STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 169 



bear?" This autumn this Httle boy has helped pick 500 barrels 

 of fruit from those trees. He can have the rubber boots now. 

 He has helped me to grow those trees, he has been a faithful 

 son, and is today exemplifying the efforts he was then trying 

 to make in my assistance. I appreciated it. I appreciated the 

 trees. I appreciate what they are doing. I can further see 

 greater possibilities in the planting of trees. It has been my 

 pleasure to encourage others to go and do likewise, and I have 

 seen the bounty bestowed in many orchards from that time to 

 the present time that my own hands were instrumental in start- 

 ing and producing the results that are now gathered from those 

 trees. 



I look upon it as a laudable work that this Society is engaged 

 in to encourage the planting of trees, which have been rewarding 

 my early efforts in those directions, and I only wish that the 

 seed that this Society has been sowing and their endeavors which 

 they have been performing with so much of intelligence and 

 so much of earnestness and so much of willingness shall result 

 in bountiful rewards in the end. There is no limit to what we 

 can do in fruit-growing in our State. I wish that the general 

 public could appreciate what I know can be done and what the 

 land planted to orchards will do for an intelligent effort. There 

 has been marked progress in recent years. The fruit-growers 

 of our State have learned lessons that they are now putting into 

 efforts and receiving the bountiful reward which to the indus- 

 trious and intelligent hand is ever ready from nature. It is a 

 pleasant occupation. Do you wonder that we boys enjoyed run- 

 ning into the orchard, and enjoyed the fruits of the orchard? 

 Do you wonder that enjoyment has filled us all these days of 

 these busy years? And are we not entitled to something of the 

 pleasures of life, and shall we not celebrate the annual return 

 of the pleasures and this reward in which we have been engaged? 

 I look upon it as a laudable effort. I look upon it that an occa- 

 sion of this kind in celebration of the annual harvest is a fitting 

 thing for this Society and its friends to engage in, thus drawing 

 our attention to the advantages we are enjoying and to the pos- 

 sibilities of further endeavors in this connection. 



We are present on this occasion in the city of Gardiner, near 

 to the center of fruitgrowing in our State. This Kennebec 



