412 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



finest flavor ? This they should do, if they desire to promote, 

 what most aim at in life, their own pecuniary interests. Such 

 are now the facilities for railroad, steamboat and ship commu- 

 nication with every part of the world, that apples, grown in this 

 valley, may be speedily and easily sent to the most distant por- 

 tions of our land, and even to others, with very great profit to 

 all engaged in the business. Apples raised in this vicinity would 

 as soon bring nine dollars a barrel in the London market, as 

 those have done that were raised on the banks of the Hudson or 

 the Genesee. And if a single apple of the quality and size of hun- 

 dreds on exhibition here would bring a dollar at retail in Califor- 

 nia, as the committee are assured has been the case, why is it not 

 one of the most profitable enterprises of the day to engage in 

 the culture of the apple, especially, in view of the contemplated 

 and probable railroad to the Pacific ? In such an event, our 

 apples might not only be carried to the Pacific shore by rail, but 

 by steam navigation to the islands of the Pacific, and even to 

 the shores of Asia. Apples of the first quality will find, some- 

 where, almost every year, a remunerative market, since it is a 

 fruit so healthful, so universally acceptable and desirable. In 

 the cultivation of this fruit, as in other ways, we are to labor 

 for those who come after us. We are to plant trees whose fruit 

 we may not expect to gather. We are to act in the spirit of 

 the aged man who was employed with the writer of this report, 

 some years since, in setting out apple trees ; and as the writer 

 said to him, we know not who will gather the fruit of these 

 trees, when he replied, " it is no matter." Suffice it to say, that 

 the whole subject of prejjaring the grounds for apple orchards, 

 of transplanting, pruning and nurturing the trees, demands far 

 more attention than it has hitherto received in this community. 

 Requisite care, it is said, will cause the trees to bear every year. 

 Aud let it be remembered we live in a climate, and possess a 

 soil, most favorable to the growth of the best varieties of the 

 apple on the tables at the society's exhibition ; and if a still 

 finer display, in years to come, of this most excellent fruit, be 

 not made, it must surely be owing to some strange neglect or 

 remissness in a matter of very great moment to this community. 

 The pears presented, it is believed, have been seldom surpassed 

 in this place. In other places, as recently at the Norfolk county 

 exhibition, more varieties have been presented, for, one Individ- 



