TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 



153 



fact, I have heard my father say that they Seldom had an 

 orange or a pineapple in New Haven unless a West Indian 

 brig happened to come into port with a cargo, and then there 

 would be plenty in the market for a few days. Now, of 

 course, we are one of the great fruit-eating countries in the 

 world, and southern fruits are one of the thing's that make 

 our northern winters tolerable. We are happier, and we are 

 healthier for it. I do not believe that any state raises fruit 

 which is any better than that which is raised on Echo Farm, 

 and on a good many of our farms here in Connecticut by our 

 own pomologists. When I pick up an apple which comes 

 from the Pacific coast I find it looks handsomer, even better 

 than those which come from the local growers, but it has not 

 got the flavor of an eastern apple, even before it goes into 

 cold storage, and still less when it comes out of it. 



This Society, I think, has done a useful work in teaching 

 our people that fruit culture pays now better than it ever did. 

 It pays to raise good fruit in Connecticut. It pays because 

 we have got the market for it. There are lots of farms in 

 Connecticut that are within easy riding distance of good mar:- 

 kets, and where you can sell good fruit, and be pretty sure to 

 sell it at a fair price. Fruit raising is, I think, going to be 

 more and more a Connecticut industry. Raising fruit and 

 selling it at home is a business which will probably increase, 

 for the number of people, particularly in the larger places, 

 who are finding the use of fruit at the table once a day a 

 necessity rather than a luxury, is increasing all the time. We 

 have a great many orchards in Connecticut that are run-down 

 and half cared for, or not cared for at all, and I think this 

 assembly demonstrates that there is going to be a change in 

 that respect, because it will tend to show the people of the 

 state where the money from one of the branches of farming 

 comes from. It comes very largely, I think, from fruit and 

 the dairy. I do not believe that Connecticut is surpassed bv 

 the Pacific states in • her capacity to raise good fruit at a 

 profit, because one of the necessities to the fruit business is 

 a good market, and we have ini])ortant markets on all sides 



