FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 1 1 5 



Alu. I'owKLi. : Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: I am 

 very glad indeed to be with you again and represent in a 

 measure our Massachusetts growers. If you look along this 

 row of seats you will see we have several representative 

 growers here from Massachustts. There is a feeling of regret, 

 however, that one of our most prominent growers, who has 

 been here several years and addressed your meetings, Mr. 

 Sharp of Richmond, is no longer with us. He passed away 

 this winter, and in his death I think Massachusetts loses one 

 of its most successful and most prominent growers of small 

 fruits. I think we have others that are capable of taking his 

 place, but yet it makes a void that will not soon be filled. I 

 was very much impressed yesterday in looking at the tables 

 of fruit you have down stairs, and it struck me it is not neces- 

 sary for Connecticut growers to go to Oregon to get specimens 

 of good fruit. I think it was shown last year that Connecti- 

 cut can grow as fine apples as any other state. As to the 

 matter referred to just previously, the number of Oregon 

 apples that get into the boxes, from the best information that 

 I have at hand the box is the universal package in Oregon, 

 and all through the apple growing section east of the Cas- 

 cades, and we only see a very small amount of it here ; very 

 little of it in fact comes east of the Mississippi river, and, as 

 Mr. Patch says, two carloads is enough to supply the Boston 

 market. The one reason that the Oregon grower gets such 

 fine apples is, I think as a rule, they give better care and cul- 

 ture than we do. There is an article in the current issue of 

 the Farm and Home about the Hood River section which is 

 very interesting. I believe it is only seven miles wide in its 

 widest part, and ten or eleven miles long; a territory that will 

 not exceed seventy square miles. It is not much larger than 

 some of your Connecticut townships, and yet there is not one 

 township that is celebrated outside of Connecticut for its fruit. 

 You have the reputation for the state, but not for any partic- 

 ular section, and I think I am not casting any criticism or 

 reflection on you in saying that ; but there is a little valley that 

 is known all over the world for its apples, and it is so with the 

 whole western country, most of their apples are grown in small 

 valleys in a limited way. But we need not go to the west or 



