ii6 The Connecticut Pomological Society 



growers encouraging people to know and understand about fine 

 fruit, to appreciate fine fruit, and thereby stimulating the de- 

 mand for it. The more people appreciate fine fruit, fruit of 

 high quality and flavor, the more it will stimulate the growers to 

 give it to them if they will pay the price. The more that can 

 be done the better it will be for both the public which buys 

 fruit, and the growers who have it to sell. Southern competi- 

 tion in all these fruits has come, and is with us to stay. The 

 development of through lines of railways, and the consolidation 

 of small local lines into great through lines, which enables them 

 to run fast freight trains under one management from a thousand 

 to fifteen hundred miles in the south to northern markets, and 

 the development of the refrigerator car, has made it possible to 

 lay down southern fruits in our northern markets in almost as 

 bright and fresh a condition as when they are picked. Such a 

 thing was impossible a few years ago, and that is one of the 

 things that has come upon us largely within the last decade 

 which we have got to face and meet. We are not afraid of the 

 competition of the Eastern Shore of Marjland and Delaware, 

 but with this new development in transportation facilities our 

 early strawberry season is seriously affected by the latter end of 

 their crop coming in just about as perfect and fresh from a point 

 five hundred miles away as our own berries will be picked within 

 a short distance of our local markets. As I say, those are con- 

 ditions which have come upon us very largely within the last ten 

 years. We have to meet those conditions, for they are here to 

 stay. We have to look out sharper, and watch more closely 

 in the future than in the past. 



"The culture of the grape has been increased very greatly 

 during the last ten \^ears. The introduction of the Green 

 Mountain by our Brother Hoyt has brought to our state one of 

 the choicest of the early grapes that we have had, and his adver- 

 tising and pushing of that variety has stimulated the growing and 

 planting of that particular grape so that there has been a sub- 

 stantial increase, and we have more of that delicious fruit among 

 our families and homes than we ever had before. With the 

 Niagara, and the Concord, which covers about the list, there has 

 been an extended planting, not only of those varieties but of a 

 number of others. There has been a considerable planting of 



