62 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



chasers of land are now looking to New England for the purpose of 

 establishing orchards, not only for the home market but for the 

 export trade. 



A few years ago, while addressing students of the x\gricultural 

 College of New Hampshire, I made the statement that the future 

 promised much for young men who would take up the study of New 

 England soil with the view of establishing upon it commercial 

 orchards, for the purpose of supplying foreign markets with the 

 Baldwin apple, which is supreme in its excellence when grown upon 

 these high and rocky hills. Some Boston gentlemen read the report 

 of this talk, saw in it a suggestion for them, and one gentleman, 

 Mr. W. H. White, an extensive leather manufacturer of Lowell, 

 whose offices were in Boston, wrote to me asking if it were possible 

 to spare two or three days for the purpose of looking over some New 

 Hampshire land with reference to planting apple trees. The soil 

 was examined and found to be admirably adapted, a very large 

 number of trees were purchased — between 15,000 and 20,000 — 

 the land was put under thorough cultivation and the trees were 

 planted and made the finest growth that could be desired. In 

 view of the fact that it was thought possible to grow crimson clover 

 in New Hampshire the seed was sown over a large portion of the 

 ground upon which the trees had been planted, and I have never 

 seen a better or more luxuriant growth on my own farm, or in any 

 of the Southern States. 



The abandoned farms, of which so much was said a few years 

 since, are rapidly passing by. There are a great many city people 

 who desire to get away, at least several months in the year, from 

 the strenuous conditions which business and living in our large 

 cities entail, and many of these are purchasing farms upon which 

 they are establishing country homes, and nearly all are interested 

 in developing a prosperous and successful orchard. This is giving 

 new life and new impetus to New England, which has always been 

 representative of the best conditions, socially, politically, and finan- 

 cially of any section of the United States. 



The future has great promise in it through the ])lanting of apple 

 trees, and young men who will give study and care to more or less 

 of tree planting on a commercial basis will find themselves in the 

 enjoyment of independence and a life that is most desirable to be 

 followed. 



