18 STATE POMOLOQICAL SOCIETY. 



horse-rake and tedder, horse-hoe and pitchfork, subsoil-ploughs 

 and cultivators, enable one man to do the work of miany. Still, 

 the difficulty, in great measure remains, and stares us in the face 

 to-day — the great need of txustworthy labor at fair wages on the 

 farms of Maine. 



Tlie course for our farmers to pursue, then, is clearly this, to 

 raise those crops which give the largest returns with the least 

 amount of manual labor. The products of the orchard and gar- 

 den are these very crops. Experience proves this so satisfactorily 

 that it needs no argument. 



As a single illustration I point to the town of Cape Elizabeth, 

 a town that has become rich within a score of years, in great part 

 from vine fruits and garden vegetables ; although its farms are 

 being continually drained of their laborers by the demands of our 

 shipping, fisheries, manufactories and the varied inducements and 

 attractions of the city of Portland. 



But while admitting that valuable products maybe raised in the 

 garden and orchard with comparatively little labor, it may be 

 objected that these crops require great skill, calculation and per- 

 severance. True ! But are we not Yankees ? Are we not Maine 

 Yankees ? Are not these qualities, — skill, calculation persever- 

 ance — the very ones on which we plume ourselves ? Let us put 

 them into practical operation among our fruits and vegetables. 

 The old saw has it, " Calculation is better than hard work." Let 

 us try the truth of this on our farms. 



What is the condition of our orchards to-day ? A drive through 

 almost any section of our State \^ill convince us that it is far from 

 satisfactory. The number of thriving young orchards, though 

 increasing, is still limited ; on many farms the old natural fruit 

 trees of our grandfathers are the only ones to be seen ; in some 

 places most of these are dead and gone, and the few survivors, 

 standing with decayed trunks and withered branches serve chiefly 

 as monuments to mark the spot where once an orchard existed. 

 The result is, that in some j'ears Maine does not raise apples 

 enough for her own consumption, but is compelled to import them 

 from the new and distant State of Michigan. This too, when 

 there is no State in our Union, and, I believe, no spot on the 

 globe, better fitted by soil and climate for apple culture than the 

 State of Maine. 



Apples raised in southern climes are corky and tasteless, while 

 those grown on our rocky hills and tossed by our northern blasts 



