TWENTIETH ANNUAL MEETING. 



115 



barn door, the old farmer turned to his wife and said: 

 "Margaret, my dear, if the Lord is with us he is going 

 some." (Laughter.) If the Lord is with the Pomological 

 Society of Connecticut, you have been going some in the 

 last five years. 



I would like to add just a serious thought for your con- 

 sideration to-night, and it is this ; there is one feature of the 

 eastern horticultural business that you seldom hear men- 

 tioned in the West, and that, I think, is a very important 

 one. It has been my pleasure and my duty in the last 12 or 

 15 years to travel throughout the length and breadth of this 

 broad land. I have been gratified, of course, to find in 

 almost every section of the country to which I have been, 

 Virginians who have left their state who are foremost for 

 the states of their adoption. That is particularly true of the 

 West. I also find in the West numbers of young, active, 

 enterprising men from Connecticut and from all of the 

 eastern states. And while it is a source of deep gratification 

 to meet these home folks when we get away from home, it 

 been a particularly sad reflection to me that we were nOt 

 able to keep our young men at home. I have read some- 

 thing of your abandoned farms of New England and 

 I have always thought that the stories of the abandoned 

 farms of New England \vere largely newspaper stories, if 

 you will excuse the expression. I have never found any 

 considerable number of those abandoned farms, but I have 

 seen many an old couple in Virginia, toiling until the last 

 years of their lives, while their sons have gone to the A\"est 

 to seek their fortunes. This seems to me altogether wrong, 

 because I believe the opportunities for successful business 

 in the East are greater to-day than anywhere in these 

 L'nited States. (Applause). And I have seen in this re- 

 vival of horticultural interest in the East a means to keep 

 our young men at home. 



I wonder if the older people here to-night (myself and 

 the toastmaster included) realize that when our boys leave 

 home to go to the A\>st. that they become our competitors? 



