I04 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ToASTMASTER Hale : Those who were in the hah to-dav 

 and heard Professor Surface talk about some of our manu- 

 facturers of scale killers, must have had your eye on Brother 

 Pratt. He must have felt like the colored woman who was 

 in court for having thrashed her boy. It was proven against 

 her that she had given him a very severe drubbing, and when 

 asked by the court if she had anything to say before sen- 

 tence was pronounced upon her, replied: "Fse got nuthin' 

 to say, but I want to ask you, Jedge, just one question: 'Was 

 yu ever yu'sef the parent of a puffec'ly wuthless cullud 

 chir ?' " We have "a perfectly worthless" oil manufacturer 

 with us and I will now call upon Mr. B. G. Pratt of New 

 York to say a word to us. 



Mr. Pratt: I don't know what Mr. Hale has against 

 you and me, for I am not an after-dinner speaker and the 

 hour is late. Some years ago I heard of an especially fine 

 old chestnut tree" on Mr. Hale's place and went there for the 

 purpose of getting a picture of it. After tramping a mile 

 or more I found the tree and got a snap-shot of it. I think 

 I accomplished at that time what no other person has ever 

 been able to do^ — I got a photograph of one of Brother Hale's 

 "old chestnuts." 



I begin to feel like I belonged to the Connecticut Pomo- 

 logical Society. I have been with you for four years now 

 and every year I enjoy the meetings more and more. 



As I go about from State to State I learn many things 

 which I hope I may be able to tell others of and which may 

 be of benefit. There is a general sentiment throughout the 

 country regarding the better packing of fruit, the better 

 care of it. It is a question I have heard discussed thor- 

 oughly at every meeting of the different societies that I 

 have attended. I am a member of the Consumers' League. 

 When I lived in Jersey we used to have enough trees in the 

 yard to give us our apples for green apple pies and enough 

 to last up until about Christmas time. But now, I have not 

 had a green apple pie for four years ; you can't get them ; 

 they are not to be had. There is plenty of opportunity for 



