ANNUAL MEETING 



OF 



MAINE STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Portland, Nov. 2, 3, 4. 191 5. 



TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 2. 



Prayer. 

 ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 

 Hon. William M. Ingraham. Mayor of Portland. 

 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



It is certainly a great pleasure that I have this evening in 

 welcoming to our fair city the Maine State Pomological Society. 

 It is certainly an organization that deserves the praise and the 

 good will of all the citizens of Maine. We, in fact, thank the 

 society for coming to Portland and placing in our hall such a 

 beautiful exhibit of one of the great industries of Maine, that 

 of apple raising. 



Agriculture is certainly one of the main things in this world. 

 It is probably the most important calling, because nearly every- 

 thing depends on the success of agriculture, upon the success 

 of the farming interests in tilling the soil and bringing the 

 products to us all. And so the State of Maine alvNays has 

 taken a great interest in agriculture and has done all it possibly 

 can to increase and forward any kind of a movement that has 

 had agriculture as its foundation. And today we are here to 

 welcome a society that has for its main object the promotion 

 of the apple industry. Years ago apple growing was a mere in- 

 cident of farming. The farmer had a few trees on his farm ; 

 he gave little attention to them. If anything grew on those 

 trees he gathered it, whatever it might be, fruit of any kind. 

 But that is all changed and the farmer today realizes that the 

 apple is one of his chief products. It is no longer an incident of 

 farming. He makes it a specialty and he has learned that it is 



