MAINE STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Transactions for the Year 1892-93. 



REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



A YEAR IN POMOLOGY. 



For various reasons that I am unable to explain, it has not been 

 the custom in our society for the secretary to offer any formal 

 report at the annual winter meeting As we are meeting this year 

 in the city where the society twenty years ago held its first meeting 

 and perfected its organization, it seems bi st to depai't from the 

 custom of recent years. This is the only apology I have for 

 offering this paper, which aims at giving a hasty review of the 

 work accomplished in ihe State the past year. 



It is gratifying to note that our own people are beginning to 

 realize that here in Maine we have the most favorable conditions 

 for successful fruit culture. While it seems to be a hard lesson for 

 the State as a whole to learn, year after year the facts of successful 

 fruit culture accumulate, and bear tangible evidence to him who 

 will read them that year after year the fruit growers are making 

 profitable gains from their orchards and small fruits. The sur- 

 prising thing to sharp business men is that the farmers do not more 

 quickly "catch on" to these facts and devote more time and intel- 

 ligence to fruit culture. When Florida oranges can be profitably 

 grown and retailed in towns several hundred miles from Boston for a 

 cent and a quarter each, there can be no doubt about the profit of 

 growing apples in this State that will retail for more money than 

 these oranges. But there has been a steady gain from year to year 

 though it sometimes seems to be very slow. So that there are now 

 more fruit-bearing trees in the State than ever before. 



