STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 69 



upon birds' eggs — no, don't kill him, but — teach him better. If 

 there is anything that has been unfortunate for the bird life of 

 New England, it is the collecting craze of boys. Hundreds and 

 hundreds of eggs have been collected in every town in our 

 State, and not one in a thousand has ever contributed to the 

 cause of science. No data have been kept of the conditions 

 under which the eggs were taken, and not one collector in a 

 thousand ever published the results of all his ill directed labor. 

 The attic and waste heap are the final resting places of the shells 

 once pregnant with celestial melody. If your boy must collect — 

 most boys have the passion at some period of childhood — teach 

 him to collect life histories of injurious insects. By such work 

 he will add to the productiveness of your farm, increase the 

 stock of human knowledge, and animate his old age with the 

 vivacity of youth. 



Kill your cat. Stop your boys from robbing nests. Study 

 the part that birds and insects play in fruit culture, and bountiful 

 harvests shall follow. 



FRUIT GROWING AT OAKLANDS. 

 By Robert H. Gardiner, Esq., Gardiner. 



The very kind words of your President simply make me feel 

 more deeply than I had felt before — although it has been troub- 

 ling me a good deal — that I haven't any right whatever to appear 

 on this platform. He has been good enough to speak of my 

 place. I have not made the place. My grandfather and my 

 uncle and Mr. Merrill made the place and I have entered into 

 their labors. 



If I had been able to make this address a year ago, I should 

 have done it without very much hesitation, because I had then 

 at my right hand a man who I think it is no disrespect to any- 

 body here to say was as good an orchardist as there was in the 

 State. The great beauty of my place, the great value of my 

 orchard, has come entirely through the indefatigable labors of 

 Mr. Stephen T. Merrill, who was called hence last winter in the 

 prime of his health and strength, and his years were not many. 

 Mr. Merrill was reallv a remarkable man, — a man of the highest 



