ANNUAL MEETING. 123 



fourteen dollars. An acre of bearing apple orcharding is therefore worth, at 

 that rate, §5G0. The entire acreage of orcliarding in the county has a value 

 of $1,400,0U0. 



But the crop the present year is acknowledged to bo much below the 

 average, and it is fair to assume tliat the average income from the apple crop 

 is not less than $125,0U0 to $150,000 per annum, thus making every acre of 

 orcliarding worth from $7:^0 to $840, and the total orcharding of the county 

 worth from $1,800,000 to $2,000,000. " 



It does not require a great deal of penetration to perceive that a well-kept 

 apple orchard located in this county is a good piece of property. Others seem 

 to have made a practical use of this inference, and I gather from the various 

 nurserymen and others engaged in the sale of fruit trees, that at least seventy- 

 five acres of new orcharding liave been planted in the county during the current 

 year. 



I think it is not beyond the province of this paper to say tliat twice or even 

 five times the amount of apples produced in this county tiiis year could easily 

 have been marketed in some form or other with profit to producer, manufac- 

 turer, and shipper. Genesee county apples, green, find their way as far east 

 as London and Edinburgh, and as far west as Dakota and Manitoba, while 

 the evaporated apples, jelly, and vinegar, have even a wider range of profitable 

 markets, reaching to Germany in the east, and to Montana and Wyoming in 

 the west. 



PEACHES. 



Peach culture is not at present carried on to any great extent in this county. 

 A few years ago, the late Samuel Day, of Linden, could pick and market 2,500 

 bushels of ])eaches in one year. The late severe winters have proved to be 

 destructive of the trees in a large measure. There are, however, in Fenton 

 township, about fifty acres of bearing peach orchards, which, no doubt, com- 

 prise fully 9ne-half of the trees in the county. There were about 200 bushels 

 evaporated, the poorer varieties, of course. I do not believe, from all the 

 information I can obtain, that more than 1,000 bushels of peaches have been 

 produced in the county. The value of the crop may be placed at $y,000. 



PEARS 



Are not cultivated on a large scale in this county, but judging from the success 

 achieved with pears by Mr. Leonard Wesson, of this city, who has about 150 

 trees of the best varieties, I am inclined to believe that our fruit growers are 

 neglecting a very profitable source of income. Mr. Wesson's pear orchard, in 

 the fruiting season, is a sight to charm the vision of the pomologist. The 

 trees are ideal in form, thrifty in growth, and no pears could be more abso- 

 lutely free from defects as to contour and color than those produced by these 

 trees. I mention these things to show what intelligent forethought in select- 

 ing and planting varieties, and subsequent scientific cultivation, will do in the 

 production of pears in this county. Half of Mr. VV^esson's trees are dwarfs, 

 and are in full bearing, the standards not having attained to that condition as 

 yet. These dwarfs occupy less than half an acre of ground, and they produced 

 last summer forty bushels of pears, which sold for $2 per bushel, or a total of 

 $80 — at the rate of $160 to the acre; a fair income from an acre of land. 

 This would pay the interest on $2,284 at seven per cent. Standards, in full 

 bearing, will yield five bushels per tree, which, at the above quoted price. 



