STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Ql 



experimenting in this countiy with two or three thousand varieties 

 of apples, and we liave not yet found anything that excels the good 

 old varieties, r)ald\vins, R. I. Greenings and BellHowers. The wis- 

 dom of this State seems settled n[)()n that jioint. 



Stroi't. T have been told tluit the P>en Davis would l)e profitable 

 to raise for a late keeper. 



GiLiJEUT. (^ood looks will go a great wa^'s sometimes, but if I 

 was situated as you are I should not dare to base an expectation on 

 a market fruit so inferior in quality as the Hen Davis. AVe do not 

 care so miicli for extremely late keeping apples as we have done in 

 the past, because we get early apples from the south in better con- 

 dition than formerly. The}' will be better and better as means of 

 transportation are improved. We don't want to keep apples after 

 the fii'st of Jul}', because new apples come then. The market does 

 not call for old apples in August ; hence an extremely late keeping- 

 apple may not sell upon that quality alone. 



QuESTTOx. Are there nurseries in this State where we can pro- 

 cure such trees as we want for high land ? 



Gilbert. I cannot answer the question with certainty. I do 

 know of some good nurseries that are putting out good trees ; but 

 how many, I have no means of knowing. 



Many of our nurser3men have given up because they could not 

 compete successful!}' with the western nurserymen. These sharp 

 men, who make a special business of making sales, get the field, so 

 the business has greatly failed, and every orchardist had better take 

 a good piece of ground and raise for himself a patch of trees, and 

 take good care of them, keeping the groinul clean, as a sui)ply to 

 draw from to enlarge his orchard, and thus keep his stock good. 



The Secretary. I have onl}' a word to say. I do not believe 

 it makes much difference whether a tree is grown in IMaine, INIassa- 

 chusetts, Connecticut, or New York. I do not believe it is a 

 question where it is grown, so nnich as how it is grown ; 1 do not 

 understand that this Society has undertaken, (although it has done 

 what it could to encourage the production of IMaine trees as a home 

 industry,) or has gone so far as to say that Maine is at present 

 producing all the trees it wants ; nor that the Society takes the 

 position that a tree mufit be grown in Maine. The important ques- 

 tion is, hoio the tree is grown, how it is transplanted ; how it is cared 

 for in the nursery ; not where. And lor the information of every- 

 bod}' who asks for information, we designed at this meeting to ask 



