STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 47 



to the belt of country a little to the south of us, as we have very 

 few varieties of grapes that can be grown successfully here. 



Mr. Starrett. It seems to me that the paper we have just 

 listened to is one of the most valuable that I have ever heard on the 

 subject. There was an allusion to the poor apples which are served 

 up at hotel tables. And we all know what an immense amount of 

 mean, contemptible fruit is served up at the homes of farmers. I 

 know many families who are eating poor fruit all the time, although 

 they are raising good fruit ; they will always have some variet}' of 

 fruit which is a little past its season and which they think they must 

 eat up before they commence on the next in order, and by the time 

 they have got ready to commence on that, it in turn has over- 

 matured, and the result is they are eating behind the season all the 

 time. And there is so much poor mean fruit raised where choicer 

 varieties might jusi as well be produced. It seems to me that it 

 would be one of the grandest things that could be done if some one 

 would go around and cut down all the mean, contemptible varieties 

 of apple trees, so that people would be eating something worth 

 eating. 



Mr. D. P. True. I have been very much interested in the paper, 

 which is certainly of great value. There was one point that partic- 

 ularly interested me, and that was in reference to the grapes. I 

 think in this latitude we need an improvement in grapes. True, 

 there has been a great advance. Cole, in his fruit book published 

 a little more than twenty years ago, has not in his list one that is 

 propagated at the present time. Even this year at our exhibition, 

 althousfh it was one of the most unfavorable of seasons, there were 

 three varieties of grapes that were well colored and nearly ripe. It 

 shows the advance that has been made in this direction, and I think 

 there is a prospect that there will be still greater advance in this 

 direction. 



Mr. Pope. Speaking of new varieties, there was one placed upon 

 our tables at the last State Fair, after a season so unfavorable that 

 even the Concords grown in New Jersey were not well colored, yet 

 these grapes that I speak of were so well ripened that the committee 

 could not believe at first that they were grown in Maine ; but they 

 were, and were well ripened at the time of the fair, the first week 

 in September, in that unfavorable season. It was the variety known 

 as the Moore's Early, which I consider one of the greatest acquisi- 

 tions in the grape line. 



