STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETT. 117 



future orchardists to plant their trees on such land and appropriate 

 their good tillage land to other crops ? Trees planted on steep and 

 rocky land will need mulching with coarse manure and any vege- 

 table matter for a few years, till their roots get well established 

 among the boulders, after which they will flourish and bear excel- 

 lent fruit without much care. 



An orchard located on such land, perhaps, will not produce as 

 bouutifulh' as a cultivated orchard, but will not the owner realize as 

 much or more net profit on the investment, taking into the account 

 the low value of the land for agricultural purposes, as to plant his 

 orchard on his best tillage? The future orchardist, to meet the de- 

 mands of the markets and secure the highest price for his product, 

 will have to sort and pack better than it has been the custom to do 

 in the past. The markets are becoming more particular 3'ear by 

 year on the sorting and packing of fruit. 



The day is past when it will be wisdom for a man to send a bar- 

 rel of apples to the markets with a few good ones on each end and 

 the middle filled with refuse stuff, unless he is prepared to have 

 them dumped into the dock. 



The future outlook for the profitable production of the Baldwin 

 and other varieties of popular winter apples in Maine is as good, 

 in my judgment, as it has been at any other time within my remem- 

 brance. The man who plants an orchard in the future, selects a 

 good soil and situation, propagates the right varieties, knows his 

 business, studies his business and attends to his business, need have 

 no fears that he will not receive a handsome reward for his labor 

 and expense. A word in favor of the Baldwin as the leading apple 

 to raise in this part of the State, and I will close. 



The Baldwin tree, when planted on high land, where it belongs, 

 has proved as hardy in Franklin County as any variet3' grown here, 

 and has suffered as little from winter killing. It is a good bearer ; 

 the fruit hangs to the tree with great tenacity. It is attractive in 

 appearance, an excellent cooking apple, a fair eating apple ; will 

 bear rough handling better than most A'arieties ; stands up well to 

 ship, and is one of the most popular apples in all the markets of the 

 world where it has been introduced. A gentleman in Deering, who 

 has been largel}- engaged in the apple trade for several years, told 

 me recentl}' that over three-fourths of the winter apples shipped to 

 foreign countries were Baldwins, and a larger proportion than that 



