BEST VARIETIES OF APPLES. 83 



strawberry, for example — much cheaper than we can. The 

 apple we can take care of. It requires very little labor for the 

 market, and it comes at a season of the year which is favorable ; 

 and therefore I should place the apple where our orator lias 

 placed it, first on the list, and the most important. And it is 

 really a subject worthy of consideration whether our legislature 

 ought not to favor this interest, which in its nature has an 

 inherent difficulty — the length of time required for its develop- 

 ment. Our young men are ambitious for quick returns. They 

 cannot have them with the apple, and therefore it is worthy of 

 consideration whether our legislature should not give premiums 

 for good apples, or in some other way encourage the culture of 

 this fruit. Certainly we shall have a right to expect an experi- 

 ment by our Agricultural College. I think the people will 

 demand it. 



The Chairman. While the subject is under consideration, I 

 will ask gentlemen interested in fruit-culture to address the 

 meeting. Among the number, I see our friend Moore, one of 

 the members of the Board, who has had great success in the 

 cultivation of the apple. 



Mr. Moore. I hardly know what to say, after the lecture we 

 have had to-night, and the remarks from our friends. I should 

 agree with Mr. Strong entirely in one remark he made ; that is, 

 that Massachusetts is the home of the apple. I should like to 

 ask how we should have produced such varieties as the Wil- 

 liams, the Porter, the Hubbardston Nonsuch, the Baldwin, the 

 Roxbury Russet, unless our soil had been favorable to the culti- 

 vation of the apple ? They are certainly among the best, if not 

 the best, varieties now cultivated in the Union, and certainly 

 our soil would not have produced them unless it had been 

 favorable. 



I agree precisely with what the lecturer said with regard to 

 raising apples near cities, or on high-priced land. I do not 

 believe it would be profitable to put apples on land worth more 

 than one hundred dollars an acre ; but on rough hillsides, and 

 back in the country, as the lecturer has said, there is no doubt 

 but what it would be profitable to raise apples. 



But there are a great many here who would interest tliis 

 audience more than I should, and I think they had better 

 talk instead of myself. 



