62 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



mean the territory east of Philadelphia, which comprise? largely 

 our great Xew England. In my study of the floral culture of the 

 United States T asked a great many questions through the regular 

 census enumerators. I found the number of floral establishments to be 

 .5,000. The superintendent of the census gave me liberty to begin my 

 investigations where I would, and I went back to the beginning of this 

 century. I found that there was but one commercial florist's establish- 

 ment in 1800; during the next ten years twenty or thirtv were added, 

 during the next ten, forty or fiftj^, and so on down to 1860; from 1860 to 

 1870 several hundred of these establislimeuts were added, and from 1880 

 to 1890 nearly 3,000. These florists were selling, in 1890, twelve million 

 dollars worth of cut flowers and about fourteen million dollars worth of 

 potted plants. Twenty-five million dollars paid at wholesale by the 

 people of the United States for these beautiful flowers to adorn their 

 homes! What has that to do with fruit culture? Refinement, and the 

 love of flowers, and the love and taste for fruit go hand in hand. As 

 people become more cultured they demand more of the finer products of 

 the soil and less of the coarser. We asked a great maav questions in our 

 investigations, as the census enumerators always do. We asked the 

 florists a great many questions about their business, whether it was 

 increasing or decreasing, etc., — seven or eight hundred different ques- 

 tions. To sum it all up, we found that as the people became more cul- 

 tui'ed and refined they were bujdng more flowers. And I found that in 

 my dear old New England they were buying twice as many flowers per 

 capita as anywhere else in the United States ; showing that the people 

 had the ability to buy and the taste to buy. And the same thing holds 

 of the fruits. But when I went off North and South and West and 

 found these great commercial orchards, I wondered vvhj^ it was that the 

 people of Xew England did not wake up to the fact that right here is the 

 best market on the face of the globe for these fine pi'oducts; and I 

 realized that these farmers were neglecting their opportunities to open 

 up a market and supply the market with what they might produce. 

 Here in Xew England we are restricted by climatic conditions to certain 

 varieties, but there are many fruits that we can grow here better than 

 anj'where else in the Union. 



The first thought that came into mj^ mind as I came into the hall and 

 saw these apples was, why is not Maine advertising as they ai-e in 

 Missouri. You see in all the papers, "Come to the land of the big red 

 apple!" Why is not the State of Maine advertising, "Come to the land 

 of the big red apple !" and you might add, of a good quality, too. AVe 

 are missing our opportunities that we do not take hold of some of these 

 things. 



This is entirely out of the line of what I intended to say, but I am glad 

 that you have in this State a pomological society that is taking an interest 

 in this matter, and that you citizens of Aroostook county, by jour attend- 

 ance here are showing that j'ou are taking an interest in the pomology of 

 your State, in the production of these finer products of earth. 



