -more 
money  than  you  ever  did  before  if  you  are  only  willing  to  put 
yourself  into  it  and  do  the  work  necessary.  If  you  are  not, 
don't  go  into  it,  but  simply  let  it  alone. 


Wilfrid  Wheeler,  Concord,  Mass. 
I  am  very  glad  to  be  with  you  here  tonight,  and  in  fact  at  this 
convention,  and  bring  you  a  greeting  from  the  old  Massachusetts 
Horticultural  Society.  I  suppose  we  can  claim  the  honor  of 
being  one  of  the  oldest  societies,  if  not  the  oldest,  in  the  United 
States.  At  the  same  time,  we  are  always  ready  to  welcome  all 
the  new  ones,  and  we  are  always  ready  to  welcome  any  of  the 
people  from  other  societies  who  may  come  to  Boston  at  any  time. 
And  it  is  always  a  pleasure  to  me  to  go  out  among  the  other 
societies  of  New  England  and  find  out  what  they  are  doing. 
The  progress  of  this  Society  helps  us,  shows  us  what  you  are 
doing,  shows  us  what  you  are  raising  in  Maine.  And  it  is  only 
through  these  horticultural  societies  that  the  people  get  together 
the  products  of  the  state,  or  the  products  of  the  communities. 
They  bring  these  products  together  in  their  annual  shows  and 
these  together  with  the  literature  they  publish  offer  great  oppor- 
tunities to  the  producers  of  fruit  or  any  other  agricultural  or 
horticultural  products.  We  represent  there  perhaps  a  very 
aristocratic  section  in  a  great  many  ways.  The  people  about 
Boston  who  are  interested  largely  in  the  Horticultural  Society 
grow  flowers.  Fruits  and  vegetables  have  lately  been  in  the 
background  more  or  less,  as  our  premium  lists  would  show. 
We  award  perhaps  three  or  four  thousand  dollars  for  flowers 
where  we  award  two  thousand  for  fruits  and  vegetables.  But 
at  the  same  time  we  are  always  open  to  exhibitions  of  any  kinds 
of  fruits  and  vegetables  raised  in  any  part  of  New  England,  or 
in  fact  in  the  United  States.  And  I  was  very  glad  to  notice  in 
what  your  president  said  tonight,  that  it  was  not  the  money  part 
of  fruit  growing  or  the  money  part  of  horticulture  that  we  ought 
to  be  interested  in — we  ought  to  be  interested  for  a  love  of  the 
vocation,  the  avocation,  and  this  point  all  New  England  should 
Strive  for.  And  if  we  do  strive  for  that,  and  if  we  attain  it, 
we  will  grow  fruit  that  New  England  will  be  proud  of,  we  will 


STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY.  l8l 

grow  fruit  that  can  beat  all  that  western  fruit,  and  certainly  in 
quality  it  is  far  ahead  of  it  now.  We  have  a  soil  here,  climatic 
conditions  and  markets  that  are  superior  to  any  other  part  of 
the  country.  We  are  near  to  the  sea  where  apples  and  all  our 
more  hardy  fruits  can  be  shipped,  and  we  are  near  to  the  markets 
where  a  large  per  cent  of  the  fruit  of  the  country  is  consumed. 
Therefore  it  is  up  to  New  England  to  prove  to  this  country  and 
to  the  world  that  we  can  grow  fruit  better  than  any  other  part 
of  the  country. 

Robert  H.  Gardiner,  Gardiner. 

It  has  been  a  very  great  pleasure  to  me  to  be  at  the  meeting 
of  the  Society.  I  have  been  a  member  of  it,  I  believe,  ever  since 
the  death  of  my  father,  but  I  seem  to  have  so  many  irons  in  the 
fire  that  I  never  have  been  able  to  get  time  to  attend  a  meeting 
before.  I  have  found  so  much  pleasure  and  profit  in  this  meet- 
ing that  I  am  going  to  turn  over  a  new  leaf  and  turn  up  at  every 
meeting  if  possible  in  the  future. 

