STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 77 



office of the Maine Farmer, at Winthrop. I met Dr. Holmes, 

 Nathan Foster. John Kezer, Daniel Fairbanks, and two or three 

 others, and organized a pomological society — and then and there we 

 made the blander of giving a sweet name to a sour apple presented 

 by the venerable Paul Baile}', the man and the apples being present 

 — and neither the man nor apples objecting. I made the acquaint- 

 ance of Moses B. Sears, who probably did more grafting than an}- 

 other man in Maine ; and from his work, and that of N. Foster, D. 

 Fairbanks and some other successful operators, I made the heads 

 of grown trees a study, to so change them to better fruit safely 

 through the least possible number of scions, and in the least time. 



I was in the meetings of fruit growers holden in Syracuse, 

 Rochester and Boston, and became familiar with the faces and 

 voices of many of the giant workers in the past and present, among 

 which I particularly remember the names of Kennicott, Tliomas, 

 (David and John J., father and son) , Barr^-, Reed, Hovey, Downing 

 and Wilder. I had accomplished something before receiving help 

 through the books of Downing, Cole and Thomas. I had become 

 a rapid and successful operator in the orchard and nursery, and m}* 

 reputation as such became somewhat an anno3'ance from pressing 

 invitations to do w^ork for others. To this I yielded for a few years, 

 and in five consecutive years set one hundred thousand scions for 

 myself and others, and in all the towns from Abbott and IMonson, 

 to Brownville and Milo. In these years I urged boys and men to 

 learn and practice for themselves, giving them all the necessary in- 

 structions to start. With this sort of gratuitous w^ork done in ever}' 

 neighborhood I entered, I soon had the pleasure of seeing several 

 young men carrying on the work I had well begun. 



In these years of orchard work I introduced most of the leading 

 varieties known in the State, that had not reached here before. 

 Jewett's Red (Nodhead) I first obtained from Hon. Joseph E. Fox- 

 croft, the proprietor and patron of this town. On a package of 

 scions received from him, he wrote : "Nodhead. Of this variety- 

 you cannot raise too man}'." 



I moved from the old farm to a few acres at the village in 1851, 

 and started a nursery — putting 3000 trees in the cellar, which I 

 grafted in winter and set out in the spring of 1852. To these I 

 made additions in the three following years, so as to have ten 

 thousand grafted trees growing at once. Considerable zeal was then 

 abroad for new and go'od orchards. Agents for the large western 



