34 



THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOCICAL SOCIETY. 



grower that fruit is coming to be looked upon as a necessity 

 everywhere. It goes along with flour and sugar and kero- 

 sene and tobacco, and people will have it ; they cannot get 

 along without it. 



Another advantage, which goes right along with this ques- 

 tion, and which we have over some other kinds of produce, it 

 is impossible to hold our product over from one season to 

 another. 



I should like next to discuss with you briefly, the ques- 

 tion of "What are the Elements of Success?" 



And I should put at the head, going into the enterprise 

 on a reasonably large scale. One of the greatest difficulties 

 that our fruit industry has to-day is that everybody is in it on 

 a small scale, — perhaps an acre or two, and that is not enough, 

 so that the owners can afford to take the best care ; not enough 

 to arouse any particular interest in it. When you have five or 

 ten or fifteen acres, or more, of good bearing orchards that 

 are giving you the highest returns of any part of your farm 

 every year, or every other year, nobody can help getting en- 

 thusiastic over it. I know that it is quite possible to overdo 

 it — to put out more than a person can take care of to advan- 

 tage, but I am satisfied that there are thousands of orchards 

 neglected because of being too small, where one is neglected 

 because it is too large. 



There are many other advantages from the larger plan- 

 tation besides arousing a man's interest and enthusiasm. You 

 can buy fertilizer and machinery and spraying material and 

 many other things to better advantage if you have a large or- 

 chard than if you have a small one. (In this sense I would 

 call a large plantation from four acres up). You can afford 

 to hire better men. You can get better prices for your fruit. 

 And in almost every way the larger orchard can be handled 

 more profitably. 



The next question is the one of varieties. 



I am not going to discuss this matter in detail now, but have 

 only to say that the question of varieties very often makes the 

 difference between success and failure. We should not be 

 carried away with the idea of buying certain varieties that 