As  I  have  not  been  a  regular  attendant  of  meetings  of  the 
Society,  I  want  to  say — and  we  are  all  here  in  the  family  so  that 
I  think  we  can  speak  pretty  openly  without  seeming  to  pat  our- 
selves too  much  on  the  back, — I  have  been  a  good  deal  struck 
with  the  tone  of  the  meeting  as  brought  out  in  the  opening 
remarks  of  our  President  tonight.  I  have  had  the  misfortune  to 
have  spent  a  good  deal  of  my  time  in  Boston  among  business 
men  there,  and  there  are  altogether  too  many  business  men  in 
Boston,  as  in  every  other  large  city  who  when  they  find  a  good 
thing  try  and  keep  it  to  themselves — they  don't  want  any  one 
else  to  know  about  it  because  they  are  afraid  somebody  else  will 
share  in  that  good  thing  and  get  some  of  the  advantages  which 
they  are  getting  themselves.  They  won't,  except  when  they 
want  to  borrow  money  at  the  bank,  they  won't  admit  that  the 
business  in  which  they  are  engaged  is  beginning  to  pay  its 
expenses.  I  have  been  struck  with  the  fact  at  this  meeting  that 
we  all  know  we  have  got  a  good  thing  and  we  want  everybody 
to  know  it,  and,  as  Mr.  Clark  has  just  said,  I  don't  think  we  begin 
yet  to  know  how  good  a  thing  apple  raising,  especially  in  Maine, 
is  going  to  be.  I  think,  as  Mr.  Clark  said,  the  half  of  the 
advantages  of  apple  raising  in  Maine  has  net  yet  been  told. 


l82  STATE    POMOIvOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

I  think  there  is  going  to  be  an  enormous  development  in  the 
immediate  future  in  apple  raising.  We  know  we  have  a  good 
thing  and  we  want  everybody  else  to  know  it;  and  we  want 
everybody  else  to  know  it  because  the  Society  evidently  thinks, 
and  its  members  who  have  spoken  evidently  think  it  is  going  to 
be  a  good  thing  for  these  other  people.  We  want  other  men  to 
share  the  advantages  which  we  have  had.  We  have  made  a  dis- 
covery, and  the  Society  is  throwing  that  discovery  open  to  the 
world  and  saying  to  everybody  here  in  Maine,  "Now  here  is  a 
good  thing,  you  better  come  in  to  it  yourself.  We  are  doing 
well.  We  want  more  men  to  share  those  advantages,  and  you 
better  come  in  and  see  if  you  won't  do  well  at  it  yourself." 

Then  it  is  going  to  be  a  great  thing  for  the  young  men  of 
Maine.  The  young  men  of  Maine  are  going  to  see,  as  a  great' 
many  of  them  have  already  come  to  see,  that  there  isn't  any 
better  chance  for  a  young  man  than  to  go  into  fruit  raising, 
provided  he  is  willing  to  work  hard  and  faithfully.  Lots  of 
them  are  going  to  find  it  better  to  stay  east  on  these  Maine  farms 
and  go  into  profitable  and  attractive  business.  They  are  going 
to  find  it  better  than  to  go  off  to  the  big  cities,  and  if  they  suc- 
ceed as  well  as  the  majority  of  them,  pass  a  weary  life  shut  up 
in  a  little  bit  of  a  hall  bedroom  in  a  dingy  boarding  house  on  a 
noisy  side  street,  with  hardly  a  glance  at  the  sky  and  only  a 
breath  of  pure  air,  and  just  one  unending  routine  day  after  day, 
week  after  week,  month  after  month,  of  some  uninteresting 
routine  business. 


B.  F.  W.  Thorpe  of  Augusta,  Editor  of  Maine  Farmer. 
It  has  been  a  more  than  pleasure  to  listen  to  the  remarks 
already  given  by  those  who  are  much  more  able  to  give  good 
things  than  the  speaker.  Especially  have  I  been  pleased  to  hear 
the  good  words  expressed  from  those  who  have  come  to  us  from 
out  of  the  State.  I  have  been  thinking  since  the  President  called 
for  these  remarks  from  me  that  perhaps  I  could  do  no  better 
than  for  a  moment  to  speak  of  something  that  has  interested 
me  much  within  the  past  two  years,  and  more  especially  brought 
to  my  mind  during  the  past  few  days.  A  lawyer  in  Illinois, 
who  had  a  brilliant  future  before  him,  was  told  that  within  a 
very  few  years  his  sands  of  life  would  cease  to  flow  unless  he 


