STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. |03 



there. Now if they had adopted Dr. True's method and carried 

 it out, they would have been better off, — they would have got 

 heavy crops of apples. 



Speaking about Western fruit, the fact is we can raise our fruit 

 in Maine for what it costs us for freight from the West. The 

 freight amounts to from 80 cents to $1.00 per barrel, and I think 

 we can raise apples at a less cost than that. 



One gentleman has spoken about feeding apples to stock. It is 

 well enough if apples are unfit for any other use, but I think that 

 a farmer who takes care of his trees, and raises good fruit, can 

 find a better use for it than that. If a man shakes his trees he 

 must expect his apples to be bruised and hurt. I will say that 

 there are no apples on these tables that were shaken from the 

 trees; they were picked, and picked carefully. I am a believer 

 in good apples, well grown and gathered in a careful manner. 

 I believe fruit raising is the most profitable of anything you can 

 do on the farm, — and in my opinion the more dressing you use 

 the better. 



A Member. Mr. Carr is perfectly right, I think ; T agree with 

 him entirely. In relation to carrying on orcharding and general 

 farming together, I do not think we can do both successfully. I 

 think we must give our undivided attention to orcharding and let 

 other matters go, or if we wish to follow general farming it is 

 better not to try to do much at raising fruits. 



Mr. Sawyer. I regard the suggestion made by Mr. Carr in 

 relation to the careful gathering and handling of fruit as of great 

 importance, and as pertinent to this as it is to every other discus- 

 sion upon the subject of fruit growing. With good fruit, careful 

 handling turns the scale between profit and loss. The larger por- 

 tion of the fruit brought into this State last fall from Massachu- 

 setts and New Hampshire was gathered in the most careless 

 manner, and transported in bulk without being assorted, and was 

 received in a bruised and soiled condition ; and although it was 

 sold at a very low price it brought all it was worth. These apples 

 were mostly Baldwins, and but few of them have been kept to the 

 present time, while apples of the same variety grown by our own 

 -orchardists and properly handled are now in prime condition. I 

 have in mind at this moment two men in my own county whose 

 practice well illustrates the importance of the careful handling of 

 fruit. One of them (who is also largely engaged in fish-breeding) 

 raised some 500 bushels of apples last season, the larger portion 



