Tenth Annual Meeting 119 



to thrive, but I believe we should encourage their planting, 

 and I believe commercial orchards of large sour cherries would 

 find a ready sale. I believe that it is an industry that has 

 been neglected, and one that needs encouraging. 



"The apple we have discussed here to-day. The old-time 

 neglect of the apple tree in our state has gone by. With the 

 advance of this Society, and with the aid of the discussions 

 which took place at our early meetings, there has come a 

 general cleaning up, and more care and attention paid to the 

 old apple trees that were of value and to the culture of new 

 orchards. There has been a general uplifting of the apple 

 industry throughout our state, and particularly within the last 

 five years. There has been considerable planting of com- 

 mercial orchards of young trees within the last five years. 

 Previous to the last five to eight years you could hardly find 

 an orchard under twenty-five years old. There is a general 

 appreciation and awakening to the fact that Connecticut can 

 be made the land of the big red apple, and it is the land of 

 the good red apple. Our people are waking up to it, and I 

 believe from the feeling that is in the air to-day, and from the 

 word that has gone out all along the line about the advan- 

 tages to be gained from apple culture in Connecticut, and 

 from general observation the country over, from the apple 

 awakening that is taking place in this state, we shall see some 

 wonderful results. I was talking with one of the most exten- 

 sive fruit handlers in the east, a man who has made a fortune 

 in handling apples, and who is still in the business, and that 

 man said to me in the presence of another large broker, ' I 

 have got through handling any apples that grow west of the 

 Hudson river. The only good apples grown in America are 

 grown east of the Hudson river.' And that is the gospel 

 truth. The only good apples grown in America are grown 

 east of the Hudson river. 



"Now the question of varieties was discussed here this 

 forenoon, as it was with peaches, so I am not going into that. 



"There has been a general advance in the last ten years. 

 The idea of better culture in our own apple orchards has 

 come to stay. The idea of growing green crops in our 

 orchards and plowing them under was not thought of ten years 



