GENERAL DISCUSSION ON FRUIT. oo 



in the market. It had been sold, in the speaker's remembrance, 

 for seven dollars a Inishel ; now the average price is from three 

 to three and one-half dollars. 



The Clairgeau pear is a pear that looks well and has been a 

 popular variety in the Boston market in years past, but it is a 

 pear that no grower for hom^e use should have in his orchard. 



The next fruit in importance is the peach, although it must be 

 admitted that it is a rather uncertain crop. There appears to be 

 no variety exempt fi'om the attacks of disease, and no variety 

 fi'ee from the danger of winter killing. However, the growers 

 in Connecticut seem to succeed very well by frequent renewals of 

 their orchards. 



James H. Bowditch remarked that no fruit was so satisfactory 

 as good apples, and he could confirm Mr. Wood's opinion of the 

 quality of the Mcintosh Red, and also that the Northern Spy 

 was very good. 



Joshua C. Stone expressed the opinion that twenty-five miles 

 from Boston Avas too near to start an apple orchard; go a hun- 

 dred, he said, or go to New Hampshire where land could be had 

 for a dollar an acre. Anyone who sets out an orchard within 

 ten miles of Boston will regret it, for in time the land would be 

 more valuable for other purposes than apple growing. He said 

 that some of the finest apples in the market today came from 

 Oregon. He disagreed with Mr. Wood in the manner of packing ' 

 fruit, and said that it was in accordance with approved l)usiness 

 methods that the best should be put on top in order to attract the 

 attention of the buyer. The man who packed his ap])les with 

 the big ones at the bottom was too good for this world. 



Rev. Charles L. Ilutchins said that he did not agree with the 

 previous speaker in regard to planting an orchard so far from the 

 city. He had already a good-sized orchard at Concord and in- 

 tended to set out several hundred more trees, and came to the 

 meeting today for the purpose of getting information on the 

 subject. While he did not himself expect to make much com- 

 mercially out of his orchard it would benefit his children. 



If we can't have large families, as President Roosevelt advises, 

 we can have beautiful trees which, he thought, was the next best 



