86 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



charge of the state experiment station, and even with the State Agricultural 

 College also, by means of which their publications also may become avail- 

 able to those becoming members of the society. 



ANNUAL REPORT OF SECRETARY. 



It is cause for thankfulness and congratulation to Michigan fruit- 

 growers, that at the close of the most disastrous year they have ever experi- 

 enced, they find no diminution of either faith or interest in their calling, 

 No one supposed that the enormous business of fruitgrowing in Michigan 

 rested upon such slight foundation that one or two seasons of minimum 

 crops or total failure of some kinds of fruit could overturn it; still it is a 

 comfort amid misfortune to have this fact demonstrated. 



While the failure of all the large fruits may correctly be said to have been 

 general, there were many local exceptions as to the apple crop and a few 

 as to the peach. In the former case the favorable yields were by individual 

 orchards mainly, but the peach yielded good crops in the southeastern 

 parts of the state and in Mason county, while Oceana county growers had 

 a' partial but highly remunerative crop. The plum crop of Oceana was 

 less than half that of last year, but of fine quality and sold at high prices. 

 Pears were scarce everywhere, and grapes everywhere abundant, a complete 

 reversal of the conditions of 1889. The berry crop was nowhere a full one 

 and the season everywhere was light. 



It was a rich harvest, however, for the evaporator men. While they 

 paid comparatively high prices for stock which in ordinary years would 

 be touched by nothing but the hogs, their sales have been at unprece- 

 dented rates. This paves the way for a good season in 1891, whatever the 

 extent of the crop, for, long before apples come again, not a pound of 

 evaporated fruit will remain in the country. 



Michigan was never before so overrun by apple buyers, nor the secretary 

 of this society so importuned, by letter and in person, for information as 

 to where apples could be obtained. Yet this jjart of his work is likely to 

 increase year by year, as the extent and the labors of this society become 

 more and more known. The secretary should in the future secure, from 

 time to time through the season, reports from members or societies 

 throughout the state, so as to have detailed knowledge of crop conditions 

 and be prepared to give reliable information to all such inquirers. Such 

 as he possessed this year was the means of securing many more competitors 

 for purchase of the fresh fruit and the location within the state of many 

 evaporators or buyers of evaporator stock. In this line, especially in 

 seasons of a scant general supply, the society can render to the growers a 

 service of great and direct financial value. 



But this season of scarcity and failure does not seem to have aj)preciably 

 decreased the tendency to set new fruit plantations, unless it be as to those 

 of the peach in the southwestern part of the state, where two successive 

 winter-killings of the fruit buds may have such an effect. But plantings 

 of the plum, pear, grape, and especially the apple, are unchecked. 



Such a season as the last or its predecessor is not a favorable time for 

 pushing schemes for cheaper transportation, because, with prevailing high 

 prices, the sum paid for carriage cuts a deal less figure than when it 

 becomes a large fraction of the margin of profit or equals or even exceeds 

 it. Yet the growers of Mason and Oceana counties got large concessions 

 from boat and railway companies, and some gain in this line was made at 



