NINETEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 107 



feel that if they say anything- worthy of repetition the ladies 

 will usually repeat it. (Laughter). I am reminded of the 

 story of a little incident that is said to have happened down 

 on the eastern shore. A young man had his lady friend at 

 the seashore. He was a very bashful young fellow. One af- 

 ternoon they were sitting upon the sand when he felt that she 

 had arrived at about that stage when she was willing to be 

 kissed. The young fellow put his lips over near the young 

 lady, but she, with womanly intuition, I suppose, knew what 

 he was up to, and she fooled him. So instead of kissing the 

 girl he smacked his lips. The girl, of course, heard the rack- 

 et. She was sitting with her back partly towards him, and 

 she turned around and said, "Henry, what was that noise?" 

 The young fellow said, "I just got a little sand in my mouth 

 and I was spitting it out." After a while he thought he had 

 screwed up his courage to where he might perform the opera- 

 tion successfully, but again the girl fooled him, and for a 

 third time also. The girl for the third time turned and said 

 to him, "Henry, what was that noise?" And again the young 

 fellow had to say, "I got a little sand in my mouth." The 

 girl turned and looked at him and she said, "Henry, you 

 swallow the next mess; you need some." (Laughter). 



Now friends, there is not sand enough in me to-night to 

 enable me to attempt to make a speech. It is a pleasure for 

 me to be here, a pleasure which I cannot express in words. 

 The fruit industry of Connecticut is one of the state's most 

 important industries. It is making fine progress under the 

 leadership of this society. It is also true that the trend of the 

 times is back to the farm. The American boy is learning to 

 go back to agriculture and to the farm which he quitted for 

 years, there to take up again his life work, and this society in 

 the work which it has done in all the years of the past has 

 gone a long way towards encouraging young men to do that 

 very thing, and to hold before them the prospects of the fu- 

 ture which they cannot gain in equal quantity anywhere else 

 except upon a farm in Connecticut. 



