STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 59 



The subject for to-night was Boys and Fruit, suggested 

 to me by the president, and naturally they make a good 

 ■mixture. How much there is suggested in the way of properly 

 developing the boy, in the cultivation of fruit ! A young orchard 

 properly cultivated, tilled and enriched, will accomplish much 

 in making the boy in love with the farm. Keeping the boy on 

 the farm is a grand work, for where, I ask you, in all the world 

 can be found an occupation better adapted to develop all that is 

 acceptable in the young man, than farming, properly conducted ? 

 And the fruit comes in here with tremendous importance in this 

 direction. What can you do on the farm that will add more 

 pleasure to the family, more satisfaction to all concerned, than 

 the proper cultivation of fruit? 



As an illustration, let me refer to a man at Skowhegan who 

 owns an orchard of Northern Spies. For the past eight or ten 

 years he has sent from eight to twelve barrels of apples, of these 

 Northern Spies, to Boston every year, and he has not received 

 less than $8 per barrel in any year. Faced on the bottom of 

 the barrel, faced on top and clear to the head,' with large beau- 

 tiful apples, highly colored, and nearly all of one size. The 

 sight is indeed a glorious one. When such fruit reaches Boston 

 there is no difficulty in getting almost any price. In order to 

 secure these high prices we must produce better apples. How 

 are we to do this? When you hear of a large crop of corn 

 reported, you know that the ground must have been properly 

 prepared, enriched and tilled, all through the season. Just so 

 with the orchard. We cannot neglect it and get any satisfaction 

 out of the business. How do they raise oranges in Florida? 

 By setting trees on some worn-out land and then neglecting 

 them? No. There is no success in that. They buy land under 

 the most favorable conditions, situated by a lake or river, cov- 

 ered with forest. Often it is land costing $ioo per acre. They 

 cut off the forest, clear the land, set the orange trees, and then 

 a man and a mule work year after year on each acre. If such 

 an orchard is neglected for two or three years, it results in the 

 loss of nearly the whole plant. If we should undertake orchard- 

 ing here in Maine on that scale, investing anything like what 

 they do with the orange grove, and give equal care, what a 

 wealth could be obtained. 



