STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 3 1 



better boys and girls. It stands for better homes in the State 

 of Maine. What, let me ask, do the great farms of the West, 

 or even of our own State, amount to if they stand simply for 

 providing a little more bread and butter? if they stand for the 

 motive of the Western farmer, of raising a little more corn to 

 raise a few more hogs to get a few more dollars to raise a little 

 more corn? I say they stand for better homes; and it is the 

 home spirit, the home life of New England, which we are 

 aiming to foster. 



Now this home life can in no better way be encouraged than 

 by providing attractive suroundings for our boys and girls. 

 I mean attractive surroundings in the way of home buildings, 

 of home grounds, of well-kept roadsides. But that is not all. 

 When our boys and girls go to the schools, to the academy, 

 to the normal schools, there they want also to see attractive 

 surroundings, they want also to come in touch with the spirit 

 of country life. While I didn't intend to say anything about 

 the normal schools at this time, I can't forbear saying that I 

 hope every man and every woman here will see that in the near 

 future our normal schools not only are willing, but are anxious, 

 but they must provide such instruction that our teachers who 

 go out into the country schools shall be fitted to teach country 

 children. The trouble with so many of our country schools at 

 the present time is that the children are taught by pupils of 

 the high school, teachers that know absolutely nothing of coun- 

 try life, and then we wonder why our boys and girls are 

 educated away from the farm. This then is one of the things 

 for which the Maine State Pomological Society stands, the 

 betterment of the country homes and the elevation of every- 

 thing pertaining to country life. 



The Society stands for better fruit and more of it. Now that 

 io saying a good deal in view of the exhibit that you have down- 

 stairs at the present time. But, as I have said, there is not a 

 section of the country so well adapted to the particular interest 

 mentioned, that of producing fine fruit, especially fine apples, 

 as this particular corner of New England; and we have not 

 only our local markets but the foreign markets right at our 

 door. Now what we want to do is to control these markets, 

 by producing the best and putting it upon the market in the 

 best shape. That, friends, is one of the important lessons which 



