12 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1892." 



That was an ill day for this proud old Commonwealth, when 

 the keels of Marblehead and Salem ceased to furrow the ocean, 

 and their daughters, — future mothers of the State, — adopted the 

 heartless servitude of shuttle and loom in lieu of the unrestrict- 

 ed freedom of home. 



Horticulturists, we have nothing to sell at home or abroad, 

 but fruit: all besides is required for our own consumption. 

 But for fruit, were it sound, as it should be if only for our own 

 good repute, there are now, and bid fair- ever to be, abundant 

 markets beyond the ocean. To what better use can we put our 

 hill-sides, denuded of timber, with their strong virgin soil 

 adapted for the nourishment of the Apple ! Leave shuttle and 

 loom to those who would rather hear the mouse squeak than the 

 lark sing ! But, for us, the free air of heaven ; the hearty cul- 

 ture of the soil ; the honest, well-earned returns from an occu- 

 pation that labors its own appointed hours ; that does not breed 

 strikes ; nor eternally importuning government to make good its 

 profit, has a right to complain when forced to contribute toward 

 the support of alien and unnatural business. 



But after all we are met with the ready, well-worn, excuse 

 for moss-grown, insect-infested trees, and barren orchards, that 

 Nature is dominant and, at best, will only afford a crop in alter- 

 nate years. Is this the truth? Or was Andrew J. Downing 

 less wise than he was reputed in his own day, and has been 

 accepted since, in ours ! Was he not warranted in his assertion 

 that 



*' When half the fruit is thinned out in a young state, leaving 

 only a moderate crop, the Apple, like other fruit trees, will bear 

 every year, as it will also if the soil is kept in high condition." 



Did he not assign the proper reason for infertility when he 

 wrote in the preliminary chapter of his unrivalled work, 



" The bearing year of the Apple, in common culture, only 

 takes place every alternate year, owing to the excessive crops 

 which it usually produces, by which they exhaust most of the 

 organizable matter laid up by the tree, which then requires 

 another season to recover and collect a sufficient supply again to 

 form fruit buds." 



