THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 9 



Your Executive Committee has met frequently through the 

 year, whenever the business of the Society demanded. Under 

 their supervision the annual report of some 230 pages, packed 

 full of up-to-date pomological wisdom and experience, was 

 prepared and issued to the membership in the early summer. 

 Hereafter it will be more desirable if this report can be sent 

 out earlier. The Executive Committee believe an arrangement 

 can be made so that in the future the report will reach members 

 with the opening of spring and be at hand when most needed 

 by the working fruit grower. 



Among other lines of work of the past year was the gather- 

 ing of statistics for crop reports, continuing the important 

 work started two years ago. Although the results were not 

 as valuable as in a year of heavy crops and glutted markets, 

 yet as a matter of future reference the w'ork proved to be 

 entirely worth w^hile, and incidentally the growth of the fruit 

 industry of the State, as evidenced by the planting of new 

 orchards, was brought out. Provision for continuing this 

 branch of the work from year to year should be made. I may 

 add that a more general response on the part of the growers, 

 where figures are asked for, is necessary to the full success of 

 such a census. 



As far as future work for this Society is concerned, probably 

 nothing is of greater importance than that we should strive to 

 bring about a closer union of our fruit growers, especially in 

 fighting common enemies and in applying better methods to 

 the marketing of our products. By common enemies I refer 

 to such as the San Jose scale, acknowledged by those w^ho know, 

 to be the greatest problem on our hands to-day, and in con- 

 trolling which we ought to be mutually interested. Also we 

 should realize the value of our organization when applied to 

 the market end of our business. 



Connecticut is a small State, and in the extent of her orchards 

 and vineyards is not to be mentioned in the same class with 

 those vast areas devoted to fruit in our western country, but 

 she can excel in quality, if not in quantity, and the time has 

 come when her growers must apply cooperation and business 

 methods in the grading, packing, shipping and selling of their 

 fruit crops. We are planting and grozving along advanced lines, 

 but do we know how to sell to best advantage? I believe we 



