STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 19 



care aT)d patience, and a higher degree of intelligence than that of 

 ordinary farm crops, yet that the requisite attainments are within 

 the reach of every cultivator of the soil. The objects of such a 

 society should be, to deduce from the experience of our best culti- 

 vators, aided by the transactions of other similar societies and the 

 writings of standard authors, a system of Pomology adapted to the 

 wants of the State, embracing the adaptation and preparation of 

 soils, the selection of varieties, planting, training, protection from 

 extremes of heat and cold and from diseases and insects, the meth- 

 ods of propagation and amelioration by artificial means, the proper 

 application of manures and mulching, the uses and abuses of prun- 

 ing, &c., together with the best methods for harvesting, market- 

 ing, preservation and utilization of the various fruits, and many 

 other matters of greater or less importance ; in other words, to fix 

 and disseminate a correct knowledge not only of general princi- 

 ples, but also of local practice. 



But just here came in the difficulty of finding individuals quali- 

 fied and willing to undertake the work. Not but that we have 

 enough well qualified, (such persons are found by scores in all our 

 cities, and in greater or less numbers in many of our towns,) but 

 because the organization and management of such a society could 

 offer no pecuniary reward to those persons who should devote their 

 time and energies to it, and because great individual success in this 

 as in any other art, has a tendency to generate feelings of conceit 

 and self complacency, and of corresponding indiflference to the 

 success of others. 



All these considerations led the Board to present the question of 

 the expediency of the attempt to organize such a society, to the 

 people of the State with more than usual formality. At the meet- 

 ing of the Board at Skowhegan, in October, 1872, previous notice 

 having been given, the subject was considered, but "owing to the 

 small attendance it was thought best, after discussion, to leave the 

 subject in the hands of a committee," and Messrs. Z. A. Gilbert, 

 J. A. Varney and A. L. Simpson were appointed as such commit- 

 tee. (Report of 1872, p. 405.) 



That committee, prior to the next meeting of the Board, issued 

 an "Address to the fruit growers of Maine," which was published 

 in the papers of the State, inviting them to meet in convention at 

 the then next session of the Board, to be held at Winthrop, Janu- 

 ary 14th-17th, 1873. 



