ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



J. A. Roberts. 



Mr. President; Members of the Maine Pomological Society; 

 Ladies and Gentlemen: 



The task appointed to me here this evening is truly a pleasant 

 one, and I rejoice that I have the opportunity once more to bid 

 you welcome in this hall and in this capacity. 



The purposes of the Maine State Pomological Society are of 

 the highest. If that organization does its full duty, and if it 

 could extend its work more broadly, it would affect the interests 

 and welfare of our state very largely. We are glad to have you 

 come here. Oxford County is something of a fruit growing 

 section. We raise here a few apples. We raise here, too, some 

 good apples, as the New England show at Boston proved. And 

 our apple growers in all this section are glad to have you come 

 and give them instruction. They are glad to have you bring 

 here your practical men, men who have had large experience in 

 orcharding. They are glad to have you bring scientific men, 

 men who have given their lives to a study of the questions which 

 underlie this business. And our people are hoping that out of 

 this meeting there will come to them much good and much 

 value ; that you will leave behind you not only this pleasant occa- 

 sion, but that you will leave words of wisdom and words of 

 cheer. My friends who are in this business of growing fruit 

 all realize as well as the fruit growers in other parts of the 

 state, that for the last two or three years the work has been 

 hindered and has received, I might almost say, a staggering 

 blow. But for all that, I think that the people in our section, 

 and I hope it is so in the rest of the state, still have faith in 

 the industry of producing fruit in Maine. I think perhaps it is 

 a fair proposition to say that our fruit raising people are en- 



