112 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ping to the East, there ought to be money in it for the home 

 grower. 



Last summer, while trolleying up and down our State, 

 we saw lots of orchards that needed attention. There are 

 farmers in Connecticut that do not seem to put as much 

 thought and care into apple raising as some others do into 

 tobacco raising, and it would seem as if apples, and all fruits 

 in fact, ought to be worth as much thought as tobacco. To 

 an outlooker it would seem worth while for the apple man 

 to take good care of his trees and to trim them with a view 

 to easy picking. And why do you allow any "poor" years? 

 Why don't you do something to counteract the "off year?" 

 The consumer wants good fruit every year. Your apple 

 exhibit here shows that there's nothing the matter with the 

 Connecticut apple. Where, then, is the trouble ? if the con- 

 sumer does not get the best of apples, and she does not alwavs. 

 Is it with the Connecticut man ? 



As your presiding officer did not forbid me saying any- 

 thing about Noah, I would like to refer to the fact that he 

 carried "pears" into the ark, although he spelled it differently, 

 or we do for him. And we are not sure that it would not 

 have been as well if he had not, for most of the pears the 

 consumer gets now are so fragile that, when we buy some 

 at the store, we must run home and eat them before we can 

 take off our hats, or they are decayed. While the California 

 pears are pretty to look at, they do not begin to equal the New 

 England ones for flavor. If only our own would keep! Why 

 don't they? What's the matter? Is it in the method, or 

 rather lack of method, of packing? I believe in the West, 

 that great place where so many good things seem to begin, 

 the packing of pears is faithfully attended to. The pears are 

 wrapped and packed in thin, board boxes, paper lined. I am 

 told that the fruit thus cared for keeps at least a month 

 longer. 



The consumer wants strawberries, raspberries, blackber- 

 ries, and all the small fruits, without so much dirt and with- 

 out so manv bug^s. And the consumer doesn't want the fruit 



