STATE HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 17 



earlier dreams badly blighted, and with financial prospects no better 

 than fruit prospects, shall I prove unequal to the emergency, and 

 becoming utterly disgusted with the whole orchard business, turn 

 my back upon the pet occupation of my lifetime, and now sit down 

 beneath my crown of gray hairs and suffer myself to become a 

 croaker? and the answer comes welling up from ray very soul — as it 

 were — never! never! In fact, we cannot, we must not, we dare not 

 do this; necessity, duty and even religion forbids it. The world is 

 our garden, and we are told to have a care for it, and to beautify and 

 cultivate it. 



In the successful production of nutritious and healthful fruits, 

 the energy, the very courage of the American people are at stake, 

 and we dare not prove recreant to our trust. With the common ap- 

 ple selling all over our country at one dollar and fifty cents per 

 bushel; so very high in price and so scarce in quantity as to become 

 a luxury even less attainable than oranges; with the health and 

 comfort of the toiling millions suffering for want of this important 

 sanitary agent, now so scarce in our markets, that even if all were 

 able to afford this luxury we are not producing them in sufficient 

 quantity to supply their reasonable wants. In such an emergency as 

 this shall we shrink from effort? Dare we even to hesitate? My 

 answer is, never! never! 



Do you believe that this is correct reasoning? Do you realize 

 that our population is now increasing at the greatest ratio ever 

 known in any country or in any age of the world's history, with our 

 hundreds of cities (of non-producers) all over this broad land, from 

 Maine to California, and from Manitoba to Mexico, all "booming," 

 doubling and redoubling their populations — with all these millions 

 asking for healthful fruits, there can be but one answer, we must 

 plant more orchards. 



It is our duty and our privilege to supply this great demand, and 

 it is possible for us to do so. 



We are not telling you now just what varieties to plant, other 

 papers in this volume will no doubt do this. Only this, taking your 

 own experience, and that of others, as to what is most suited to your 

 soil and location, plant liberally, cultivate thoroughly, but carefully 

 and intelligently, and we believe it is yet possible to fill our markets 

 with health-giving fruits of our own growing. Do this, and the 

 hearts of a grateful people will turn to you in gratitude, and what 

 you will probably appreciate even more highly, will be that your 

 pocketbooks will possibly become more plethoric than ever before, 

 as a result of the sale of large crops of handsome and luscious fruits, 

 such as our worthy Secretary, Mr. A. C. Hammond, has already 

 demonstrated in a practical way by his exhibit upon your tables at 

 this meeting, as the result of energy, enterprise and intelligence. 



