EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 83 



I'licre arc sonic wonderful possibilities in our Connecti- 

 cut soil and we arc just starting- in to develop them. They 

 tell of the wondcTtul opportunities in the West. If we will 

 take advantage of all the ()p])ortunities we have right here at 

 home we can make as great a success of apple growing a.> the 

 Westerners do. To do this we must till the soil if we would 

 find the g'old lying underneath. 



\\ c must use oiu" pick and our shovel. There is no 

 cpiestion hut that wc can produce fruit more than equal in 

 quality of that grown in any other section of the countrv. I 

 hope at next year's banquet we shall have a hall twice the 

 size of this and that we shall be able to have more elaborate 

 fruit decorations, possibly a thousand or more bushels and 

 boxes of choice Connecticut apples, and instead of wasting 

 our time listening to the talk of a lot of these fellows ( fiftv 

 or more who have asked the privilege of speaking to-night) 

 who are to follow me, we will spend the time selling those 

 apples and what w^e don't sell you may take away with you. 



We are here to promote Connecticut agriculture, Connec- 

 ticut horticulture, Connecticut pomology. Every man of us. 

 if we are to succeed, must 1>e up a tree pruning and spraying 

 and thinning, in order to get the best results and that we may 

 get better fruit from our Connecticut trees. 



I have pleasure in presenting to you first, Professor L. A. 

 Clinton of our State College, who is anxious to say a few 

 words to you on wdiat he does or doesn't know about any sub- 

 ject under consideration. 



Prof. Clinton : I am one of those fifty who asked Mr. 

 Hale if they might speak here to-night, and if they all asked 

 in the same way I did he simply couldn't refuse to let them 

 speak. If I can judge at all of the frame of mind of an audi- 

 ence, this audience is in splendid condition to-night, so far — 

 I won't prophesy \vhat will happen between now and mid- 

 night — before those fifty speakers get through talking. You 

 have not told me that you have enjoyed yourselves, but you 

 act like the servant girl to whom her mistress said, "Mary, 

 does lohn love vou?" and Marv answered, "Well, I don't 



