I lo THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



meeting- to-day and to-morrow. I have always been in the 

 habit of attending- our fruit growers' meetings at Worcester, 

 but to-day I thought I would come to your Connecticut meet- 

 ing, and you have given us a feast of good things. I have 

 had some acquaintance with several of your members, and 

 through the inspiration I have received by talking and corre- 

 sponding with them-, it has been a great benefit and help to 

 me in my pursuance of the apple growing business. The 

 apple is my particular hobby, and the Baldwin is my specialty. 

 This is a day of specialties, and it is not enough to confine 

 one's efforts to apples, but I believe the time must come when 

 we must specialize some particular apple. I would take excep- 

 tion to some of the speakers that have spoken to-day, inas- 

 much as they have spoken of so many varieties they have 

 planted and interplanted in their orchards. I believe it is 

 one of the mistakes of commercial orcharding in planting too 

 many varieties. When I have buyers come to my place, I 

 have one particular apple to show them, and I have an apple 

 of which there is enough and abundance, or over-supply. I 

 can produce them by the carload lot, and sell them by the car- 

 load lot. I don't have to stop and sort out the varieties in 

 my orchard, for I can go to the orchard and pick up Bald- 

 wans and market them. This matter of convenience to market 

 is a great element in fruit growing. We are within a stone's 

 throw of a railroad, and as I heard the gentleman from Vir- 

 ginia speaking to-day, I didn't know what I should do if I 

 was located where I had to draw my apples four or five miles 

 to the railroad station. Frequently we have loaded a carload 

 of apples from our storehouse in from three to four hours, 

 so you see it is a great element of saving and expense to be 

 near your shipping station. I was speaking with a gentleman 

 to-night at the hotel on the subject of pruning apple trees, 

 and I told him that as I pruned my apple trees I always have 

 the ideal in mind, that is, to prune a tree so as to have a har- 

 monious tree, to produce a tree from which the fruit can be 

 picked economically, and on which the fruit can grow to the 

 most perfection. We think there is one great mistake that 

 orchardists make, and that is in not paying more attention to 

 the shaping and forming of the tree. If I were asked to 



