Tenth Annual Meeting 113 



Mr. Hale: "Mr. President, and ladies and gentlemen: 

 I have been asked to speak a little while this evening upon 

 'Ten Years of Pomological Progress in Our State.' That 

 covers about the life history of this Society, and is of particular 

 interest to us, but as Brother CoUingwood says he has stolen 

 so much of my time I perhaps will not say so much, or all I 

 would have said if I had had more time. 



"The increased development of interest in fruit culture in 

 Connecticut has unquestionably been greater in the last ten or 

 fifteen years than in all the fifty years that preceded, and espe- 

 cially in the development of finer appreciation of choice fruits, 

 and their care and cultivation. Taking them in their order, 

 the various fruits that we are interested in here in our own 

 state, — taking them in the order of their ripening, the straw- 

 berry would come first, but that perhaps has not shown the 

 advance that other fruits have, because in the early nineties, 

 when this Society was organized, we were on the high tide 

 of strawberry culture, and many new growers had just come 

 into the business, and from 1892 to 1895 there was a wonder- 

 ful increase in strawberry planting in our state, and with it a 

 steady lowering of profits. During those times the strawberry 

 found its way into more homes, and on more days of the week 

 than it ever had before, but with a steady lowering of the 

 profits. They touched about bottom in 1896 and 1897. Since 

 that time I think there has been much less planting of the 

 strawberry for commercial purposes. There has been more in 

 private gardens, but from 1896, 1897, and there on there has 

 been a constant decrease of strawberry planting, commercially 

 speaking, so that it is less to-day, or at least it is not any 

 greater to-day than it was in 1890, and not over half what it 

 was in 1895. The general tendency, of course, is upward, 

 and the rather increased prices which will come to us this 

 coming year will tend to stimulate the over-product which we 

 had in 1895 and 1896. That is a question which we will have 

 to consider, but those with a good field of strawberries have 

 an opportunity for better prices than they have had at any 

 time for six or eight years. The question of varieties has 

 already been touched upon here, but I think it is safe to say 

 that the popular varieties of ten years ago are practically out 



