FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. in 



Avith the state agricultural society, but it didn't give us satis- 

 faction, it came too early in the season. We now hold it in 

 November when the fruits have matured. We are not troubled 

 with San Jose scale so far as I know. We are not fighting 

 that, but we do fear the brown-tail moth, which is fast coming 

 into Maine ; in fact, it is scattered the whole length of the sea- 

 coast from Kittery to Bar Harbor, and it extends back per- 

 haps 25 to 50 miles inland. I don't know as there is any more 

 I can say along that line, but I do just want to say one word 

 to you people here in Connecticut, situated so differently from 

 the people in ]^Iaine, with large cities within your state, and 

 surrounded by large cities, you hardly know, you hardly realize 

 the chance that you have to dispose of your crops, and I think 

 you should do everything you can to urge the retailing and the 

 growing of better crops of fruit here in your state. 



President Eddy : We have with us a man that represents 

 a business that a good many of us are a little shy of, but we 

 think we have in him a square dealing commission man, and 

 we will call on Mr. A. Warren Patch of Boston to say a word. 



]\Ir. Patch : Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen : I cer- 

 tainly thank you, Mr. President, for your very kind introduc- 

 tion. I have been in tliis business some thirty years, and I 

 knov/ the kind of healthy and unhealthy remarks that are made 

 about commission men. At the same time we are all human, 

 and I don't know as we get rich any faster than the people 

 that grow fruit. I bring you the greetings of all the com- 

 mission men in Boston, and I beg to assure you I am pleased 

 to be with you, and when I see the amount of apples and the 

 showing you make down stairs, and when we know the quan- 

 tity_ of strawberries you grew last spring, and the amount of 

 peaches that were produced in this state, and when we hear 

 as we did yesterday about the barrels of apples used and the 

 prices you obtained, it calls to my mind a little incident I saw- 

 in the paper, where the father got a little indignant and spoke 

 to his wife in this fashion : "Don't that young man in the 

 front room with Sarah know enough to go home?" And the 

 little boy spoke up and said: "Papa, he can't; sister's sitting 

 on him." So I say to you, gentlemen, don't allow yourselves 

 to think that Connecticut cannot grow apples. The rest of 



