8 JAMESTOWN CONGRESS OF HORTICULTURE 



were imported into this country about 300 years ago. ' No doubt many 

 of them were. I hope some of you learned delegates will enlighten 

 us with regard to what they were and when they were brought here. 

 We, of Virginia, have such an abiding faith in horticulture that we 

 propose to get into close company with the best of you, and to know 

 you better and to have you know us better. Virginia was fourteenth 

 in the number of trees at the last count of apple trees in the states 

 of the Union, but only fifth in the production of apples, so it is doing 

 pretty well. I am confident that she can produce as choice fancy 

 apples and as many to the acre, within her area, as any state in the 

 Union, so you ought to feel that you are in a country where you are 

 at home. That is just what we want. 



I am going to make the claim which some of you may dispute, but 

 I do it for the purpose of learning; namely, that Virginia has the 

 record of the world for the length of time the trees have been grow- 

 ing and the commercial value of the output. There is an orchard 

 of fifteen trees at Covesville, Albermarle County, in Virginia, whose 

 trees have been bearing' for over eighty years. One year a single tree 

 produced 22 bushels of apples which were sold for $5.00 per bushel at 

 the tree. The fifteen trees have produced $700.00 worth of apples in 

 one year. Those old trees are bearing to-day. I visited them about 

 four days ago and they are worthy of being handled by the Hood 

 River Apple Growers' Union. Their apples will average $50 a tree 

 this year. Until within three years, they were never sprayed, never 

 properly pruned, never fertilized in any way nor cultivated, and had 

 no attention whatever. Those men planted trees and trusted to Provi- 

 dence and the favorable soil and the genial climate of that part of the 

 state to secure them a remarkable profit. Much of our area will pro- 

 duce good commercial fruit, but there is no part of the country that 

 has a very large area that will produce the choicest fancy fruit, which 

 fact you probably know better than I. 



Leaving this question of rivalry aside, which I merely bring up 

 to show what has been done, I want to say that you are most welcome 

 here, and I want to tell you that the hospitality . of Virginia shines 

 brightest in its homes. You must visit us at our homes and come under 

 the enchantment of the sweet voices of the graceful, beautiful and 

 winsome women of this state in order to feel the full spell of the hos- 

 pitality of Virginia. If you will linger long enough to do that, you 

 will indeed taste of the lotus of Virginia's hospitality and we shall 

 expect you to return, because those who once tasted, hunger for it 

 ever after. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME, 

 J. TAYLOR ELLYSON, LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, you had the courage of a very lofty 

 aim when you undertook to have a Congress, a National Congress of 

 Horticulture, but you had an aim worthy of your best endeavors, and 



