WEST MICHIGAN FRUITGROWERS' SOCIETY. 345 



The Thursday evennig sessh^i was orcupied chiefly by a lecture by Prof. 

 L. H. Bailey of Cornell university, who was in South Haven visiting his 

 father. The village having been his boyhood home, and he as personally 

 ])opular there as elsewhere, the opera house was crowded to its fullest 

 capacity. Mr. 13ailey\s theme was his recent tour to Eurojje, and he 

 covered the whole of it, including ocean voyages, in a most pleasing, con- 

 A^ersational style, but as there was little of horticulture in it, this scarcely 

 seems the place for an extended report. Aside from its charming descrip- 

 tions of natural scenery, 'what was most pleasing to us, in the lecture, 

 was his intense love for America and his fav^orable comparisons of his own 

 land with those he visited. Repeatedly he aflBrmed that nowhere have we, 

 even among our very poorest and least enlightened people, anything like 

 the poverty, ignorance, squalor, and hopeless degradation of manhood and 

 citizenship that is everywhere prevalent in Europe. There was much of 

 truest eloquence in his quiet manner and simple rhetoric; and he closed 

 all too soon so far as the delighted interest of his audience was concerned. 



During the evening Miss Cora Monroe sang two songs in a very accept- 

 able way, accompanied by Miss Donna Hill as organist. 



R. Moi'iiiiLL of Benton Harbor read a paper on "Nursery stock and tree 

 agents.'" 



"Ak commercial fruitgrowing becomes a prominent industry in any locality it 

 becomes the victim of a variety of frauds and swindles which are being yearly perpe- 

 trated on our farmers, and the fact that they are so generally and successfully worked 

 seems to call for their consideration before this society. 



" Among those which seem to demand our special attention are certain frauds, as 

 well as some honest mistakes, made by nurserymen: and that prince among highwa)'- 

 men, the traveling tree peddler— and perhaps we should include the traveling grafter, 

 whose work does not extend beyond the apples, but as a fraud in his line he is some- 

 times a great success. 



" We will first consider nursery stock, as it is one of the foundation rocks on which 

 we build our business, and the questions naturally arise. What shall we purchase? how 

 shall we purchase? and of whom shall we purchase'.'' In these matters we will give the 

 benefit of a. fair amount of experience and observation. 



'• After deciding what we will plant, let us lay down a rule that in apple, pear, plum, 

 and cherry stock we will not accept at any price the largest stock offered, nor yet the 

 smallest, crooked, or cull stock, always remembering that in the largest stock we loose 

 the roots most essential to give the tree a vigorous start and in the culls we get a tree 

 which for some reason is stunted and probably will never fully recover: but rather 

 insist on having nothing but first-class two-year-old stock with plenty of good roots, 

 well taken up and cared for, smooth, straight bodies with wood free from discoloration, 

 and the same rule for peach trees except they must be one-year stock from bud. In 

 the grape a strong two-year-old is about right; in blackberries, one-year plants from 

 root cuttings are best, in currants and gooseberries, one-year stocks if well 

 grown will do as well as three-year stocks and cost less; in the red raspberry, perhaps 

 sucker plants from a young plantation are the best, and black-caps should be propa- 

 gated from one-year's growth plantations. As for strawberries, they make much better 

 plants before fruiting than they ever do afterward. 



" In making selections of varieties for market it is always best to confine your.'^lf to 

 the varieties that have succeeded best ui your own locality, in which, if you are not 

 sufficiently well i)osted, you can usually get the advice of some neighbor who is; but 

 never trust very far to catalogue descriptions, as, while they may be ever so accurate 

 in a locality hundreds of miles from you, they may disappoint you, and never trust to 

 the guileful tree agent with his deceptive colored plates, unless you are willing to 

 acknowledge that he knows more about your business than you do yourself. But I 

 would always advise fruitgrowers to secure a few plants or trees of any promising new 

 variety in which they are interested, and plant them as a matter of education by com- 

 parison. You will find occasionally a good thing among them; but unless you are of 

 the speculative class, do not purchase new and untried things in large quantities. 



"The question of how we shall purchase is governed to a great extent by circum- 

 stances, but generally I would urge the purchase of all stock in the fall, except black 



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