CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 29 



east, and we shall see a new era dawn upon orcharding in New 

 England. The attention of men of money should be directed to 

 the New England apple as a profitable investment. We need 



Demonstration Oeciiards. 



In the ever-changing field of human progress, it is continually 

 necessary to keep before the eyes and minds of the people certain 

 lessons in those farm industries which do not produce the abso- 

 lutely essential, but which may be ranked in the group of those 

 products which are sometimes classed as luxuries. The sum of 

 past experience is quite sufiicient to warrant any man engaging 

 in fruit growing in New England with every assurance of success. 

 The sum of past and present experience is sufficient to give him 

 the fundamental, practical essentials leading to success. But 

 education in all lines must necessarily be of a perpetual type, 

 because present-day lessons are soon forgotten, and old facts must 

 be continually resurrected and exploited for the benefit of the on- 

 coming generations. 



So it is in orcharding. The attention of the fruit growers of 

 the east is being focussed on the great success attending up-to-date 

 methods practised by energetic, industrious, business fruit growers 

 in the west. What we need here in the east at the present time are 

 practical demonstrations of the apple-growing possibilities of our 

 own hillsides and cheap land areas. We need illustration or dem- 

 onstration orchards. These are not to be regarded in the light 

 of experiment ventures, but enterprises which are to demonstrate 

 a thoroughly feasible proposition. These demonstration orchards 

 should be so distributed over every New England State as to include 

 the characteristic and suitable orchard lands and sites. They 

 should be planted and carried on in a businesslike way and under 

 combined State and local supervision. The orchards should show 

 an exact account of expenditures and revenues. They should not 

 attempt novel experiments. They should he planted with the most 

 approved commercial varieties, on the most approved commercial 

 plan, and they should be conducted upon thoroughly practical 

 and businesslike principles. 



While this is a type of paternalism which may be open to crit- 

 icism, yet it seems to me that it is no more paternalism on the 

 part of the State than the federal policy which is developing the 

 dry lands of the west. Here are truly " dry lands " in the east, 

 which are unproductive, mainly because of the pressure of other 

 industries in the east and the immediate superior attractions of 

 farm husbandry in the west. 



