Vermont State Horticultural Society. 43 



tions because he sees the men and women engaged in these 

 occupations throughout the length and breadth of the country; 

 if he were to bring you only his own experience, and it was 

 successful, in a commercial sense, you might say that he was 

 fortunate in having some unusual combination of circumstances ; 

 but if he could bring you the experience of a thousand men 

 and women whom he has known, you would be obliged to believe- 



Your professors in the colleges of agriculture can bring 

 you such illustrations; I could bring you then;, if I had the 

 time. I have seen these young men and young women all over 

 this country, showing that horticulture is not confined to cer- 

 tain regions. I recollect very well two parts of the country 

 v/hich are not only remote from each other, but unlike in phy- 

 sical conditions. I was speaking to a convention not far from 

 Los Angeles, where the rainfall is very small ; and I was told 

 that Southern California was the best; that there they could 

 grow the best and the largest crops. Shortly after, I addressed 

 a convention in Nova Scotia, where the physical conditions are 

 entirely different; and there I was told that of all places Nova 

 Scotia was the place to live in, the place in which to grow 

 apples ; it was "the" apple growing country. Now, today I 

 hear the same thing in Vermont. We believe Western New 

 York is the place of all the places in which men should live and 

 engage in horticulture. These examples show that success in 

 horticulture is not local. 



Perhaps we cannot grow as good apples as you can; I sup- 

 pose this northern region ; the Canadian region, and Nova Scotia 

 is the apple region par excellence, if you consider all the quali- 

 ties that enter into apples, good eating qualities and good keeping 

 qualities. I don't know whether there are any Ben Davis 

 here or not, but you have Spies. A few weeks ago on a train 

 in Central New York, a school master asked me what the origin 

 of the apple was. I said I didn't know just where the apple 

 came from and when, but that I had recently seen some apples that 

 came from prehistoric lake dwellings in Switzerland, from the 

 kitchen refuse that was thrown into the water below, and it 

 was believed that these apples had lain there thousands of years. 

 As I was explaining all this to the school master, a man whom 

 I had noticed in front of us, leaned back, and asked — "Were 

 those apples Ben Davis?" 



You are all prepared to believe that of all the occupations 

 and professions in the world, agriculture is the best. I ought 

 to believe it; I was born a farmer; my father was born in this 

 old Green Mountain state 86 years ago; he lives on a farm 

 in the West today. My whole horizon is on the farm point of 



