STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 49 



There is no animal on the farm which will respond to an invi- 

 tation like an apple tree, provided that invitation be intelligently 

 written in a good clear hand. So if my trees want company in 

 the future, they will have company. If they want something to 

 eat, they will have something to eat. And we will solve very 

 largely, I think, the question of spraying through fertilization. 

 If we will give our orchards the food they need for the produc- 

 tion of five, six, eight or ten barrels of apples so they can main- 

 tain their vitality and make the wood growth necessary for their 

 future production, we will insure a quality of fruit and a power 

 of resistance which we do not dream of today when our trees 

 are starving for something to eat, and sending their roots out in 

 every direction under the bound turf and around the rocks 

 trying to find food which we fail to supply as we ought in order 

 that they may give us the returns. 



I have been having a good time by myself among the trees 

 the past two years, and enjoying it — getting a measure of satis- 

 faction that I cannot obtain in some other ways, finding a degree 

 of inspiration from a touch with Mother Earth which does not 

 come through things we can construct ourselves. There are 

 mighty forces and agents at work in this world, and what you 

 and I want, friends, whether growing apples or any other 

 products, is to touch elbows with the Almighty in this work, with 

 reverence and appreciation of what these agents and forces will 

 do for us when we properly co-operate. When we feed and do 

 for our trees as we would have them do for us, we get a response 

 that can come in no other wav. 



