STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 3 1 



to this section will encourage farmers to take hold of fruit cul- 

 ture more earnestly. If anything that may be said in this hall 

 shall encourage a part of the farmers here to make two trees 

 flourish and bear an abundance of fruit where there is now but 

 one, a part, at least, of our mission will be accomplished, and 

 no one can say that we have failed of success. 



RESPONSE— IN BEHALF OF THE CITIZENS OF 



MAINE. 

 Dr. George M. Twitchell, Augusta. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: What little I have to 

 say is in behalf of those citizens of the State of Maine, present, 

 who realize something of what it means to be so cordially 

 received under such attractive and pleasing conditions, where 

 the labor of the husbandman, and of the housewife, are manifest 

 in so many ways, in the decoration of the hall, and in the details 

 of the work of the local committee, the magnitude of which is 

 not appreciated, except by those who have been through the 

 same labor. Let us first return thanks to Sebasticook Grange, 

 and the citizens of Newport, who have made possible this pleas- 

 ing display, and completed the arrangements for the two days' 

 meeting of the society. I am very glad to hear Mr. Sanborn 

 speak of the coming of better days. He who watches the State 

 of Maine, to-day, must be conscious that the pendulum is swing- 

 ing back, and that we are passing out of the stage of depression, 

 and coming to better days in agriculture. Better days to 

 investors and better days to the farmers of Maine. Not during 

 my knowledge of the work in this State have there been so 

 many calls from persons who desire good farm property in the 

 State, as in the past few months. The atmosphere is different 

 from what it was ten or twenty years ago. Here in Newport 

 you have been growing prosperous. I asked the manager of 

 the condensed milk factory to what he attributed the great 

 change, and he pointed to the corn canning factory. I asked 

 the manager of the corn canning factory the same question, and 

 he pointed to the condensed milk factory. Such harmony tends 



