FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 109 



of work that we are here in Connecticut and we will call on 

 some of them for a word or two. 



The first is Dr. J. B. Ward, delegate from the New Jersey 

 Horticultural Society. I am glad to introduce Dr. Ward. 



Dr. J. B. W^ard: Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: 

 New Jersey sends her congratulations to Connecticut. We 

 horticulturists there are working on the same lines as the 

 horticulturists of Connecticut, and the same things confront 

 us there that you have here. You have your Hale here ; we 

 claim him in New Jersey, and not only New Jersey but the 

 United States. He is a man that is doing a world of good 

 to the fruit growers, and for the encouragement of fruit 

 growers, and for the elevation of fruit growing. Yesterday, 

 in his talk, he spoke of the time coming when this transporta- 

 tion question would have to be met, and we are meeting 

 it now in New Jersey. About ten years ago the state appro- 

 priated about $200,000 a year for the improvement of state 

 roads, and that appropriation has been carried on ever since, 

 and some years increased; last year I think we had $450,000; 

 but in the last ten years the roads of New Jersey have been 

 improved, hard stone roads have been built throughout the 

 state, and the farmers are already receiving the benefit. All 

 the truck growers in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, for 

 25 or 40 miles, are using those stone roads to carry their 

 truck into market, and instead of carrying two tons, like they 

 used to do, many of them are now loading their wagons with 

 four or five tons, and carrying it with the same facility that 

 they formerly did, so you see the stone roads are benefiting 

 the farmer. When that law was first enacted, the farmers 

 opposed it bitterly, and yet it was the farmers' organizations 

 assisted by the state board of agriculture that have fathered 

 it, and for three years the commissioner of agriculture was 

 the commissioner of public roads. So you see we are advanc- 

 ing on the same lines that Mr. Hale has already recommended. 

 Already progress has been made, experiments have been made 

 on that line ; the horse will be abandoned and motor power 

 sometime will be substituted. But with our stone roads many 

 difficulties are beino- found. Instead of travelins: along at 



