I06 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



I wish we might do that on all occasions of this kind, and that 

 an interesting feature of the program might be specially ar- 

 ranged for them. 



There are two things more to which I feel like calling atten- 

 tion. The first is in regard to the varieties of fruit to plant. 

 Now while I wouldn't tell you just exactly what varieties to 

 plant, because I don't know what your situations may be, it 

 does seem to me that in view of the shortness of the season you 

 should plant more marketable varieties than you are disposed 

 to plant at the present time. Now don't take my meaning to be 

 that I advise planting more varieties than are planted in the 

 State, because I don't mean that at all. There are too many 

 varieties already. But wliat I mean is that for market pur- 

 poses you shouldn't plant all Ben Davis, nor all Baldwins, nor 

 all Northern Spies. If I could have a large orchard just to 

 suit me and make orcharding my business in the State of 

 Maine, I would plant some Duchess of Oldenburg, and then I 

 w^ould plant some Wealthies, and so on. In other words, I 

 would plant varieties so that instead of waiting until the first 

 of October, when the cold weather is right upon you, you could 

 begin harvesting your fruit by the first of September. And if 

 you can get a hundred barrels of apples, or two hundred bar- 

 rels, into market before the first of September, or even more 

 than that, you have got them out of the way of the frost any- 

 way. You can pick fruit to better advantage then. The vi^eath- 

 er is warmer, the days are longer, and you can get more of it 

 into the market. That is one thing, it seems to me, with the 

 short season we have, which we ought to do. This year in my 

 county, if the season had been as it was two years ago, the 

 farmers wouldn't have been able to pick one-half their apples. 

 Fortunately, the season was very mild, and the mild weather 

 was extended over weeks, so they had no trouble in getting their 

 fruit all in. But that is a trouble that is likely to come up every 

 year. If you can't get $3.00 for your apples, per barrel, in the 

 month of September, you can raise them at a profit and gtt 

 them into the market for $1.50, when you don't have to store 

 them. Perhaps you can get more than that. So I advise plant- 

 ing more marketable varieties and not so many of one or two or 

 three kinds of the latest varieties in apples. 



