I20 The Connecticut Pomological Society 



ago. The idea of cover crops was an entirely new thought. 

 It may not have been an entirely new thought, but it has been 

 a new practice in our state within the past ten years. So far 

 as I know, there was not an acre of cow-peas or crimson 

 clover grown in this state for such purposes prior to this gen- 

 eral awakening which has come to our horticultural industries 

 in Connecticut within recent years. Now there are hundreds 

 of acres. 



"We knew nothing about spraying ten years ago. I pre- 

 sume you will find by looking at our question lists that we 

 used five to eight years ago that the question was continually 

 being asked and continually being brought up, ' What shall I 

 do to prevent disease and scabbing on my fruit ? ' Some said 

 to put copperas around the tree, and others said to tie a string 

 around, but we did not know that through spraying with the 

 Bordeaux mixture we could smooth up our fruit and make it 

 as beautiful as the smiling face of my friend here. He was not 

 sprayed with Bordeaux mixture, though; he was sprayed with 

 brains. That is the difference. That is another great develop- 

 ment that has come within the last ten years that has been of 

 great, yes, almost incalculable, value to the fruit industry. 



"We had not thought of grading or labeling our fruit 

 scarcely ten years ago. I believe there was one firm; so far as 

 I know that was the only firm in America that graded and 

 labeled its fruit ten years ago. Now we realize that we cannot 

 sell our products at the best profit unless we grade our fruit, 

 and many of us label it and guarantee its quality and grade. 

 It is not because we have grown any more honest, although I 

 think we have held our own in that respect, and I am not 

 bragging any on that score, but we are doing these things 

 because we have learned that our profits lay there. We are 

 handling our fruit and our products better not because we are 

 more honest but because it is literally and actually more profit- 

 able to do it that way. The peach -basket crate was practi- 

 cally unknown to us ten years ago, and see how its use has 

 extended. It is used now for plums and other small fruits. 

 Apple boxes had not been dreamed of ten years ago. Now 

 all progressive growers are studying the question of apple 

 boxes, the right material that they ought to be made of, and 



