n8 state; pomological society. 



will, for wherever people do good work in a good cause they 

 are sure to be rewarded. You in justice will receive a large 

 measure. 



Mr. Pope : I crave just a moment of your time. Some thirty 

 years ago a few generous-hearted men met in the town of Win- 

 throp and conceived the idea of organizing their effort in behalf 

 of fruit growing in Maine. A few of you perhaps remember 

 that time and may have been present. They there took measures 

 which resulted in the organization of this State Pomological 

 Society. Perhaps few of you know or are aware of the labor 

 and of the time that was given by the officers, by the men at 

 that time who had nothing as a precedent to work from, only 

 their love and their desire to benefit their fellow fruit growers. 

 They applied to the State. The appropriation which was allowed 

 us was small. Tt was only through the efforts of a few public 

 spirited men that this work was carried forward, and among 

 them were such men as Gilbert, Sawyer, Varney, and those who 

 without compensation, except from the satisfaction of doing 

 good, carried on the work, frequently without money enough 

 to pay the bills except as their hands went into their own pockets 

 and helped out. 



Now one of those charter members, who was then president, 

 is at the present time our president, and a few of us life mem- 

 bers, feeling that we wished something that should recall those 

 days, have taken the pains to frame a certificate of membership 

 and present it to this our worthy president, feeling that as it 

 hangs upon the walls of his study it will recall to him the days 

 and the hours and the weeks that he has spent with us — not for 

 its intrinsic value but that the memories that it may call up will 

 give pleasure to him. And perhaps I know better than any other 

 man who was with him in the organization of the society and 

 have been with him in every meeting since when he has been an 

 officer, how much time and thought he has put into this, and 

 know that the pleasure that he has received from the work that 

 he has done far outweighs all of this, of that which can be 

 received by those who simply attend these exhibitions for what 

 little personal profit they may get from it. 



In presenting this to our president we feel that he will appre- 

 ciate it and recall the good feeling that the life members have 



