62 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



— I mean to say to raise more than you can find use for at 

 home, — and therefore all my recent plantings have been of 

 winter fruit. And I believe that an orchard of winter fruit is to 

 be preferred to an orange grove in Florida or on the Pacific 

 slope. I have visited both Florida and California and am some- 

 what familiar with the fruit interests in those sections and I 

 believe that Maine has a great future before it as a fruit-raising 

 State. In Southern California a few winters ago I heard 

 a gentleman offer a dollar for a Maine apple. Therefore it is 

 evident that right in the heart of the greatest fruit-growing sec- 

 tion of this continent the Maine down-east fruit is known and 

 appreciated. Gentlemen, I believe you are engaged in a grand 

 work and I wish you God-speed. 



AT THE WINTER MEETING. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME 



By J. Henry Moore, Winthrop. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Maine State Pomological 



Society: 



In behalf of the members of the Winthrop Grange and in 

 behalf of the citizens of the good town of Winthrop I extend 

 to you a cordial welcome. 



We thank you for so promptly accepting our invitation to 

 hold the winter meeting of your society with us. You will 

 pardon me for what possibly may seem to you at first view, a 

 needless mention of this little town of Winthrop. I think its 

 history is closely blended, in an agricultural point of view, with 

 the history and existence of the various agricultural societies in 

 our State. 



We are told by our fathers, who were the pioneers of this 

 locality, long known as Pond Town, that more than a century 

 ago, meetings were held, and an association formed to elevate 

 the laborer and the calling of the husbandman. 



We are told that the young men of those days began to look 

 on farming as rather a low employment — their aspirations were 



