30 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the owner, who has neglected every essential thing on his part for 

 successful results, exclaims, "It don't pay to raise fruit." I 

 knew a farmer who ploughed his field for corn and planted it, but 

 who never cultivated, ploughed, or hoed it. He had no corn. Did 

 he deserve any? He said it did not pay to raise corn. I knew 

 another farmer who prepared his gi'ound nicely for corn, planted 

 and cared for it intelligently, and received upwards of a hundred 

 bushels of shelled corn per acre. He was amply paid for his care 

 and expense. He said it paid him. * 



Happily there are some who plant out trees intelligently, feed 

 them bountifully, trim and care for them thoughtfully and pru- 

 dently, and receive from them in return most profitable crops, as 

 quantities of pear and other trees about Boston and some other 

 places demonstrate. 



I give a few examples : An orchard of ninety trees in New 

 Canaan produced 206 barrels of picked apples the eighth season 

 after planting. A tree upon our farm, fifteen years old, yielded 

 12 barrels of choice picked apples. 'Franli Olmstead, of Cheshire, 

 Ontario County, N. Y., sold from his orchard of one and one-half 

 acres the year before last 379 barrels of apj^les at $2.40 per bar- 

 rel, and from the same orchard he had between 300 and 400 

 bushels of paring and cider apples. A tree standing in Glastonbury, 

 Conn., a year ago produced 95 bushels of apples. Hale Brothers 

 of Connecticut, three years ago sold about $24,000 worth of peaches 

 from their orchard of thirty-five acres. I saw a few years ago 

 exhibited in this hall a bushel or more of Clapp's Favorite pears, 

 every one of which was perfect in form and color, showing great 

 care and skill in the management of the trees and in the handling 

 of the fruit. The exhibit made a lasting impression upon my 

 mind, and I hardly sell a Clapp's Favorite tree without that basket 

 of perfect and beautiful pears standing as a picture before me. 



From the above examples, where proper feed, care, and atten- 

 tion have been given to the trees, we are justified in saying that 

 fruit raising may be conducted, not only to great profit, but also 

 with great pleasure, when intelligently done. The day has gone 

 by for slipshod, hap-hazai'd farming or fruit-raising. We are 

 living in an age of thorough investigation and scientific research. 

 Never was the mind of man more intensely absorbed in experi- 

 ments and research in the various departments of agriculture and 

 horticulture than at the present day. Agricultural experiment 



