STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 6l 



FRIDAY, NOV. 17— MORNING SESSION. 

 The morning session was devoted to the annual business 

 meeting, a report of which may be found on page 14. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 

 The fifth session was opened with music by the grange choir, 

 after which the following subjects were presented : 



PEARS FOR NORTHERN MAINE. ■ 

 Dr. H. A. Robinson, Foxcroft. 



A line drawn east and west, in extension of the southern 

 bovmdary of Piscataquis county, would divide this State into 

 two about equal portions. South of that line, I believe that most 

 of the common kinds of pears can be grown with a fair degree 

 of success; but north of that hne the case is different. It is 

 difficult to make the young trees live, and if some few live they 

 grow very slowly. The trees are often very defective, wounds 

 remain unhealed, the young wood is badly stained by the cold of 

 winter, the trees blossom little and bear less ; so that the efifon 

 to raise common pears in northern Maine and in northern New 

 Hampshire and Vermont as well, is hazardous and unprofitable. 

 Under these circumstances, what can be done to have pears? 



In 1870 the U. S. Department of Agriculture introduced into 

 thi.s country some of the hardy fruits of Russia. Later, in 

 1882, Prof. J. L. Budd, of the Iowa Agricultural College, and 

 Mr. Charles Gibb of Abbottsford, Canada, spent four months 

 in inter-continental Europe, examining hardy fruits. They found 

 apples, pears, plums and cherries grown in abundance and in 

 many places in profusion all through central Russia, and as far 

 north as Simbirsk and Moscow, latitude 54 to 56 (ten degrees 

 north of this), where the temperature at times is 50 degrees 

 below zero. There they made arrangements for introducing 

 the best of these hardy fruits into this country. 