STATE    POMOLOGICAIv    SOCIETY.  1 83 

got  out  of  that  business  out  into  the  open  air.  His  physician 
told  him  to  come  to  Maine  and  get  outside,  get  out  into  the  air. 
He  left  his  home,  came  to  Maine,  bought  a  farm — six  years  ago 
this  was — knowing  nothing  of  farming,  and  since  that  time  I 
have  learned  that  he  is  learning  the  business  and  is  especially 
devoting  his  energies  to  fruit  growing  in  this  county.  He  has 
got  into  comfortable  circumstances,  has  regained  health,  and  is 
now  able  to  follow  the  most  arduous  toil  from  sunrise  to  sunset. 
Now  this  has  been  more  than  success  to  him.  It  has  been  life 
itself. 

Just  adjoining  him  a  young  man  came  from  Nova  Scotia  and 
I  was  talking  with  him  only  Saturday  last.  He  came  here  two 
years  ago;  through  the  influence  of  the  paper  I  represent  he 
learned  of  Maine  fruit  growing  possibilities  and  came  to  this 
State  and  found  a  farm  adjoining  the  gentleman  that  I  have  just 
mentioned.  Here  he  bought  eighty  acres  of  farm  land  and  has 
started  in  there  to  become  a  fruit  grower,  that  is,  an  apple  grower. 
Beginning  with  a  wornout  orchard,  or  at  least  an  orchard  in  poor 
state  of  growth  and  fruiting,  he  has  got  that  now  started  so  that 
he  tells  me  that  he  has  grown  apples  there  this  year  that  exceed 
anything  he  has  ever  seen  of  Baldwins  in  the  noted  Annapolis 
Valley  which  is  famed  for  being  more  largely  for  the  same  area 
engaged  in  apple  growing,  and  more  successful  than  any  other 
similar  area  in  the  world.  He  says  that  Maine  with  the  same 
energy  and  the  same  skill  can  outclass  that  noted  valley,  and  he 
has  the  goods  to  prove  it  with  from  that  old  orchard.  His  idea 
is  to  begin  now  and  set  out  one  hundred  trees  each  year  until 
he  gets  at  least  a  thousand  trees,  and  he  is  fully  satisfied  that  this 
land — eighty  acres  that  he  paid  $3,000  for — is  well  worth  more 
than  the  land  that  there  costs  $100  an  acre.  That  is,  he  said  for 
the  $3,000  farm  he  would  have  to  pay  at  least  $8,000  in  that 
valley,  and  he  can  get  better  results,  better  market,  and  more 
successful  fruit  raising. 

Dr.  C.  D.  Woods,  Director  State  Experiment  Station. 
There  is  nothing  that  touches  the  agriculture  of  Maine  in  any 
way,  be  it  fruit  growing  or  what  it  may  be,  that  is  not  of  vital 
interest  to  the   Maine  Agricultural  Experiment   Station.     We 


184  state;  pomological  society. 

