FIELD MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY 165 



D. C. ; Hon. J, M. Hubbard, Peach Commissioner of Con- 

 necticut ; Hon. W. R. Sessions, Secretary Massachusetts 

 State Board of Agriculture, and Hon. T. S. Gold, Secre- 

 tary of Connecticut State Board of Agriculture. 



The leading thought running through all the addresses 

 was the new agriculture and the wonderful possibilities of 

 horticultural production, as shown by the work at Hale 

 farm. 



The visitors all claimed to have caught wonderful 

 inspiration from the "field meeting" idea of our Society. 



August II, 1897, at the Butler & Jewell farm, Cromwell, 

 a large meeting of the Society inspected the first large or- 

 chard of Japanese plums in full fruitage in this state. Some 

 eight or ten acres thickly planted with Abundance, Bur- 

 bank, Chabot and Satsuma plums attracted great attention 

 and admiration. Young peach orchards and great fields 

 of small fruits under clean culture were also a feature of 

 the day, enjoyed by some 150 of our members. 



August 23, 1898, at the farm of A. N. Farnham, New 

 Haven, a largely attended meeting of the Society found 

 nearly 400 acres of land under a high state of cultivation in 

 market-gardens and small fruits, and a system of business 

 organization remarkable for its completeness in detail. 



September 20, 1898, C. I. Allen, of Terryville, invited 

 the Society to visit his farm and inspect the orchards of 

 quinces, pears, plums and apples, the berry fields and the 

 grape vineyards, that make this farm so justly famous. 



June 15, 1899, at the farm of E. C. Warner, North 

 Haven, a wonderful yield of Sharpless strawberries under 

 irrigation attracted great attention, as did also large peach 

 orchards and old apple orchards under most thorough 

 cultivation. 



At Southport, August 2, 1899, the Society field meeting 

 was at Nellis Sherwood's place. Here some fifteen acres 

 of onions, fields of berries, general farm crops, and some 

 twelve to fifteen acres of peaches, showed the most 

 thorough and clean cultivation of any large farm in the 

 state. It is doubtful if a wheelbarrow load of weeds could 

 have been gathered on the whole forty acres of cultivated 

 crops. 



