158 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



to locate the Yankee for yon, they tell you: "He lives in the 

 Shenandoah Valley of Virginia/' and incidentally, they will 

 caution you against trading horses with a Virginia Yankee. 

 (Laughter.) And if you go down into ^lexico and ask those 

 people where the Yankee lives, they will tell you everything 

 north of the Rio Grande River is a Yankee, but always the 

 term means he is the man who is doing things. 



And so, by your invitation, I am come here to-day to tell 

 you that the Virginia Yankee, horticulturally speaking, has 

 arrived. (Laughter.) So much for the people living in that 

 country of the Shenandoah Valley. 



Now just a word about the country itself. Doubtless, 

 many of you think from the name "Shenandoah Valley" that 

 it is a level country, and perhaps that name would be synony- 

 mous in the minds of some of you, with a river bottom 

 country, a flat country. Such is not the case at all. The 

 valley of Virginia proper is about, on an average, fifteen 

 miles wide, in some places as wide as thirty, and about 

 a hundred and twenty miles long; is an elevated plateau, 

 almost as cold as this Connecticut country. We have already 

 had this winter a month of sleighing, and we have not been 

 able to do much outdoor work so far, and the country is 

 rolling, three or four high ridges running parallel with the 

 main chain of mountains through the entire length of the 

 valley, a country very much like yours, except probably with 

 a little more rain-fall and a little longer summer season. 



Some years ago quite a number of Connecticut people 

 visited the valley of Virginia, but unfortunately at that par- 

 ticular time a large number of our leading citizens happened 

 to be absent from home, or else we might have given you a 

 niore cordial reception, which no doubt we would liked to 

 have done. After the Connecticut visitors had returned to 

 their homes and our people had come back, they found a con- 

 dition of things there that was somewhat distressing. Now, 

 gentlemen, understand that we are not repining- or complain- 

 ing al:!Out things that have happened in the past. Who knows 

 l)ut what the sorrows of the terrible time of the Civil 



