8 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Upon my first visit to Hillsdale about two years ago, at the time of your 

 annual fair, I must confess that I was very much surprised. I found a very fine 

 show of fruit, — much finer than I had expected. You need have no fears of 

 success in fruit growing in Hillsdale county if you will take the ordinary 

 precautions. As in ordinary fanning, so in fruit growing it requires good cul- 

 tivation to get good results. 



The practice of planting trees and leaving them there, or in cropping the 

 ground and expecting the trco to grow, and to get a full crop of grain at the 

 same time is being done away with. Soil is just as essential to trees as to 

 crops. 



We have other things to contend with, and among these is the question of 

 varieties. I have seen those who were planting an orchard go to a nursery and 

 there select varieties that they knew to be nearly worthless, simply because the 

 trees looked finer. Some varieties are not fine-looking trees in the nursery 

 because they grow slowly, while they may be the very best to plant in orchard. 

 When we have educated the masses so that they may select a dozen or two 

 varieties properly, we have accomplished an important mission. 



Following these addresses, the audience listened to an excellent address on 



THE BEST MEANS TO PEKPETUATE THE GROWTH OF THE SOCIETY", 



by W. K. Gibson of Jackson. 



It is not enough that this society should have an existence secured by every 

 guaranty which can make such existence permanent: existence is necessary, 

 and permanence is indispensable to enable it to accomplish the object of its 

 organization ; yet both may be secured, and the society nevertheless fail in 

 securing fullv the end for which it exists. 



The field of our work is a most inviting one. With greater variety of soil 

 and climate than most States possess, almost inclosed by the great northern 

 lakes, with a population of more than ordinary culture and intelligence, horti- 

 culture and pomology should receive the highest attention. Our apples already 

 seek a market in Europe, and our peaches and smaller fruits find their way to 

 Chicago, and thence to the far west. The fruit crop ranks next to the grain 

 crop, and every year testifies to its growing importance. 



Notwithstanding all this, at every meeting of the society, the fact is brought 

 fully to our realization that but very few of our people, indeed of fruit-growers 

 themselves, are really interested in the work of the society. I should not be 

 much out of the way were I to say that there is less intelligent labor devoted 

 to fruit culture than to any of the branches of business in which our people are 

 engaged. It seems to be a common idea that a fruit tree, because it is a tree, 

 will grow anywhere, and anyhow, and bear good fruit. If nature was not more 

 kind than man, our orchards all over the land would refuse to yield their rich 

 harvests of fruit, and be of no more value than the wild crab which grows by 

 our roadside. What is the reason of all this? The answer is because the 

 importance of the subject is not realized. When our people come to under- 

 stand the results which always follow intelligent fruit culture, — when trees and 

 plants come to be regarded as living organisms, dependent upon the conditions 

 of soil, and susceptible as animals to location and climatic changes, then we may 

 hope that horticulture will be studied and intelligently practiced all over the 

 land. To secure this, is the object and aim of this society; and just so far as 

 we fail in this, our work is incomplete. 



How can we best awaken such an interest, — how best challenge attention to 



