164 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



On motion the executive committee was instructed to elect three delegates 

 to the convention of Michigan agricultural societies. 



THE DANGER OF OVERDOING FRUIT CULTURE IN MICHIGAN, 



was the first topic on the programme for the morning session, and Mr. S. W. 

 Dorr of Manchester led off the discussion by saying: 



It seems to be expected of me to point out to this intelligent audience some 

 of the perils or dangers of overdoing fruit culture. The word danger implies 

 exposure to death, loss or injury to our bodies or property, risk, peril, loss of 

 money or labor. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, or placed in position to 

 resist danger. 



IS THERE DANGER OF OVERDOING FRUIT CULTURE ? 



To an audience who have come together to-day for the express purpose of 

 gaining information in the science of horticulture, this, indeed, is a very 

 important question, but we are compelled to admit the force of the question 

 when we look out upon our once well-paying orchards now so plentifully dotted 

 with piles of nearly worthless fruit, half covered with snow, while many of 

 the surrounding trees, still heavily laden, glisten in the morning suu, nod assent 

 to our inquiry, " Is fruit culture overdone?" 



But, says one, this is a peculiar season ! We admit it, — an abundance of 

 fruit, and labor and money expended, with but little returns. In seasons of 

 great abundance like the present, when the apple crop will only pay the grower 

 for picking and hauling, and in some localities not even that, — after years of 

 toil and labor, in planting and pruning, and anxious waiting for our orchard 

 to come into bearing, and now when our efforts are crowned with success, and 

 the grower has a surplus of fruit, no wonder we feel disappointed and des- 

 pondent. But what is the remedy? Shall the labor of years be cast aside in 

 a moment of despondency? Shall we lay the axe at the root of the fruitful 

 tree — cut it down, and cast it into the fire? Is the day at hand when the 

 fruitful shall suffer the penalty of the unfruitful, or the just the penalty of 

 the unjust? May we not rejoice in the thought that our fruit is so abundant 

 that every household in our broad land may have a bountiful supply, 

 and perad venture the common class of people in Europe may have an oppor- 

 tunity of testing our Michigan apples? 



To those who anticipate planting orchards it may be well to remember that 

 the farmer who raises a few hundred bushels of surplus fruit which he allows 

 to remain in the orchard until half are fallen to the ground, or otherwise unfit 

 for use, or gathers after all the ordinary farm work is done, and sells to the 

 first man that will make him a bid, the outlook from our present standpoint is 

 not very promising for remunerative prices, or in other words, to him fruit 

 culture will undoubtedly be a failure. 



There always was, and probably always will be a class of farmers who do all 

 their work in the same slack, bungling manner. Shall we therefore come 

 to the conclusion that farming is a failure ? Not at all. 



The same may be said of the mercantile man, the same of the professional 

 man ; those who succeed are those who make a life-long study of their pro- 

 fession, and by diligence and untiring perseverance work out for themselves a 

 reputation. 



It may be well to go through our orchards and weed out the old worthless 

 varieties; for we must admit we have all fallen into the same error, of plant- 



