JO AGRICULTURE OE MAINE. 



packed, and confirm his statements as to their condition. Such 

 inspection, under the authority of the U. S. consulates, would 

 be a great help all along the line. I do not know how it can be 

 done, or rather I am not yet satisfied as to what would be the 

 most practical way of reaching the difficulty. We need some- 

 thing of the sort, and if there is any practical way of reaching it, 

 I am sure the Maine fruit growers would have great influence 

 in bringing it about. I am offering it for your discussion and 

 consideration, for it is one of the problems of the future. 



Stories are coming to us on every hand of the vast plantings 

 of apple trees in the West. They frighten many faint-hearted 

 people, just the same as stock raising in the same region has done 

 in the past, but all the while the eastern farmer who stuck to 

 his business has made money raising stock. The great markets 

 of the country are almost at our doors, and consumers more and 

 more are demanding fruit of the best quality. When we place 

 it before them in attractive form our fruit will have the prestige. 

 With proper care our orchards outlive those of the West and 

 they outbear them too. Again, our lands are cheap. The other 

 day I was looking over the valuation of real estate in one of the 

 smaller Kennebec towns, and I noticed that there were only two 

 or three farms in the entire town that were valued as high as 

 $1,600. There is no locality in Maine which produces better 

 apples, and I am not sure but I would cut loose, if possible, from 

 everything else and go to that town and plant and cultivate 

 fruit, but there is one thing I would not do. I would never plant 

 a fruit tree on land I could not till. We have been told many 

 times that our granite hills, that are too rough and rocky for 

 cultivation, are the best soil for the apple. Some have been 

 misled by it, when they have found how much difficulty there 

 is in getting around among the trees, and how much trouble 

 there has been to supply good nourishment for the trees. When 

 good land is so cheap I would not plant an orchard on anything 

 but the best. 



There is another important point, and that is to grow the kind 

 of fruit the market wants. I will not attempt to tell you what 

 this variety is, but I do feel like warning the public against plant- 

 ing the Ben Davis, and I would put with it the Gano. I am 

 aware that they have sold well in the past few years. The 

 Western Ben Davis, although it is really not a first class apple. 



