16 STATE P0M0L09ICAL SOCIETY, 



perienced orchardists, horticulturists or farmers. And these good 

 wishes of mine are my only excuse for being here on this occasion 

 — an excuse which I hope you in your charity will deem sufiS- 

 cient ; for I thought that though I might neither instruct nor 

 advise, yet if I could say a timely word to prove more clearly 

 to you the importance of the cause in which you are embarked, 

 and the consideration in which you yourselves, and your efforts 

 are held by men of other pursuits and callings ; if in a word I 

 could give you a hearty God speed in your honorable endeavors, I 

 should not have spoken altogether in vain. 



My personal knowledge of orcharding is small indeed, and is 

 limited to a single experiment. In the spring of 1871 I found 

 nineteen young apple trees in a store in the frontier village of 

 Caribou in Aroostook county. They were the unsold remnants 

 of a stock of trees, which the store-keeper had disposed of, and 

 presented a somewhat scraggly appearance, I ascertained that 

 they were Crabs and Duchess of Oldenburg, and further that the 

 latter variety had been improved from the Crab at a comparatively 

 recent period. There were two facts about these trees — all were 

 hard}'^ — all were northern. These facts were conclusive; for 

 though I knew but little about pomology, I knew I wanted trees 

 to stand a hard, northern climate. I bought the trees for a trifle 

 — they being a left over lot — and my friend and co-laborer, Mr. 

 Jacob Ilardison, and I lashed them on our backs, and mounting 

 our horses, rode in with them through the woods, in a storm of 

 sleet and rain to New Sweden, 



We set out the trees in a clearing on the public lot, where the 

 primeval forest grew the year before, enclosed them with a fence 

 of cedar logs, kept the weeds away, and now and then threw 

 around them a liberal supply of dressing. The result is that 

 every tree lived and flouished, and this year many have blossomed 

 and give good promise of fruit. Another result followed, and 

 this was the one I had hoped for ; the Swedes, seeing these trees 

 live and thrive, bought and set out apple trees of the hardier 

 varieties, and to-day on a large number of the clearings of our 

 Swedish settlement are the respectable beginnings of orchards. 



Now this sole experiment of mine illustrates a fundamental fact 

 in pomology, A fact which must be known to you all, but which 

 nevertheless can not be too often repeated aud dwelt upon. 

 The fact is this. Plant those trees and only those that are adapted 

 to the climate and soil of your farm. If you follow this precept, 



