6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



fruit interests in general. Hardly a state in the union but 

 what has its representative organization of growers and its 

 Annual Horticultural Convention. They afford an oppor- 

 tunity- of meeting with friends and fellow workers, and much 

 valuable information is obtained from the addresses and dis- 

 cussions which are given by leading growers and scientific 

 workers. Also, by cooperation in the business affairs of the 

 Society, the members are able to obtain valuable aids to their 

 trade in matters of markets, transportation, legislation, etc. 



These statements apply with special force and truth to 

 the annual meetings of this Society, wdiich are anticipated 

 with so much interest and pleasure by all fruit growing people 

 of Connecticut. If. in its fourteen years of active life, the 

 Society had accomplished nothing more than the bringing 

 together, once a year, of all who grow and love fine fruits, 

 binding them closer with a mutual interest in a mutual work, 

 it would have fully justified all the expenditure of time and 

 effort and money. But, as we all know, the organization 

 has done vastly more, and may well feel proud of its record 

 for practical, earnest and progressive work in behalf of the 

 fruit growing interests of the state. A fact that should not 

 be lost sight of is, that many young men and women who are 

 to be the horticulturists of the next generation are joining 

 the ranks of our Society and attending its meetings as a 

 preparation for their life work. 



This cannot help but be inspiring to those older leaders 

 in pomology who have labored hard in building up the 

 Society, and to whose unselfish eft'orts its success is largely 

 due. 



With the opening of the new year, 1905, those engaged 

 in the culture of fruits in our state have reason to feel encour- 

 aged. After two most unfavorable seasons, the prospect for 

 fruit crops the coming year is bright, and while climate and 

 weather conditions are not yet within our control, still, with 

 the help of organization and the experiment stations, and 

 with better and with more exact knowledge at hand, such 

 difficulties as the San Jose scale and other insect and disease 

 pests are being overcome, and it is now possible to produce 

 fine crops of fruit at profitable prices in every section of the 



