108 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



stead is not planted till 5'ou are planted ; your roots intertwine 

 with his ; thriving best where he thrives best, loving the limestone 

 and the frost, tlie plow and the pruning-knife, you are indeed sug- 

 gestive of hard}', cheerful industry and a healthy life in the open 

 air. Temperate, chaste fruit ! you mean neither luxury nor sloth, 

 neither satiety nor indolence, neither enervating heats nor the Frigid 

 Zones. Uncloying fruit, fruit whose best source is the open air, 

 whose finest flavors only he whose taste is sharpened by brisk work 

 or walking knows ; winter fruit, when the tree of life burns bright- 

 est ; fruit always a little hypeiborcan, leaning toward the cold, brac- 

 ing, sub-acid, active fruit. I think you must come from the north, 

 you are so frank and honest, so sturd}' and appetizing. You are 

 stocky and homely, like the northern races. Your quality is Saxon. 

 Surely, the fir\' and impetuous south is not akin to thee. Not spices 

 or olives, or the sumptuous liquid fruits — but the grass, the snow, 

 the grains, the coolness, is akin to thee. I think if I could subsist 

 on you, or the like of you, I should never have an intemperate or 

 ignoble thought, never be feverish or despondent. So far as I could 

 absorb or transmute j'our quality I should be cheerful, continent, 

 equitable, sweet-blooded, long-lived, and should shed warmth and 

 contentment around " 



There, let us take breath ; and while doing so I want to introduce 

 you to the apple growing upon the trees we are to pick this evening. 

 A grand sight, this orchard upon the hill-side with its branches borne 

 down by the burden of sun-perfected fruit in the glowing days of 

 earl^' October. Every tree a bouquet, every apple, as it is, twin- 

 brother to the rose. I have looked carefully tluough the list of the 

 three thousand named varieties of this fruit to find the one single 

 variety which we are to make the leading sort for our commercial 

 orchards — the American Pomological Society's list of 322, and our 

 ow^n list of 85 varieties have each been diligently studied, and I have 

 found my one noble apple that heads the list and occupies the highest 

 place in the winter bin. It is an apple that adapts itself success- 

 fuU}' to a wider range of climate, soil and location than any other 

 sort ; handsome in form and color, a deep, rich, magnificent red ; 

 solid and firm as a rock in flesh and texture ; an apple that may be 

 kept till August, and is in splendid condition all through the winter 

 and spring, even into June ; that stands tranj^portation and ship- 

 ment to foreign markets better than any other variety ; that is more 

 in demand as a commercial sort, and better adapted for Maine 



