EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 97 



This convention concludes a series of most entertaining 

 and interesting- conventions that have been held in the State 

 of Connecticut for the last sixty days. We began with the 

 Board of Agriculture and the Sheep Breeders' Association; 

 then came the State Grange, followed by the Dairymen's 

 Association and the Poultrymen's Association; and now 

 comes the dessert to the feast in the form of the Pomolog- 

 ical Society's annual meeting and this delightful and delic- 

 ious banquet of fruit to-night, and it seems a most fitting 

 close to the series. This spread of fruit which we have seen 

 here to-night has been grown in a State which has the repu- 

 tation of being filled with abandoned farms. I have on file 

 now enough appHcations for abandoned farms to absorb 

 nine-tenths of the farms in the State of Connecticut. The 

 idea has gone abroad that we have a bargain counter here on 

 which the State is offering practically to give away farms. 

 Only last evening I received an application, evidently from 

 a lady of culture — and you know ladies are always looking 

 for bargains — asking me if I had an abandoned farm situ- 

 ated with a commanding view of the Sound, with good 

 buildings, a farm that had been taken by the State for arrears 

 of taxes and for which the title could be transferred to her 

 for a small consideration. Then a short time ago I had an 

 application from a widower of middle age down in Tennes- 

 see, who was in pursuit of one of our abandoned farms and 

 he hoped also to secure one to which was attached a widow 

 of middle age. x'Vfter a considerable correspondence I 

 assured him that I had on my hands neither abandoned farms 

 nor abandoned widows, and advised him that possibly by 

 advertising in some of our popular papers he might secure 

 just the situation he wanted. 



The farm population of Connecticut has been drifting 

 toward the cities for fifty years. One-half the population 

 of Connecticut to-day is in her 18 cities ; one-half the remain- 

 der is in the 28 incorporated boroughs of the State, and a 

 half of the remaining one-quarter is in the manufacturing 

 villages ; so only one-eighth of the population of the State 



