28 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ANNUAL ADDRESS. 

 Hon. Z. A. Gilbert, President. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: An established custom of this society, 

 handed down from its first organization, makes it incumbent 

 upon me to address you at the opening of this annual convention 

 on such points connected with the work of this society, and 

 related to the industry it was instituted to promote, as may be 

 considered important to its further usefulness. 



The work of such an organization can never be completed. 

 As step by step progress is made new conditions arise, new 

 obstacles are met, new enemies encountered. These make new 

 demands upon our intelligence. Study and experiment must 

 ever keep on. New conditions must be fathomed, obstacles in 

 the way must be overcome, enemies must be subdued. Thus 

 will there ever continue to be a demand for such an organization 

 as ours, and always problems in sight calling for solution. 



Fruit growers are to be congratulated on the condition of the 

 fruit market the present year. Demand is sharp and prices high. 

 Maine apples of late have been gaining an enviable reputation 

 among both dealers and consumers wherever they have been dis- 

 tributed. The crop of fine Maine apples of last year found a 

 market largely in the South and West. Their superiority was 

 such as to create a sharp demand for more. It was to stimulate 

 this demand, and still further show the merits of the products of 

 Maine orchards that this organization made an exhibit last 

 spring of our late keeping commercial varieties of apples at the 

 Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. The reputation thus 

 gained and kept up is plainly manifest in the sharp demand and 

 wide call from the same quarter for the crop of Maine apples 

 of the present year. Such facts may well be a source of encour- 

 agement to our society in the noble work it has done for the fruit 

 industry of the State, and should be an incentive to further effort 

 along similar lines. 



There never was a better outlook for the fruit grower than at 

 the present time. The population of the country, all hungry for 

 fruit, is increasing year by year, and far more rapidly than is 

 our ability to respond to the call for more. Far and wide, 

 among ourselves, our neighbors, other states and other countries, 



