STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 21 



takes her true position as the great apple growing State of our 

 country ; until the apple becomes one of our leading exports and 

 sources of wealth, and until a goodly portion of our young men 

 and maidens stand by the farm, and find pleasure and profit on the 

 old homestead. 



There is enough to do in Maine to call into fullest activity the 

 energies of every son and daughter of the Pine Tree State. Maine 

 is a State of imperial resources. Develop these, and Maine be- 

 comes an empire State. 



The decade ending in 18T0, was indeed a dark period ; then, for 

 the first time in her history Maine lost in population. The out- 

 look is brighter now. A valuable stream of immigration has begun 

 to flow in upon us ; the principle of co-operation is being advan- 

 tageously applied to farming; your own labors are making our 

 farms more pleasant and profitable places to dwell upon ; our 

 quarries of slate, lime and granite — the very cliffs of our rock- 

 bound State — are proving inexhaustible mines of wealth; our 

 rivers, leaping from the lakes to the ocean, with the power of a 

 million horse, no longer run all wild and free, but are fast being 

 harnessed to the wheel ; and the ships of Maine, ships whose 

 timbers are cut in our forests, and whose keels are laid on our 

 coast, plow every sea, and bear the flag of the republic to the 

 shores of every commercial nation on the globe. 



Sons and daughters of Maine, let us work and pray here, on 

 the soil where we were born, near the graves of our sires, by the 

 hearth-stones of our childhood, surrounded and cheered by the 

 friends and scenes of our youth, — and surely God will bless us 

 and the Commonwealth. 



The Annual Meeting 



of the Society, for the transaction of business, was held on the 

 afternoon and evening of Thursday, (Sept. 24,) pursuant to the 

 requirements of the By-Laws. The list of ofiBcers elected for the 

 ensuing year appears in another part of this report. It was voted 

 that the annual reports of the Treasurer and Executive Committee 

 should be presented at the winter meeting. 



Voled, That the thanks of the society be tendered to Hon. W. 

 W. Thomas, Jr., for his address at the present annual exhibition, 

 and that he be presented with a certificate of life membership. 



