32 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 

 By D. H. Knowlton of Farmington. 



It was an unexpected pleasure to me that the executive com- 

 mittee conferred at their meeting last evening in inviting me to 

 respond to the words of welcome so graciously extended by our 

 friend Judge W ing, on behalf of the board of trade and the good 

 people of Auburn. I am very glad to say a few words because 

 in saying them I hope that I may not only express somewhat the 

 measure of our gratitude for the cordial reception given us, but 

 also give you here and there an idea or two in connection with 

 the great industry which the Pomological Society represents. 



Xow the occasion for which we have assembled here is the 31st 

 annual meeting of the society. For some reason, I don't know 

 why, an annual meeting has never been held in either Auburn 

 or Lewiston. It has been held once in the town of Turner, and 

 that is the only instance in which it has been held in the county 

 of Androscoggin. And I can assure Judge Wing and the mem- 

 bers of the board of trade whom he represents on this occasion, 

 that we are delighted to be here, and we are delighted to be here 

 because we can show such grand results along the line of fruit 

 culture in the State of ]\Iaine. 



Wq had some difficulty in making up our program — that is. 

 some embarrassment in making it up — because when we came to 

 sit down and talk it over, and talk over what appeared to be the 

 needs of the State, we were almost appalled at the magnitude of 

 the crop of apples which we were harvesting here in the State 

 of ]\Iaine. And do you know that crop of apples is going re 

 measure fully a million barrels ? It is an item of great import- 

 ance, especially in a year like this when the frost came and froze 

 to death so many things the farmers had counted on for a few 

 dollars. Xow we were appalled, so to speak, becaus.e we had 

 gone perhaps about far enough in encouraging people to plant 

 trees and to cultivate them, because we had got all this crop on 

 our hands and what were we going to do with it ? It was a seri- 

 ous question this year especially, because we had no storehouses 

 in the State to speak of, and another thing we didn't know how 

 we were going to put our apples up — couldn't get any barrels, 



