102 THE CONNECTICUT P0M0L0GICAL SOCIETY. 



think we are just beginning to get our eyes open. I think 

 that show in Boston last fall has done more to stimulate the 

 fruit industry than anything else that has been done for 

 years, because it has opened our eyes. I think it will do 

 a vast amount of good, because many have had the idea that 

 all you had got to do to grow fruit was to plant the trees, and 

 then sit in the shade and let the trees take care of themselves. 

 Fruit such as was exhibited at that Boston show cannot be 

 raised in any such way. It used to be so that things could be 

 planted, and we could wait a few years, and then the next 

 generation might begin to get some fruit by the time they 

 got to be middle-aged, but the average American is not content 

 now with any such state of affairs. Now you can set out a 

 tree, an apple tree or peach tree, and, if you will see to it, 

 have it come into bearing within three or four years and 

 enjoy it yourself. It will die unless it is properly attended 

 to. You cannot afford to ignore your fruit nowadays. If 

 you take care of it, there never was a time when the prospect 

 was so bright as it is to-day. The whole problem can be 

 summed up right in one sentence, which is simply this, that 

 we must grow better fruit, and in that way command the 

 market. A great many have taken me to task and said, 

 "Why, your fruit is so nice when we do not have fruit fit for 

 anything." I know of one man who pretends to be a very 

 prominent horticulturist. He had one of the Boston com- 

 mission merchants in his orchard, and he was telling me all 

 about his fruit, and what he was going to do with it, how 

 nice it was, etc. The commission merchant paid him a visit, 

 and when he got through he said, "You haven't got an apple 

 here that is fit to market." He did not have a perfect apple 

 in his whole orchard. That just sized up the situation. We 

 have got to grow good fruit, fruit that the market will take, 

 and to grow that kind of fruit the orchards have got to be 

 taken care of. Then there will be no trouble about selling 

 it. It will sell itself. Apples have averaged from one to 

 six or seven dollars a barrel this season, just according to 



