THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL FAIR, 



HELD IN DETROIT, WITH DETROIT EXPOSITION, SEPT. 17 TO 27, 1889. 



For eighteen years the Michigan State Horticultural society conducted 

 the flower and fruit shows of the State fair, but their union was severed 

 in 1887; no exhibit was made last year, and this season the society formed 

 a similar connection with the Detroit Exposition, the result being alto- 

 gether the largest and most attractive display the Horticultural society 

 ever made. For the first time vegetables were included, thus making the 

 display correspond fully to the society's work, and the surprising and 

 complete success seems to make sure revival of interest in the work and 

 welfare of a society which has done more than any other agency in putting 

 Michigan into the place she now occupies in pomology. We can only 

 speak in the highest praise of the generous and courteous treatment the 

 officers of this society, in every respect, received from the Exposition 

 management. 



THE FRUIT DEPARTMENT. 



The friiit display, always the main feature, comprised 3,500 plates, about 

 two thousand being apples, 500 pears, 300 peaches, 400 plums, 100 grapes, 

 and 200 sub-tropical and small fruits, and occupied about one fourth of 

 the space on the second floor of the building, the four tables upon which 

 the fruit was spread being each 2^ feet wide and nearly 200 feet long. 

 With the exception of some excellent apples and pears from Ohio and 

 Ontario, the northern fruits were wholly of Michigan production, and, 

 allowance being made for the unfavorable season, they fully sustained the 

 state's great fame as a fruit region. Nowhere else in the United States, 

 this year, was such a show (nearly one hundred and fifty varieties) of 

 apples possible. It was a bad year for peaches and worse for grapes, the 

 former having been nearly ruined in the great peach region of the west by 

 winter's cold and the grape crop was extinguished by May frosts. Never- 

 theless the array of peaches was large, and the grapes better than could 

 have been expected. On the other hand, every pear tree in Michigan 

 groaned under its load and the show of this fruit was not less remarkable 

 for its extent than its uniform excellence of condition. A salient feature 

 was the plum exhibit, which was of great extent and comprised a quite 

 unusual number of varieties. The high bloom and lovely colors of this 



