FIELD MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY 



EARLY in the history of the Society members realized 

 that the brightest thought and most practical dis- 

 cussion could be brought out in the field, around 

 tree, plant or vine. So it was decided that one important 

 feature of its work should be summer meetings on the farms 

 of its members, devoting the morning hour to field inspec- 

 tion, questions and informal discussion, noon to a picnic 

 lunch, and the afternoon to a calling together of the 

 Society, with the host as leading speaker, to briefly explain 

 his work, method and results. His speech was to be fol- 

 lowed by short addresses on various topics furnished by his 

 remarks and the morning inspection. Now, after seven 

 years of experience in these field meetings, two to four 

 each season, it is the firm belief of those best informed that 

 they have had greater educational power than any other 

 horticultural meetings ever held in America, and they will 

 ever be a leading feature in the work of this Society. 



The first field meeting of which the Society has any 

 record was held at South Glastonbury, in the strawberry 

 season of 1894, on the farm of J. H. Hale. Strawberry 

 fields of many acres and varieties, and some sixty acres of 

 peach orchards, were the main point of interest. 



The next meeting was in Meriden, on the farm of the 

 late A. J. Coe, where cherries, grapes, apples, and cold 

 storage houses were a leading feature. 



The Connecticut Valley orchard, at Berlin, with its 

 many thousand peach trees, with apples set between, at- 

 tracted the attention of the Society in 1895. 



August 21, 1896, the berry and melon farm of J. C. 

 Eddy, at Simsbury, with its extensive irrigating plant, 

 operated by several very large rams, was the center of 

 interest. 



The next field meeting visited the farm and nursery of 



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