STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 13 1 



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 

 th£ 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 

 home^ 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 