are  trying  to  help  the  agriculture  of  Maine  as  best  we  know  how. 
Of  course  the  field  is  large.  There  are  many  things  that  we  are 
trying  to  do.  We  hope  that  we  are  going  to  be  able  in  co-opera- 
tion with  this  Society  to  get  started  in  a  new  line  of  work  along 
apple  propagation,  in  which  there  are  problems  that  need  a 
longer  life  than  our  honored  President  has  had  to  live,  beyond 
the  length  of  life  of  any  one  man.  But  we  cannot  do  it  upon  any 
land  that  is  under  the  control  of  the  Experiment  Station  or  the 
trustees  of  the  University,  because  we  haven't  a  soil  or  a  climate 
that  is  adapted  to  the  best  fruit  growing.  We  asked  the  last 
legislature  through  this  Society  for  a  farm  for  that  purpose. 
In  the  wisdom  of  the  legislature,  or  rather  of  the  Committee  on 
Agriculture  of  that  legislature,  that  request  was  postponed  to 
the  next  legislature.  One  of  the  things  that  was  suggested  this 
afternoon,  you  remember,  was  that  we  don't  know  but  what  the 
Baldwin  apple  could  have  been  a  hardier  apple  if  we  had  con- 
fined ourselves  to  the  old  original  Maine  stock.  That  kind  of 
a  problem  can  never  be  answered  upon  private  land.  It  must 
be  where  the  experiment  can  be  carried  out  for  years  under  close 
observation.  And  so  I  would  like  to  again  state  to  this  Society 
that  I  think  that  that  is  one  of  the  things  that  we  still,  as  pro- 
ducers of  fruit  in  Maine,  have  a  right  to  ask  from  this  great 
State,  that  it  shall  give  a  laboratory — by  that  I  mean  a  farm  and 
the  necessary  equipment,  with  orchards  upon  which  we  can 
expend  some  of  this  money  which  we  get  from  the  National 
government  for  the  development  of  this  fruit  industry.  We 
shall  continue  to  do  all  that  we  can  to  help  along  the  lines  of 
fungous  enemies,  along  the  line  of  insect  enemies ;  but  we  want 
to  take  some  of  these  fundamental  problems,  that  must  take 
year  after  year  of  patient  observation,  and  that  must  be  under 
the  control  absolutely  of  the  Experiment  Station — I  don't  care 
about  the  ownership  of  the  land,  but  the  control  of  it — so  that 
we  shall  know  that  an  experiment  we  start  today  can  be  carried 
on  year  after  year  until  with  patience  we  get  the  answer.  If 
we  are  going  to  solve  these  things,  they  must  be  solved  upon  land 
that  is  under  control  for  a  series  of  years  extending,  as  I  say, 
beyond  the  life  of  any  one  that  is  now  connected  with  the 
Experiment  Station,  I  hope.  I  want  to  say  that  the  Station  is 
at  your  control,  to  do  everything  that  we  can  in  any  way;   if 


STATE    POMOI^OGICAI,    SOCIETY.  1 85 

there  are  questions  that  you  want  to  ask  us,  we  will  answer  them 
if  we  can ;  we  will  honestly  tell  you  when  we  can't.  There  are 
these  questions  we  want  to  solve  just  as  much  as  you  want  to 
have  them  solved,  that  we  are  desirous  of  undertaking,  and  we 
can't  do  it  unless  we  can  have  the  laboratory  in  the  shape  of  a 
farm  and  things  to  do  with. 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Address,  Annual,  by  Z.  A.  Gilbert  32 

of  Welcome,  b}'  Will  C.  Atkins  29 

Response  to  Address  of  Welcome,  by  Wm.  Craig. .  31 

Apple  Day,  National    24 

Apples,  1907  Crop    5 

Barrels  for    114 

Boxes   for    118 

National  Apple  Day   24 

Marketing    73,  78 

Varieties     34 

Reported   in    Oxford,   Somerset,    Piscata- 
quis and  Kennebec  Counties    53,  54 

Baldwins    99 

Ben    Davis    99,  135,  1 72, 

Bay   State    137 

Jonathan     135 

Mcintosh    136 

Northern    Spy    99 

Stark     99 

Williams     135 

Atkins,  Will  C,  Address  by   29 

Birds,  Black  and  White  Creeping  Warblers  62 

Black-throated  Green  Warbler  64 

Brown  Creeper   67 

Chickadee    67 

Chipping  Sparrow   T 65 

Downy  Woodpecker   60 

Insects  destroyed  by  68 

Maryland  Yellow  Throat    66 

Redstart     64 

Robin    63 

Song   Sparrow    63 

White-breasted  Nuthatch    67 

White-throated  Sparrow   64 

Yellow-Billed   Cuckoo    66 

Yellow  Warbler   63 


1 88  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

PAGE 

Canadian  Fruit  Marks  Act    7,  139,  145,  147,  149,  150,  154 

Card,  Prof.  Fred  W.,  Address  by 157 

Children's   Gardens    101-104 

Clarke,  Rev.  L.  H.,  Invocation  by  28 

Cold   Storage    ;i^ 

Cooperation     84,  134 

Grange  Cooperative  Co 104 

Craig,  William,  Response  by  31 

Cranberry   Bog,   A    123 

Cummings,  F.  D.,  Letter  from  114 

Elliott,  Mr.,  Discussion  by  150 

Executive  Committee : 

