TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 



157 



is unusual, considering- the use which is ordinarily made of 

 that term. It is one of the most mysterious things in nature. 

 My father used to try to bring- me up in the right way, and 

 he used to send me out into the pasture to dig up the little 

 small seedling apple tree. I used to get them,— used to dig 

 up the little trees with a stalk about as big around as my 

 thumb cut off the top, and then father would graft them to 

 some nice tree. That is the wa\' we used to do. and we got 

 some very fair apples. 



But I suppose you are expecting me to lead up to this 

 matter of education. Let me say that you cannot make a 

 success in any business, and particularly on a large scale, un- 

 less you know your business, and for a man to know how 

 is an extremely essential thing for the people of Connecti- 

 cut. Therefore, this education question is one of the big- 

 gest with which we have to deal. You could not raise many 

 apples like some of these that I see on the table before me 

 without the men who raise such fruit knowing just how to 

 go about it. Knowledge is always power. Knowledge shows 

 the way to get rid of things in the fruit business that you 

 do not want there. It has taught you how to hunt through 

 the branches and on the bark of your trees to find things 

 that you do not want there. A great many things that you 

 get rid of very easily in these days seemed to be a good deal 

 more subtle and elusive a half century ago. In my time 

 I presume that my father would have set us about this time 

 to looking for nests in the trees of the tent caterpillar. That 

 was one of the chief enemies that we had to fight. Since 

 then other enemies to the success of raising good fruit have 

 come in. Now I understand that you have to fight many 

 subtle and obscure enemies, and that they have to be fought 

 by the aid of the chemist and of the mechanical engineer. 

 You could not get apples like these without the help of an 

 expert in a scientific line, and that is just an illustration, 

 for, if you are going to be a pomologist, and successful in 

 pomology, you must have the latest information in relation 

 to these matters. The schools then are the places where 



