66 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



another profital^le source of farm production. A few of the 

 European varieties are good also. The German prune, for 

 instance, is a liardy variety. And you can market tlie phmi 

 when you please ; market it to-day if convenient, or next 

 week if not, or even the week after, and it is still in sound 

 condition. Then it is a very delicious cooking plum, and is 

 in very gi-eat demand. 



Pears you can grow in eastern Massachusetts better than 

 in any other part of America. No finer pears can be grown 

 anywhere in America ; other fruits they can grow just as 

 well, but not pears. But are there any new pear orchards 

 in eastern Massachusetts, grown in local gardens? A little. 

 And yet they bring in pears b}^ the carloads from the Pacific, 

 and they are not as good as the native fruit. There is a 

 splendid market for the Bartlett and the Seckle and the Bosc. 

 You can market them over quite a season. The shipper 

 doesn't care what the supply of the local market is ; he wants 

 something that will have a long season, so he won't be doing 

 a big business one day and then drop out of it entirely the 

 next. There is money in it, and 3'ou can find that out by 

 simply asking the tree on your neighbor's land. I know 

 from Worcester east is the particular pear section. They 

 used to give them pretty good care a number of years ago, 

 but it is "go as you please" now. 



But the reall}^ good old money-making fruit in New Eng- 

 land is the apple. It will grow in your valleys, luxm-iant- 

 bearing trees, free-bearing trees, but you don't get high 

 quality and color. You have got to go to the hills to get 

 color and quality ; but the hills back and across the State 

 in the high lands, is where you can grow beautiful apples in 

 Massachusetts, and the people want them more and more. 



Away back in the early days your Horticultural Society 

 of Boston has in its records the early history of the apple 

 planting in Massachusetts ; and you know in early history it 

 was entirely the planting of apples to get something to drink. 

 Those dear old Puritan fathers were a lot of old topers, 

 as compared Avith you temperance men of to-day. The 

 one thing they did in their last fifty years of orchard plant- 

 ing was to make something to make drink from. I presume 



