i8 
AMERICAN POMOEOGICAE SOCIETY 
I shall therefore depart slightly from the customary form of the address of 
welcome and be a little more specific and a little more definite than the 
stranger can sometimes be. 
The high value to the public of the work of such a society which serves 
as a clearing house for the wealth of observation and experience of the 
individual members cannot be overrated. The influence for good upon the 
science of Pomology throughout North America which has been exerted by 
the American Pomological Society during the sixty-five years of its existence 
can hardly be estimated, but can be conservatively stated as the most effec- 
tive single agency operating during that time. 
While less necessary to the maintenance of man’s mere existence than 
the grass in which all flesh finds its beginning, or the grains or vegetables 
which make up so large a part of his daily fare, there can be little doubt 
that of all plant products upon which man relies for sustenance the fruits 
and nuts give him highest and most complete satisfaction. The longevity of 
the tree and the vine, and the affection with which they come to be regarded 
by the husbandman, tend to develop that love of home and home surround- 
ings which as a people we in America so much need, to stabilize our rural 
population. 
Great changes have occurred in the American fruit industry since the 
American Pomological Society was organized. Though there was at that 
time an abundant supply of many fruits in certain districts, which at times 
was greatly in excess of local consuming demands, other sections were 
practically without fresh fruits during most of the year. The great orchard 
regions west of the Mississippi were scarcely dreamed of, while the citrus 
industry of Florida and California and the viticultural and deciduous indus- 
scattered plantings for local needs. 
When the American Pomological Society was founded, in 1850, by the 
union of the North American Pomological Convention and the National 
Congress of Fruit Growers, both of which were organized two years pre- 
viously, the population of the United States was 23,191,876. During the 
sixty years which elapsed between then and the last census the population, 
increased to 91,972,266. The rural population, which in 1850 was 15,184,404, 
or sixty-five per cent of the total, had . increased by 1910 to 49,348,883, 
though this then constituted but fifty-four per cent of the total. Roughly 
speaking, the population in 1910 was four times that of 1850, while the rural 
population was but three and one-half times that of 1850. 
The increase of value of the fruit crop during the same period was from 
$8,165,684 in 1850 to $222,024,000 in 1910, the value of the latter crop being 
approximately twenty-seven times that of the year in which the Society was 
formed. Though comparable statistics are lacking, it would appear that the 
acreage devoted to tree fruits in 1910 is about twenty times that of 1850. 
Since the American Pomological Society last met in the City of Wash- 
ington (in September, 1891), a great change has come over our commercial 
fruit industry. The successful adaptation of the refrigerator car to fruit 
transportation which occurred at about that time, greatly lengthened the 
shipping radius through which the more perishable fruits could be safely 
transported to market. The practically simultaneous application of median- 
