FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 113 



time, and I hope I may see some of you at our Worcester 

 meeting- next month. I thank you for this honor. 



President Gulley next introduced Mr. Ralph S. Eaton of 

 Kentville, Nova Scotia, who responded briefly. 



Mr. Ralph S. Eaton : Mr. President, ladies and gentle- 

 men : You gave me so much time this afternoon that I think 

 I should be excused now. However, coming from Nova Sco- 

 tia, I feel glad to exchange greetings with you. I think per- 

 haps this is the first time a Nova Scotian has had an oppor- 

 tunity of joining in any of the Pomological Society meetings 

 that have been held in the United States. I must congratu- 

 late this association on the splendid attendance which I have 

 seen this afternoon. I hope they are all members, or, if not, 

 will become members, because I know what the secretary and 

 treasurer have to contend with usually in connection with these 

 societies, and the support of all, no matter whether they are 

 fruit growers or not, is always very acceptable indeed. I was 

 immensely surprised this afternoon at the array of professional 

 men before me, and after I got through hurriedly with the 

 written notes that I had, I felt fearfully embarrassed about 

 going on. I have seldom ever met at any fruit meeting so many 

 professional men. I was at the Syracuse meeting, taking in 

 for an hour or two quietly what was going on there at their 

 association, but neither in general attendance of the meeting, 

 nor in the array of scientific men, did it approach the splendid 

 showing you have here to-day. We in Nova Scotia feel it is 

 not wise to have all our eggs in one basket, and we wouldn't 

 think at all of going in for one variety of apples alone. For 

 very many reasons. We like them to come in succession, so 

 that we can have at least two months to harvest them in. If 

 our apples were all Baldwin or all Ben Davis, we would have 

 to hustle very lively to get them all in in the last week in 

 October. Eight weeks' fruit season makes us work about as 

 fast as we want to. It seems to me that you people in Con- 

 necticut have a very great advantage over us in Nova Scotia, 

 as I understand all your crop is practically consumed in this 

 state. It only has to travel a few miles by railway, and the 

 cities in fact import more fruit than is grown in the state. 



