ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 193 



the Shore Line Railroad, in Branford or at New Haven, growers 

 send cars of berries to Boston, and have done as well the past 

 season as they have ever done. In Springfield, Alass., the larg- 

 est wholesale merchant there was lately complaining to me that 

 growers in that neighborhood failed, because of careless methods, 

 to furnish first-class strawberries. There are ups and downs to 

 the market for berries, but after all, the fluctuations are more 

 apparent than real. That is, in a plentiful year when berries 

 are low and profits small, we might be apt to think it would 

 never be any better, when just as likely as not the next year 

 or two will be the best for profit that there has been in a number 

 of years. It is not every one who can grow berries or any 

 fruit successfully and cheaply. It is strange that the propor- 

 tion is so small. It means there must be closer application and 

 more intelligent care. It has been so for years and years, and 

 is going to be so for years to come. Three or four years ago 

 a city fruit dealer, who had been in the business for thirty 

 years, said to me that "Connecticut people were planting too 

 many peach trees, were going to overdo the business, etc." 

 The trees he had in mind have borne one crop and there has 

 been no sign of a glut as yet. 



A New^ Jersey grower who was at the annual meeting of the 

 Connecticut Pomological Society said that for forty years the 

 cry in Jersey had been, "we are planting too many peach trees, 

 the fruit will never sell," but the time has not yet come when 

 fruit properly cared for does not sell at a profit, and it is not 

 likely to come either. 



Knowledge increases year by year, and it might seem as 

 though there was not nuich more to learn, but we all have to 

 begin at the bottom and, though knowledge is abundant and 

 its gifts seemingly to be had for the taking, yet not all are able 

 to apply it successfully. 



The careful, the intelligent worker among our fruits in Con- 

 necticut need not fear overproduction, either of berries, or 

 peaches or apples. For aught I can see, the prospects for 

 profitable production and sale of these fruits is as good as it 

 ever has been, and the young man who wants to go into fruit 

 growing may do so just as fast as his ability to care for it will 

 allow. 



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