STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 6l 



I have been spending the last week in Aroostook County, and 

 I tell you, friends, it is a sorry story which I might tell. Those 

 farmers there that have been growing large crops of potatoes 

 realized this year a larger crop than ever before, per acre, but 

 for some reason those potatoes have been decaying badly. The 

 statement has been made by Prof. Morse, who has been investi- 

 gating the situation, that 95% of the work done in Aroostook 

 County in spraying potatoes has been imperfectly done, and that 

 he found only two fields in four days which give evidence of 

 thoroughness in the application of the agents used for destruc- 

 tion of fungous diseases. 



Does that apply as well to our orchards? I am not going to 

 say it does, but I do want to urge as one of the most important 

 steps in caring for the orchard, the insuring of protection to the 

 individual tree. Every tree has a right to demand of us that 

 we give it the opportunity to do the very best it is capable of; 

 and no man is true to his orchard who is failing to do this. A 

 .tree, like a man, has a right to be judged from its best side ; and 

 we are not doing our duty unless we give every one of then; the 

 chailce that comes not only from right setting and right care 

 and right fertilization, but also from careful protection, and 

 that protection means thorough spraying. We must do our 

 duty in these respects if we are to meet the conditions of the 

 market which are facing us today, and which are coming up 

 to us with ever increasing force. The conditions which are 

 facing us have changed radically within the past five years, and 

 will change still more in the next five. If fruit growing -is to 

 be something more than a side issue, — something more than a 

 pastime, — and if we are to consider this as one of the great in- 

 dustries of the state, as it well may be, then it becomes our most 

 solemn duty to ourselves, our families and to the trees, that we 

 set out those varieties which promise to be most valuable in 

 the market, and then give them that care and attention which 

 will help develop the most perfect fruit. 



The presence of imperfect fruit must be eliminated to the 

 largest possible degree. That we all recognize. And yet we 

 fail too often to apply the lesson. I say it must be eliminated, 

 because the doors are closing all the while more and more upon 

 this class of fruit. Do you know that the state of Idaho, by 

 stringent legislation, forbids the shipping of a No. 2 apple out 



