ii8 The Connecticut Pomological Society 



most severe thinning, and if they are thinned so as to bring them 

 up to size it adds ver}' much to their quality. 



"Of peaches, there were less than a hundred thousand trees 

 in our orchards ten years ago, and practically all of them in the 

 hands of half a dozen growers. To-day, without any exact 

 figures, it is safe to say there are nearly three million trees in the 

 state, and not including those on private grounds. Connecticut 

 to-day is regarded as a greater producer of peaches than Dela- 

 ware. Delaware, twenty years ago was one of the greatest 

 peach -growing states in the Union, but to-day she is not even 

 on a par with Connecticut, for Connecticut is a greater peach - 

 growing state than Delaware. That is a development of the 

 last ten years very largely, and is one of the consequences of the 

 organization of this Society. The old standard varieties of ten 

 years ago are with us yet, and some of the new ones. Probably 

 the one that is being planted the most, and one that will give us 

 great quality, is the Elberta, and some of the newer ones which 

 were under discussion here to-day. 



"In pears there has been no increase in planting commer- 

 cially. Some of the old varieties have been abandoned, and some 

 every much neglected as unprofitable. Probably the Bartlett is 

 paying as good a profit as any of our growers expect under 

 present conditions, with the exception that in a few sections of 

 the state where a few of some of the other varieties have been 

 grown at a profit. The only advance of importance in varieties 

 is the Worden-Seckel. I do not know how many have fruited 

 it. I know a few have. It is a tree of wonderful vigor, and 

 produces a pear fully twice as large as the ordinary well -grown 

 Seckel. Many who have tested them count them fully as good 

 in quality as the Seckel pear themselves. To have a pear which 

 is as good as the old Seckel but with twice the size is certainly a 

 wonderful advantage. If I had any land which was adapted to 

 pear culture at all, which I could spare, I would put out a 

 liberal orchard of Worden-Seckel, for I believe that there is a 

 chance that is worth considering. 



"Cherries have been running down in our state not only 

 for the last ten years, but for the last twenty, so that now 

 there are no commercial orchards in our state, and practically 

 no good cherry trees for family supply. They have not seemed 



