STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETT. 55 



have been permitted to sec that wondrous garden of Eden we should 

 have found our chosen family the largest in all that glorious domain. 

 It seems somewhat singular that nearly all the important fruits of 

 the temperate region should be embraced in this one group but it is 

 true. We have a royal family indeed that would suit the fastidious 

 taste of even Dr. Holmes. 



The "Rose Family" then is the chosen one of this Society and it 

 is that we may understand the characteristics and laws that govern 

 the growth of its members (the apple, pear, plum and cherry, also 

 the more lowly members, the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry and 

 rose that gives the family its name^ that so much thought and 

 investigation is put forth. We see in these fruits which in our lati- 

 tude cover the entire season the hand of an all-wise Creator, and 

 the more we cultivate and study these choice gems of nature, the 

 more do our hearts flow out in gratitude and love to the great 

 "giver of every good and perfeci gift." 



While I am interested in, and grow to a greater or less extent, 

 all the memliers of this family I have mentioned, what thoughts I 

 present at this time will be upon the growth of those very humble 

 ones known as small fruits and the rose. At nearly every meeting 

 of this Society some prominent fruit grower of. New Enlgand (as 

 Mr. Augur and Hale of Connecticut and Dawes of our own S ate) 

 has given a most excellent exposition of this subject. These men 

 have had long experience, and those who have studied the reports 

 of the Society have found valuable information in all these papers. 



Allow me, Mr. President, to diverge a moment and speak of 

 reports. What observation I have had would lead me to think that 

 the reports of our S(,cieties are not valued as they should be. One 

 often comes across them in out-of-the-way places, in heaps of rub- 

 bish, etc., and when opened they will snap with glad surprise, show- 

 ing that they have never been opened before since they left the print- 

 ers' hands. They must be studied in order to be of benefit to the 

 farmers and fruit growers of Maine. Let us study then what mature 

 minds with large experience give us through the reports. 



But some one may raise the question why waste this valuable 

 time on so insignificant a subject as small fruits. Surely no fruit 

 is insignificant that can be raised, comparatively speaking, from the 

 equator to the poles. I wrote Mr. Van Deman for statistics as to 

 the value of the small fruit crop in this country for 1890, but I 

 could not get them as they are not yet completed. We feel it our 



