88 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



home consumption, when winter apples have to be brought from Bos- 

 ton. The climate, too, affects the fruit in the coast towns. On 

 account of much damp and foggy weather the fruit in general is less 

 highly colored and wanting in acidity or flavor. The same may be said 

 also of the fruit in Knox and Lincoln. The Baldwin is the leading 

 variety grown in Hancock Count}' and there is no portion of her 

 territory where fruit may not be successfully grown when proper 

 attention is given to the subject. 



Crossing over into Penobscot County, the northerly limit of fruit 

 culture at present seems to be in the towns of Bradford, Cliarleston, 

 Garlaud and Dexter, about eighteen to twentj' miles north of Bangor. 

 Fair specimens of the Baldwin and Greening are grown in these 

 towns according to a statement made to me recently in a private 

 letter by S. C. Harlow, one of the most intelligent and successful 

 pomologists of Bangor. He calls these the nortlierl}' tier of towns 

 in the county. In reality, they are below the middle of the county. 

 He means simply that they are the northerly towns which are much 

 populated or cultivated. If you go up into the centre of Patten, 

 sixty miles farther north, you are then twenty miles below the north- 

 erly limit of the county, and if apples and other fruits can be suc- 

 cessfully grown in Houlton, ten miles farther north thau Patten, what 

 is to prevent their being grown in Patten, or Stacyville, or in Mount 

 Chase even ? Nothing, of course, so far as climate or soil is concerned. 

 The onh" drawback now is distance from railroad communication and 

 the comparatively unsettled state of the couutr}'. Fifty 3'ears from 

 now will make a great change and mark great progress in fruit 

 culture. 



I might go on with a similar statement of facts and a similar course 

 of reasoning for Piscataquis, Somerset and Franklin counties, but it 

 would take up too much time and not be specially' profitable. I will 

 say, however, that successful fruit culture has progressed farther 

 north in Piscataquis than in any other county, with the exception of 

 Aroostook. In Franklin Count}- successful fruit culture has not 

 progressed much farther north than Farmington, Temple and Weld. 

 In New Vineyard, Strong, Freeman and Phillips the busiuess is in 

 that experimental condition where great uncertainty and great anxiety 

 prevails in the introduction of those varieties which succeed well 

 farther south, except in specially favored localities. In towns farther 

 north, say in Salem, Kingfield and Madrid, fruit culture is in that con- 

 dition it was in fifty years ago in Farmington. For this latter state- 



