MAINE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 263 



out, and thereafter let alone. Were we to question the exhib- 

 itors of fruit on any occasion, not excepting the present, we 

 should learn that in most cases apples are grown on trees that 

 are treated with just the opposite of what all admit to be good 

 care and culture when applied to the other crops of the farm. 



The difference in quantity and quality of apples produced on 

 trees well cared for, and those let alone, is not generally appre- 

 ciated, for the contrast is rarely drawn. 



Other inducements and incentives for greatly increased pro- 

 duction of fruit, such as physiological and moral considerations, 

 would be set before you with pleasure on this occasion, but 

 your committee, called to duty on short notice, are not pre- 

 pared to treat the subject as it deserves, or in a manner satis- 

 factory to themselves or you. Neither can they extend remarks 

 beyond apples. Other fruits are not to be overlooked, neg- 

 lected or forgotten on this annual occasion, nor at any other 

 time or season. 



We adjure the farmers and horticulturists — all land-holders 

 in Maine — to consider well the critical times on which we have 

 fallen. The vigor and strength, the very life-blood of the State, 

 is oozing out at every pore, in the ceaseless stream of emigra- 

 tion in whose current our sons and daughters are mino-lino;. 



Inquire as often and as much as you please of your Legisla- 

 ture, " the causes that operate against the more rapid settle- 

 ment of our public lands ;" tax your wits for ways and means 

 as you may, our conviction is, that all the barriers you can raise 

 to emigration will fail to be so effective as the means within 

 your reach to foster ''' the love of home," that is so happily im- 

 planted within us. 



Plant your landed estates with orchards, with the view to 

 their division and sub-division — beautify and enrich your homes 

 of opulence, or of more humble pretensions, by planting trees. 



Multiply the attractions of existing abodes, by surrounding 

 them with greatly increased means of support. 



The temptations abroad that allure men and lead them cap- 

 tive, through their love of gain, are to be met, in the rural dis- 

 tricts, only by improved appliances to culture, under the light 

 of science, resulting in vastly increased production. 



