STATE POMOLOGTCAIv SOCJJiTY. I3 



We have proven that we can grow apple trees as rapidly as 

 they can in the far West. We have proven that these trees 

 will come to maturity as early as in the far West. We have 

 proven that we can grow fruit of a quality which the West can 

 never hope to equal. What more do you want us to do as work- 

 ers for the good of the State? This fruit spread upon the 

 tables came from the hills of York, Cumberland and Oxford, 

 from Franklin, Androscoggin, and Kennebec, from Sagadahoc, 

 Somerset, and Piscataquis, — yes, from Knox and Lincoln as 

 well ; from the same hills where some of you men grew to man- 

 hood. And we want you to come back to this hall frequently 

 and get a sniff of the old farm and of this fruit, for I venture 

 that some of it came from the trees where as boys you used 

 to steal apples. We want you to come back and get a fresh 

 inspiration by this close contact with mother earth, to touch 

 elbows with the workers, and be better men because of that 

 contact with the giant forces of God manifested in this work 

 before us, in the fruit on the tables. We need your coopera- 

 tion for the work of the Society. We need above all — you 

 need rather — such a show as this to prove the interdependence 

 which must exist between all classes. The sucking power of the 

 towns is today a serious menace to our civilization. Life, 

 energy, growth can be maintained only as rich, fresh blood 

 runs free upon the hillsides. The city, left to itself, dies with 

 the third generation. It is only the incoming of the boys and girls 

 from the hill farms all over our eastern country, — it is only in 

 this way that new life and energy can be vouchsafed to us and 

 that the city can make that progress which you hope to see in 

 coming years. 



The agricultural possibilities of this State insure a tremen- 

 dous asset to you, gentlemen of the City of Portland. The 

 fruit in this State is worth in round numbers about three and 

 one-half million dollars yearly. In 1910 there were set 100,000 

 trees, in 191 1, 120,000, and in 1912, 150,000. Properly cared 

 for, by men who are studying the cjuestion as carefully as you 

 are studying any of the questions which confront you in your 

 business, do you not see that in the immediate future there 

 ■must be a large increase in the revenue of the farms, and what- 

 ever adds to the value of the farm adds to the value of the 



