STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



A MASSACHUSETTS MAN ON A MAINE FARM. 



W. O. Breed, Harrison : I have several times rehearsed in 

 the presence of a large proportion of the audience that is now 

 present, the reasons why I came to Maine, and something of 

 what I have done on the farm on which I now live. I will not 

 go through that again. But I will just mention a few of the con- 

 clusions and let it rest there. 



One of these conclusions is that were I placed in exactly the 

 same position that I was six years ago, I would do the same 

 thing over again — I would come down into Maine, and I think I 

 would come to Harrison. Another is that, as I said, I would 

 do the same thing over again — I would buy a fruit farm — for 

 the reason that I find that the easiest money that I can get out of 

 a farm comes from my fruit orchard. Cows, sheeps, hens, are 

 simply not in it at all. A small orchard on a farm is one end of 

 it, a good fair-sized orchard is one end and the middle, but a big 

 orchard is the whole thing. There is no money, as I said, which 

 you can get out of a farm so easily as you can from your orch- 

 ards, and it is a wonder to me that men living in this town and 

 towns adjoining, with fairly good-sized orchards, do not take the 

 care of them which they could just as well as not and double and 

 treble their receipts. 



Another conclusion is that you cannot possibly afford to grow 

 grass in an orchard, my good friend and neighbor, Mr. Dawes, 

 to the contrary, notwithstanding. The best apples which I have 

 gotten within the last few years, the largest, fairest, and best in 

 every way, have come from those sections of the orchard which 

 have been the most thoroughly tilled by the hogs, from the soil 

 that the hogs have rooted over and over again. 



Another conclusion is that under no circumstances whatever 

 will I from now on allow fallen apples to stay on the ground. I 

 will have hogs enough in my orchard to keep them all picked up 

 until it is about time to pick the apples, or I will pick them by 

 hand ; and if for any reason there are any apples left on the 

 ground after picking from the trees, those will be picked up. 

 And my reason for it is this : Three years ago I had hogs enough 

 in my orchard so that they kept the ground clean, and I got 

 clean apples the next year, or practically so. It was almost im- 



