30 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



are showing a similar increase in value. An orchard of four 

 hundred trees, all one variety, I have been watching with interest 

 the past season. Every tree was covered with fruit. Up to the 

 present time the fruit it has borne has paid for the land, trees 

 and all expenses up to date. The orchard would now sell for 

 twelve to fifteen hundred dollars. Yet it has but just got up to 

 a bearing condition, and ready to go on with a largely increased 

 production for fifty years. I mention these orchards, not as 

 isolated and exceptional cases, but as samples of what is being 

 realized in thousands of Maine orchards on a large or a small 

 scale. The leading men of our State — business men and capi- 

 talists — do not seem to comprehend what is being illustrated in 

 individual cases in every fruit growing town. Were such cases 

 of increase of values as I have mentioned to be found in lines of 

 effort independent of land and the farm, and yet certain, sure 

 and safe, they would be looked upon as fabulous. In the case of 

 orcharding the opportunities are so frequent and so easy to 

 reach that their value is overlooked. It is a curious fact that 

 people cannot appreciate opportunities that are knocking around 

 under foot. They must look to far-away Riverside and Florida 

 to be able to see opportunities for fruit growing. 



Another phase of the business of fruit growing, bearing on 

 the question of profit, is almost always overlooked even by those 

 engaged in the business. Just now potatoes are having their 

 innings as a money crop. Yet the potato must be planted 

 and the entire routine of growing the crop must be repeated in 

 full each year. An orchard gives a crop of fruit, while the trees 

 on which it grows remain to repeat their bounty each returning 

 season for half a century. There is no room to question the 

 claim that a Maine apple orchard is way ahead of a California 

 orange grove in net money to its owner. Few of us appreciate 

 the actual low cost of fruit from a well conducted orchard. 

 This association cannot do too much in directing public atten- 

 tion to the profits of orcharding and the favorable opportunities 

 for its development in our State. 



There are two lines of work to which our society has given 

 some attention in recent years that call for continued effort in 

 the same direction. I have in mind high quality in fruit as a 



