H"' inter Meeting. 285 



^'all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," but I wish to add that all 

 play and no work makes Jack a very worthless boy, and a trifling good- 

 for-nothing man. 



I believe it would be for the good of our Society and the great 

 satisfaction of the public if we would give less time, thought, and 

 worry to Old Ben Davis and his several sports, that are but very little, 

 if any better than the old gentleman himself, and spend more time, 

 thought and care on brother Jonathan, Grimes Golden, Wealthy and 

 other high grade apples that are in demand for table use. 



It will bring new life into our society and prove a glorious boon to 

 •each individual member if we will all get to work and pull ourselves out 

 of the slough of despondency into which we have drifted, by reason of 

 the very lean years through which we are passing, but let us take on new 

 hope that better seasons for the fruit grower are near at hand. It is 

 a law of nature that one extreme follows another, and now having had 

 a number of very imfavorable years, we are sure to have good years to 

 come. It is a long lane that has no turn. No night so long as to pre- 

 vent the return of day. Xo storm so dark and raging as to prevent a 

 returning calm. 



And remember "If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength 

 is small." I know quite well that human nature at best is weak and 

 liable to give way under repeated disappointments and as fruit growers 

 w^e are surely having them, but who has not? Those engaged in gen- 

 eral farming have their failures and disappointments, in many places in 

 the last few years they have in various ways lost all or part of their 

 crops, yet be it said to the credit of the American farmers, that by their 

 energy and perseverence, they have in the last two years, according to a 

 recent report of the Agricultural Department, produced more in value 

 than all of the gold mines of the World have produced since Columbus 

 discovered America. 



Too many of our fruit growers are now giving way to discourage-^ 

 ment and neglecting their orchards. On a recent trip east I observed 

 that most of the apple orchards of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, 

 Pennsylvania and West \^irginia were old and for the most part were 

 neglected and going down into a state of decay, and scarcely any new 

 ones are coming on to fill their place. In some places I found them 

 picking apples from very old large trees, with umbrella shaped tops, 

 where it required ladders thirty feet long to reach the fruit, and it took 

 a good stout man to elevate one of these ladder, although made of light 

 material. And I pause to suggest that it will be for the good of our 



