23 



lite for this. Mauy of you know about the section down 

 there, doubtless many of you know more than I do about it. 



I knew they were developing a big orchard industry 

 there, but I had a notion that you would go in there and 

 "find, way back in the mountains, some little orchards 

 J torched on the hillside growing some very nice apples. I 

 never had any thought of danger from their competing with 

 us. They have two ranges of mountains, the Blue Ridge on 

 the east and on the west the Alleghenys. ■ East of the Blue 

 Eidge you get into some such mountainous sections as I had 

 ill mind where you don't find large areas, but you do find 

 xome very fine orchards. I was in one orchard that they 

 said contained 200 acres. That was the big orchard of the 

 section but there were many other orchards 20 and 40 and 

 50 acres. But it is in the Shenandoah Valley betWjeen the 

 Alleghenys and the Blue Ridge that they are developing 

 the biggest part of the industry. 



Some of you have heard me talk about the Annai)olis 

 \'alley in Nova Scotia. Some of you undoubtedly have 

 lieen there. As you come into this Shenandoah Valley it is 

 not at all milike that or the Connecticut Valley here in 

 ^.fassachusetts. only instead of being level as both of those 

 valleys are, the ground floor of the valley is a gently rolling 

 country and you go — I don't know bow far I did go — but 

 .several hundred miles through that country and you never 

 are out of sight of fine orchards. 



I came home thinking that New E^ngland was good 

 enough for me. I didn't see anything anywhere that to me 

 compared with our conditions when we consider them all. 

 Of course, we have our troubles and no doubt a Western 

 man would see more here than I did out there. A great 

 many of us don't do as our neighbors think we ought to do 

 ill growing and handling and marketing our crop. We 

 want to improve of course, but when you consider the whole 

 situation we have a good deal to be thankful for. 



^frs. Sears and I said before we left that the best of our 

 trip would be coming home, and we found it that wav. And 



