state; pomological socie;ty. 8i 



That was my trip to Mr. True's orchard. That was the sec- 

 tion of country that I went through and what I found there. 



What were the lessons that I learned while I was there? 

 Very often a young man of my age, particularly if he graduates 

 from high school — I don't know as it is so much so now as it 

 was then — if the principal happens to be a graduate of some 

 college, he will come along to you — " Why don't you go to this 

 college or that college, classical college, and take a course there 

 and teach for a few years, and if you don't like it, take up some 

 profession rather than agriculture, like a doctor or lawyer or 

 something, and then after you get your money there, why retire 

 and live on a farm ? " Just the same as to tell me if I retired 

 myself onto the farm at the age of eighteen or twenty when I 

 graduated from high school, I would retire, get out of sight on 

 the farm. 



What do we find at Mr. True's? He left there when he was 

 nineteen and came back when he was twenty-six. Did he retire 

 when he came back there ? No. You that are acquainted with 

 the history of the town of New Gloucester will find how many 

 years he has served on the board of selectmen and other munic- 

 ipal offices, and served his own town in various other capacities. 

 And look up his record there? Did he retire from business? 

 No. You find that a young man can go onto one of our farms 

 situated on the hills of Maine and make an outside record. 



We learned the cultivation of the orchard, of which I told 

 you before. But the principal point, I think, with all of us was 

 emphatically represented when we went to dinner and found the 

 bountiful feast before us. 



In driving into his orchard, looking on the right hand of the 

 driveway the first thing that took our attention were the blue 

 plums, bending the limbs down. In going out through the 

 orchard, he showed us the dififerent rows of trees grafted on the 

 Astrachan stock, etc. Then in going out around we came to his 

 corn patch, — a small corn patch situated outside — coming down 

 around where the hogs were, where Prof. Munson is at work, 

 and coming back a little back of his house, we found there the 

 luxuries of city life, currants, gooseberries, strawberries, plums. 

 The plums we could not see the leaves on the trees. And when 

 we went in to dinner we found a feast set before us, something 

 that you could not buy in any hotel for a dollar a meal, I will 

 warrant you. 