Meetings   of    7,  IQ 

Report  of    13 

Field  Meetings  at  Monmouth  and  Wilton  7 

Fruit  Growing  at  Oaklands  69 

Fruit  Trees  injured   5,  36,  37,  42,  53 

Fungicides     56 

Gardiner  Banquet : 

Atkins,  Will  C 171 

Burlingame,   Edwin    H 177 

Clark,  John  W 178 

Gardiner,  Robert  H 181 

Gilbert,  Z.  A 168 

Hixon,  A.  A 176 

Kinney,  T.  L 175 

Knowlton,   Secretary    173 

Thorpe,  B.  F.  W 183 

Wheeler,  Wilfrid    180 

Whitmore,   Mr 172 

Woods,    Dr.    C.    D 183 

Gardiner,  Robert  H.,  Paper  by  69 

Gilbert,  Z.  A.,  Address  by  32 

Gilman,  Com.  A.  W 125 

Grading  and  Packing  Fruit   126 

Clark,  John  W.,    139 

Kinney,  T.  L 143 

Report  of  Dr.  Geo.  M.  Twitchell 126 

Wheeler,    Wilfrid     132 

Greeting  to  Visitors  35 

Guptill,  W.  T.,  Paper  by  104 

Handly,  James,  letter  from    24 

Hitchings,  Prof.  E.  F.,  talk  by  46 

Hixon,  A.  A.,  talk  by 93 

Home  Beautifying    167 

Storage  for  Fruit 77,  89,  99 

Hurd,  W.  D.,  speaks  for  the  University  of  Maine 1 10 


INDEX.                            .  189 

PAGE 

Insects,  Birds  and  Fruits,  by  Wm.  L.  Powers  58 

Brown-tail    Moth    47 

Codling    Moth    47,  58,  60,  61 

Destroyed  by  Birds   68 

Gypsy  Moth    47 

Injuries  by    59 

Standing  of  the  Invasion  of  Insects   46 

Trypeta   Pomonella    47 

Invitation  to  Connecticut  Accepted  156 

Invocation    28 

Kinney,  T.  L.,  Paper  by  tj 

Knowlton,  D.  H.,  Report  of  5 

Libbey,  G.  D.,  Paper  by 123 

Lincoln,  E.  L.,  Discussion  by  118 

Report  of    16 

Maine  Fruit  as  it  Appears  to  Others  93 

Meeting,  Annual  8,  21 

Invitations     19 

Program  of  Annual    22 

Members,  Annual     12 

Life    II 

Morse,  F.  H.,  Discussion  by  88 

Paper  by    114 

Prof.  W.  J.,  paper  by   36 

New  England  Horticultural  Societies  come  together  7,  126 

Officers,  for   1907    10 

for    1908    24 

Opportunities  for  Young  People  157 

on  the  Farm  159 

for  Growing  Fruit    163 

Orchards,    Condition    6, 54 

Cultivation     TiZ^l^ 

Examined    53 

Grown  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  growers   ....  6 

Manuring     75 

Pruning    71 

Setting  of  the  Trees   70 

Pears,  Beurre  Bosc   136 

Keifer     136 

Permanent  Fund   ; 13,  15,  18 

Powers,  Prof.  Wm.  L.,  paper  by 58 

Report,  on  President's  Address  26 

Secretary's     5 

on    Resolutions    27 

Treasurer's    16 

Special    126 

Spraying     I35 

Need  of   55 


190  STATE    POMOLOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

PAGE 

State  Experiment  Station 183 

Strawberries  and  Small  Fruits   133,  138 

Treasurer's    Report    16 

Twitchell,  Dr.  Geo.  M.  Discussion  by    154 

Report  of  126 

University  of  Maine   no 

Winter  Killing  of  Apple  Trees 53 


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