96 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



gardening, etc. But nnderlieing these, forming the basis of all, the 

 great and paramount industry is the live stock of the farms of Maine. 



The hay crop and the stock it fosters are the two great uuderlieing 

 factors in economic agriculture in Maiae and New England. 



While on general principles we concede this as a whole, there are 

 individual lines of work, forming large and growing industries in 

 themselves. One of these is fruit grovving. And if any one of the 

 varied industries of the State can be said to be independent of all 

 other industries it is this. B it commercial orcharding has not 

 arrived to that degree of prominence in Maine as to assert its inde- 

 pendence of other interests. Hence, we generally find the orchard 

 an adjunct lo the farm where mixed husbandry forms the rule. It 

 become*, then, a matter of policy in agricultural operations as to 

 which lines of industry to devote the greater attention. So in 

 instituting comparisons between fruit growing and other industiies 

 carried on on the farms of Maine, we cannot, as I said before, 

 draw the lines so closely as to be appropriate to every section of 

 the State. 



The individuality of the farmer comes in as a potent factor to 

 determine the poise of financial preponderance. One will succeed 

 admirably in caring for cows, an i make a financial success of dairy- 

 ing, while he would be an utter failure as an orchardist. 



It is very fashionable in times like the present to say that fruit 

 growing does not pay. So the same may be said of ever}' specialty 

 of the farm at certain times. Orchard sts say in seasons of full 

 crops of fruit that the trees only bear every other year, and then 

 themai'ket is always so crowded with fruit when they liave some for 

 sale, that it hardly pays the expense of gathering and marketing. 

 But this argument of crowded markets, and low p ices, has been 

 advanced against almost every crop grown upon the farm, and yet 

 the owners gro\y these same crops, and make money enough to 

 support their families, pa}' their taxes, and some of them a fair per- 

 centage besides. 



A COUNTER PROPOSITION. 



If I draw the line of comparison between one or all the varied 

 industiies of the farm and orcharding. I shall be met with a propo- 

 sition something like this : Admitting that fruit is easier raised and 

 that the profits are greater than realized in most farm commodities 

 will not the inculcation of this idea stimulate to over-production of 

 fruit, and prices run down so low, there will cease to be any profit 



