96 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETT. 



holes with gimlets, if we do, we shall after tr3ing through life in the 

 end find our mistake and feel disappointed, feel that our State i& 

 only fit to emigrate from. If we could put the same energy into 

 orcharding in Maine that they do in grain raising in Kansas, would 

 it not be said that Maine was not only a good State to emigrate 

 from, but to? 



Suppose, Mr. President, that your, at present, comparative large 

 orchard of a score of acres extended from your humble home in 

 Manchester to our State capitol, a distance of four miles, that in 

 riding over the hills between these two places in the spring time, as- 

 far as the eye could reach nothing could be seen but the pink and 

 white apple blossoms of the great Pope orchard. Could there be 

 painted a more beautiful panorama? If so, it would be a painting- 

 of the same orchard in autumn loaded with luscious fruit of all shades- 

 from white to the darkest crimson. While we should look upon an^ 

 orchard like this one of enormous size for our State, it would be 

 insignificant compared with some of the wheat farms of the great 

 West. Still, Mr. President, when you stood and saw train after 

 train loaded with the product of the great Pope orchard 3'ou would 

 be not onl}' the most independent man in the State but you would be 

 the envy of the most successful in any other walk in life. 



Were I to live my life over again with my ideas of to-daj^ it 

 would be devoted to orcharding. It would be the height of my 

 ambition to have not onl}' the largest but the best fruit farm in m3- 

 native State. To see car after car-load of my fruit leave for foreign^ 

 markets. In short, to be the great apple Prince of Maine. 



Does any doubt that it would pay at least as well as any other 

 industry? If so I would like to have him stand up and tell us why. 

 There is a large and yearly increasing foreign demand for Maine- 

 apples. If we wish for this demand to increase, if we wish to not 

 only keep up our reputation, but even gain a better one, we must 

 do at least two things. First, be ready to supply that demand so- 

 that other markets will not be sought. Second, always have our 

 fruit what it is represented to be, not have a purchaser upon opening 

 a barrel of apples find No. 1 on top and 2 or 3 in the middle. I* 

 fear that unless something is done to prevent cheating in putting up- 

 our apples for foreign markets our reputations must suffer and our 

 pockets with our reputations. 



Do we not complain when we find molasses that we purchase for 

 first class a large per cent glucose, our spices^^, sugars, teas and' 

 coffee largely adulterated ? 



