24 ' STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The Work of the Winter Meeting'. 



ADDRESS OF AVELCOME. 

 By A. G. Tenney, of Brunswick. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the State Pomological Society, 

 and Members of the Board of Agriculture : 



It is made my pleasant duty to welcome yon to this town, one of 

 the oldest, being the eleventh town incorporated in the State. "We 

 are not an agricultural community in the proper sense of the word, 

 though we have fine farms in this locality, some farms that are kept 

 iu good condition, and some cultivators of fruit. Our soil is not 

 tertile ; we are exposed to atmospheric conditions which make it 

 almost impossible for us to (-ultivate the finest fruit. It is said that 

 varieties of apples which, thirty miles from here, will grow fair, and 

 Avell developed, will be here almost undeveloped or badly developed. 

 Therefore we welcome you with all the more pleasure, as you bring 

 us some of your fruits, as well as instruction in the methods of 

 culture in making one of the finest displays upon your tables. We 

 are glad to see you and hope it will be an incentive to ?/s to do the 

 best we can under the circumstances that exist. 



I might say to 30U perhaps — no, I cannot quite do that, because 

 it is out of season and I am too good a respecter of law, — but I will 

 refer to John Josselyn's first visit in 1638. He wrote a work entitled 

 '' New England Rarities Discovered." In it he says : " The Pejep- 

 schut river is famous for multitudes of mighty large sturgeon. 

 Trouts there be in good store in every brook, ten and twentj' inches 

 long." Now, there are some of us here, who would be glad to know 

 where those brooks are to be found. The difficulty now is, to avoid 

 the law in catching them five inches in length. 



When in Aroostook county several years ago, the varieties of 

 fruit were few and small, but still, what there were were in very 

 good condition ; but the farmers said they had been making a mis- 

 take ; they had been getting their trees from New York, and the 

 result had been that many of their trees had died, and those that 

 lived had borne fruit in imperfect condition. I was there again in 



