ANNUAL REPORT. 259 



growers of the state were present, which offered a good op- 

 portunity for the exchange of views and to gather informa- 

 tion relative to the quantity and quality of the crop. The 

 universal opinion of the growers was that we shall have a 

 large crop of the fruit this year, and that the recent rain has 

 done much to insure size and quality. 



The next gathering in the series of summer meetings 

 was arranged for August 17th, at the Seymour orchards of 

 Messrs. Hale and Coleman. The following notice was sent 

 out for this meeting: 



By invitation of Bro. J. H. Hale and M. L. Coleman, members 

 of the Society and friends will visit their large orchards near Sey- 

 mour, Tuesday, Aug. 17th. 



Mr. Hale says, "The orchards consist of fifty acres of young 

 peaches, 100 acres young apples and 100 acres apples just coming 

 into fruiting, all on the roughest piece of rocky land in Connec- 

 ticut. Culture is good, bad, indifferent and in sod. Besides all 

 this you can see off into three counties of the state and across the 

 Sound to Long Island. There is a fine display of Baldwin apples 

 on many of the trees. The orchard is not on 'Easy Street' and 

 our Airships are not in working order, but those who enjoy rough- 

 ing it may be interested to look us over. Our horses are all tired 

 out and have gone to pasture for rest, but arrangements have been 

 made for busses to meet the visitors at Seymour center and con- 

 vey them to the farm. Fare, 50 cents round trip." 



Unfortunately the day of this meeting proved very 

 stormy and no one was able to attend. In the absence of 

 any provision for postponement on account of rain, the 

 meeting had to be given up for this year, at least, but the 

 Society is in hopes that Brother Hale will renew his kind 

 invitation in 1910, when we shall have the opportunity of 

 visiting this interesting fruit farm, which is located on 

 land that was once as rough and unpromising as any in the 

 state for fruit culture. 



