NINETEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 6l 



to meet with you. x\fter visiting this fruit show, to 

 which your President has referred, and seeing the Connec- 

 ticut apple growers take hold of the work there, and the 

 general exhibit from the state, I felt still more anxious to 

 meet you. I wish to say right here, to such Connecticut 

 people as may be in this audience and did not attend that 

 show in Boston, that you need not worry about the way 

 that your state was represented. It did its part, I assure 

 you, to make that grand exhibition a success. Now, as 

 you have been told, I had some apples in that exhibition, 

 and, as perhaps you can surmise, I suspect that this is 

 one of the reasons why I have been asked to come here, to 

 talk to you and tell you of some of the methods that I 

 practice in raising apples. But you all know that raising 

 apples and coming here and addressing you and attempt- 

 ing to tell you how it is done are altogether different prop- 

 ositions. 



When I first considered whether or not it would be 

 best for me to take any of your time in telling you my 

 story, I had some misgivings, feeling that you might expect 

 to hear of some new practice which would differ from those 

 usually recommended or known by apple growers, and, 

 that failing to meet such an expectation, no effort of mine 

 would be worth while. At this point, not wishing to dis- 

 appoint any good fellows interested in fruit growing, I 

 looked at the matter in this way. If any of my ways of 

 treating an orchard, although well known and generally 

 advised, should meet with the approval of those who are 

 recognized authority, then my words will add more force, 

 and help to convince or confirm what others have advised. 

 On the other hand, should few or none of the things which 

 I do seem correct, then the good you are to get must come 

 from the fact that as I raised and exhibited very good 

 fruit without the best means, then certainly great possi- 

 bilities are just before him who conducts his orchard on 

 better principles. So, from this view-point. I hope one 



