138 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Maine. I don't know enough about the hardiness of the tree 

 here; but in Massachusetts it is very hardy, it stands well, and 

 is going to be planted more extensively. Many orchards are 

 being grafted to it, in the western part of the state particularly. 



The question of small fruits ought to occupy more of this con- 

 vention; I believe that the subject has been very lightly touched 

 upon by these conferences as a rule. We in Massachusetts of 

 course are interested in it largely from a commercial point, but 

 I think the householders ought to be interested in it more. You 

 ought to interest people who own a small amount of ground in 

 the growing of these fruits. You can grow all kinds in a small 

 amount of ground if you only have the ideas of general manage- 

 ment in mind. You can take strawberries, raspberries, black- 

 berries, currants and gooseberries and grow them in connection 

 with your larger fruit orchards, in a small garden. And it is 

 near the large cities that people ought to be interested in this 

 work of growing their own fruit gardens. You can get a variety 

 in your own home garden on the farm that will give you fruit 

 from June until the following June. In that way you increase 

 your life, you increase the pleasures of country life. I want to 

 quote a little passage from one of the ex-presidents of our Horti- 

 cultural Society, who said at one of our meetings : "Plant for the 

 people of the distant cities ; plant for future generations ; plant 

 for yourselves ; so that all may enjoy earth's great blessing with- 

 out stint or measure." Thank you for your attention. 



Prof. Hitchings. Just a word in reply to one article in the 

 paper just presented. I want the brother from Massachusetts 

 to know that Maine appreciates small fruit culture and that there 

 is being some of it done in the State, especially along the straw- 

 terry line. And if the apple is the king of our fruit, the straw- 

 berry is surely the queen. We have men in the State producing 

 or cultivating anywhere from two to six acres of strawberries 

 and those men are getting a yield of from eight to thirteen 

 thousand quarts on the acre of the best berries ever raised, a 

 better quality than we can raise in Massachusetts, and the net 

 price in Boston markets is between ten and eleven cents a quart, 

 the average yield being about 8,000 quarts to the acre. So you 

 can figure the profit in strawberry raising in Maine. 



