46 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



neglected and broken by storms, usually produce some fruit every 

 year and are frequently loaded to the ground. When given half 

 the chance of ordinary farm crops these same old trees, re-grafted 

 to varieties of recognized merit, become the most valuable assets 

 of the farm. In this connection I have in mind an old orchard in 

 southern Maine, set more than SO years ago, and naturally some- 

 what decrepit now. In three successive years recently, this orchard, 

 covering about two and one-half acres, yielded 650, 400, and 350 

 bushels respectively; which brought the owner $480, $300, and 

 $350, or an estimated net profit to the owner of 75 per cent.* These 

 old moss covered, neglected veterans, hardy as maples and refusing 

 to die, stand as living witnesses to the possibilities of New England's 

 hillsides. 



Nor is the testimony confined to these old veterans. Very many 

 modern instances of men who have accumulated a competence 

 from old rocky pastures by the aid of the apple tree might be cited. 

 Phineas Whittier, Maine's "apple king," began his labors as a 

 fruit grower about 1850 with the purchase of 90 acres of most 

 unpromising rocky pasture and woodland for the sum of $400, of 

 which he was only able to pay $75 down. Apple trees were set 

 wherever a place could be found among the rocks, and today there 

 are substantial buildings, including fruit cellars and evaporating- 

 house; and the annual returns from the orchard, which now covers- 

 nearly 100 acres, are from $3000 to $6000. 



Only a few weeks ago, in conversation with the owner of an 

 "abandoned farm" in Maine, the following interesting facts were- 

 brought out : The owner a resident of Waterford, Oxford County, 

 was a young married man and wished to branch out somewhat in 

 his farming operations. In 1886 an abandoned farm of 136 acres, 

 one and a half miles from home, was bought for $650. This is 

 what is known as a hill farm, and apple seedlings grew almost 

 spontaneously. At the time of purchase there was a thick growth 

 of natural apple seedlings over the abandoned fields. "Some of 

 these had been top worked, and that year yielded 20 barrels of 

 fruit. The same year the owner set three hundred trees and began 

 grafting the other seedlings. Such wood and timber as there was. 



♦Cited by D. H. Knowlton, Me. Pom, Soc. 



