STATE POMOLOUICAL SOCIETY. 213 



moisture and sustenance. To achieve success requires daily- 

 patient industry to adapt means to ends and appropriate practice 

 to the varying seasons. It demands careful study, reflection and 

 wise judgment to assist and co-operate with nature in all her 

 beneficent vital processes and functions, but experience proves 

 that in a cold grapery, even in northern Maine, all the varieties 

 named, with good treatment, may mature their fruit without rust, 

 rot, shriveling, shanking or mildew. And the sight of the vines 

 loaded with clusters of beautiful golden, rose colored, purple and 

 black grapes, and their luscious flavor, unsurpassed in the most 

 favored climes, will repay all the necessary trouble and labor. 



The presentation of Dr. Weston's valuable and interesting 

 paper, was followed by a brief discussion, which was participated 

 in by President Gilbert, Messrs. Crosby and McLaughlin of Ban- 

 gor, Sawyer of Wiscasset, and others. Owing to the necessity 

 of an early adjournment, the discussion was very meagre, and is 

 therefore not reported. 



The President presented the following kindly and characteristic 

 letter from Mr. Calvin Chamberlain : 



FOXCKOFT, January 12, 1874. 

 Z. A. Gilbert, Esq :— 



My Dear Sir: Your invitation to aid in the work to be done at the coming meeting 

 of the Pomolegical Society, was duly received, and I have given it some thought 

 during these days of delay to reply to your kind attention. 



When Dr. Holmes called for help to organize such a Society thirty years ago, I 

 went over to meet him, and happened to be the only one who responded to the call, 

 whose home was more remote from Augusta than is Winthrop. I feel that there is 

 now as much need of a good, live organization with such a name and object, in our 

 State, as a few of us then felt. I would like to be with you at your meeting, but when 

 I think how much care and will-power it required to keep me on " this side of Jordan" 

 last winter, and of my economic programme for the present one — to be within hail of 

 the house and barn — I cannot go so far away. And then, my dear Sir, how could I 

 venture to put myself on paper, hastily, in any of the ways you so thoughtfully suggest. 

 If I was possessed of that ruhng ambition which is shown in the venerable and good 

 M. P. Wilder, I should be wading into all these places where good works are de- 

 manded. But the truth is, I have never been in condition to do things sufficiently 

 thorough to have my methods related for the instruction of others ; and this being the 

 truth, I do not like to see my name in type, standing in connection with subjects con- 

 cerning which I have but crude ideas. 



You have been thinking of grape culture in Maine. Perhaps you drop this fruit 

 after reading about the " Concord " by its worshipper ; and decide to not " fool away 

 your money" on such grapes as may be grown above the isotherm of Fitchburg. But 

 we farmers and gardeners who happen to live in Maine, and cannot or do not choose 

 to leave it, must be amused dui-ing our short summers ; and if it is any comforl to any 

 of us to plant any kind of grape and to eat the ripe fruit thereof annually, I hope our 

 Maaaachusetts friends will still grant us so small and innocent a pleasure. 



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