TWENTIETH ANNUAL MEETING. 23 



bulletins have been thus distributed. The work has, how- 

 ever, only begun. There is no doubt that a milHon copies 

 could easily be sent out if the Society could afford to have 

 such a quantity printed and if every member would assist 

 the committee by enclosing the circulars in his own corres- 

 pondence and by interesting his neighbors, and especially the 

 manufacturers and large business men in his neighborhood 

 in doing the same thing. 



Your committee has prepared a new bulletin, which is 

 being distributed at this meeting. This bulletin is not intend- 

 ed to supersede the previous ones, but deals rather more par- 

 ticularly with the fruit growing possibilities of the state, and 

 may thus appeal to persons who are interested in that branch 

 of agriculture. 



Your committee has to report that the results of its at- 

 tempted fruit census have not been equal to its expectations. 

 It sent out about 700 circulars, and enclosed in every case a 

 stamped and addressed envelope for reply. In spite of this, 

 less than 250 replies were received. The information obtained 

 is deemed of value only so far as it refers to apples and 

 peaches. For purposes of tabulation, all growers having less 

 than two acres of either fruit have been omitted. The re- 

 maining growers were divided into two classes, those having 

 over ten acres of either fruit, and those having between two 

 and ten acres. Fifty-seven replies were received from the 

 larger growers, and they owned or controlled between them 

 1,423 acres of apples and 2,000 acres of peaches. Some of 

 these growers did not report both apples and peaches, there 

 being 48 apple growers and 40 peach growers.' 



The class of smaller growers accounted for an additional 

 253 acres of apples and 119 acres of peaches, or a total acre- 

 age shown of 1,676 for apples and 2,119 for peaches. The 

 acreage of these two fruits, as show^n, is, therefore, 3,795, a 

 figure which is not as large as the importance of the industry 

 would justify, but which, considering the incompleteness of 

 our returns, seems cause for warm congratulation. 



