PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 19 



fruit the product would not be too great if properly distributed — if tlie 

 dealers would properly handle it. I have less fear in this regard than 

 formerly. When I first came to Michigan I lived in a locality which was 

 then of the very best for apples; but it is now not so known, and there are 

 many other such localities. The orchards have not been kept up and 

 maraiiding insects have increased. Unless the people west and south- 

 west are more successful than they have been, there is a region six times 

 the size of Michigan to be supplied by us. The competition of southern 

 fruits is injurious to our sales, but this is due in part to the fact that those 

 fruits are eatable in a fresh state while much of ours is not. 



L. D. AV ATKINS of Manchester said citrus fruits detract from our desire 

 to eat apples. He once took apples to Florida, and people there would not 

 eat them, seeming to prefer the acid of the citrus fruits. "They don't 

 taste like anything," was the Floridans' frequent expression. But Mr. 

 Watkins affirmed very decidedly that there can not be a surplus of really 

 good fruit, and he vividly pictured the disgust of the buyer at finding- 

 trash under cover of goocl peaches. 



Prof. W. J. Beal said we are injiiring the consumption of apples in 

 the fresh state by producing so many Baldwins, Ben Davises, and other 

 sorts which no one will buy a second time to eat. There is much, also, in 

 marketing — much loss by the bad order in which fruit is put upon the mar- 

 ket. He advised the growing of seedling apples by the hundred thousand, 

 in order to get better varieties. 



A QUITE DIFFEEENT VIEW. 



W. W. Teacy of Detroit: Twenty years ago it was said that Michigan 

 must supply the west with fruit, and we heard much of "the fruit-belt" as 

 the only place where fruit could be successfully grown. During the last 

 ten years I have been over much of the country, and it is my opinion that 

 within a not great distance there are one hundred acres of good fruit land 

 to every one acre of such we have in Michigan. It is a great error to sup- 

 pose it is the orchard and not the skill of the orchardist which will make 

 the money. There is good fruit land all over the east, southeast, and south- 

 west. We must remember that it is skill of manipulation which counts, 

 and not anything by way of favor in peculiar location. 



ideas in vaeiety. 



E. W. Allis of Adrian: It is not only the citrus fruits, but the common 

 grease and meat diet that lessens the demand for our fruits. 



Mr. Watkins : The citrus acid seems to spoil the appetite for other fruit. 



Mr. Woodward: It is not so in my family, and I have noticed that when 

 I take a basket of apjjles to Mr. Watkins the oranges go to the wall. Per- 

 haps the trouble is in the sorts of apple Mr. Watkins grows! 



S. M. Pearsall of Grand Kapids: I dislike the chill of some of these 

 remarks. I am sure fruit always brings remunerative prices when it is 

 grown, picked, and packed right. Do not let it go out from this society 

 that good friiit will not pay. 



Mr. Kamsdell: But there is a glut in the apple market, and we all 

 know it. Apples, good ones, too, are not now selling at remunerative 

 prices. It is so also as to oranges and bananas. It is a fact which we can 

 not evade. If a grower holds on and establishes a market, he may succeed; 



