STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 7^ 



Vegetation is held well back iu spring by the deep snows and the 

 ice of the lakes, and hard autumn frosts are with-held by causes 

 that are not so appaient. Many times the crops here have escaped, 

 when in nearly all of the East and Middle States there has been 

 great loss. Last season we had only very slight frosts before 

 November, while Vermont and Connecticut had been reporting 

 hard frost and snow. 



AVhile I have the floor I will add a quotafon I have once seen 

 aptly applied on a similar occasion, that is good enough to bear re- 

 peating here. It is the last advice of the old Laird of Dumbiedikes, 

 and has been made of enduring record by Scott: "Jock, when ye 

 hae naething else to do, ye may be aye sticking in a tree ; it will be 

 growing, Jock, when ye're sleeping." 



COXDITIOX AND PEOSPECTS OF FPUIT CCLTURE IN 



PISCATAQUIS COTXTY. 



By H. L. Leland, East Saugerville. 



I wish first to say a few words with regard to Brother Chamber- 

 lain, who sits upon the stand. Had Brother Chamberlain left him- 

 self out of orcharding in Piscataquis county then fruit culture 

 might have been left out, — there would have been but little left. 

 We sometimes hear it said that the play of Hamlet without Ham- 

 let would contain buc very little. I wish to say that for whatever 

 we have done in this county in fruit culture we are very largely 

 under obligations to our friend, Mr. Chamberlain, who has been the 

 leader of fruit culture in Piscataquis county, and has practiced 

 what you have heard spoken of here to-day. He has made a prac- 

 tical test of fruits, — has brought them here and introduced them, 

 not only apple and pear trees but the smaller fruits ; so that if any of 

 us farmers wanted a few currant or gooseberry bushes, or a grape 

 vine, we would go to Mr. Chamberlain's place to get them, and with 

 them we always got a good deal of good advice in regard to planting 

 and caring for them ; and so in our county here, we that are some 

 younger than he, but we have for him the utmost respect, and are 

 proud that he is with us to-day and has written for us this excellent 

 paper. It is a correct, concise history of fruit raising and growing 

 in Piscataquis county down to the time when he partially dropped 

 out of the work. Now, if I am to continue that history and show 



