8o state; pomological society. 



LESSONS LEARNED AT THE ORCHARD MEETING. 

 Edward L. White, Bowdoinham. 



I am rather a young man in this business, and of course when- 

 I went to Mr. True's orchard meeting, I took my trip there as a 

 young man. 



I would hke first, if you will pardon me, to describe my trip 

 there. I took a term and drove some twenty-five or thirty miles 

 and then took a train and went to Mr. True's farm. In going- 

 there, I left a section of country that had supplied the creamery, 

 and in looking over their farms one may see the same slope that 

 Brother True has, the hills of Maine sloping down into the 

 brooks and valleys, rocky lots sloping onto the clay, and in the 

 creamery section you would see the fodder corn growing nicely, 

 and upon the hill of course you would see the orchards scattered 

 around — no leaves to speak of, that is, if there were any they 

 were pale, no fruit, — that was evident. Once in a while you 

 would see the hogs at work in them, — very seldom. But the 

 corn patch to support those cattle — what was that? No weeds 

 in that and it was good corn. 



Going a little further I came into the section of the country 

 that was supplying the corn factories. I didn't see any corn 

 factories but you could see that it was sweet corn growing there. 

 No weeds in the corn. Stiir the orchard was on the side hill, 

 neglected. You could see their potato patches every little 

 while — no weeds in the potatoes. Still the orchard situated just 

 the same. 



In getting to Mr. True's what did we find? We found his 

 house situated on one of the hills of Maine, his farm sloping off 

 to the eastward into the valley of a river. Down in the valley he 

 raised his hay, you could see. In his orchard what did he do? 

 Did you see his potatoes and corn down in the valley? No, he 

 had the whole thing combined. It seemed as though he had his 

 arms right around the whole of it, — his potatoes, corn and 

 apples. No neglect there. His corn he cultivated so that you 

 could hardly see the trees in some of his young orchards. His 

 potatoes would cover the ground so you couldn't see the rows. 

 Were his trees pale? Was the fruit scant? No. Take one 

 of the leaves ofif of Mr. True's trees, feel of it in your fingers. 

 It feels as though there was something to the leaf, some thick- 

 ness there, good, solid green. And the fruit was fine. 



