TWENTIETH ANNUAL MEETING. 91 



Mr. MoNEOE suggested that Oceana county m'ight well take the lead in 

 this matter, as plums are so extensively grown there. 



Mr. Rice: The cherry should be included. I know of trees that are a 

 mass of black-knot. 



Mr. Adams: A committee was appointed at a recent meeting of the 

 Oceana county society to investigate the Tower plum orchard, which is 

 said still to be badly affected, and to destroy cherry trees along the lake 

 shore that also are harbors of black-knot. 



Mr. Sessions: Is it desired that our society shall take action, or shall 

 it be done here? 



Mr. Monroe: I would be glad to have them take the initiative, because 

 of their extensive interests, but it would be well for this meeting to pass 

 resolutions upon the subject. 



Mr. Comings: Black-knot is in the forests also, and the provisions of 

 the yellows law might well provide for pursuit of it there. 



Mr. Garfield: We should go to the horticultural committees of the 

 senate and house, rather than get up petitions. 



The matter was referred to the committee on resolutions, with 

 instruction to report. 



The session closed with the following paper by Mr. L. B. Rice of Port 

 Huron, upon . 



MANUFACTURE OF FRUIT PRODUCTS. 



In the consideration of the subject allotted to me, I shall confine myself 

 to the workings of the fruit itself and not its juices. I shall briefly outline 

 methods in use at the time of my earliest recollections, and follow the 

 development through to the present time, noting some of the most promi- 

 nent improvements in their order. 



In the early days of the settlement of western New York, the hardy 

 pioneer found it difiicult to supply the wants of a large family, with wheat 

 at twenty-five cents per bushel, corn ten to twelve and one half cents, and 

 the only demand for it at that price was at the distilleries, and they were 

 expected to take their pay in whisky — one gallon for one bushel of corn. 

 The best of beech and maple cord-wood at twenty five cents per cord, and 

 store pay at that. It required the most rigid economy, and everything 

 that could be sold had to contribute its share. To this end the products 

 of the young orchard were dried to purchase such articles of apparel as 

 could not be supplied from the "home spun" of the family 



GROWTH OF THE INDUSTRY. 



Few persons realize the growth or importance of the evaporating indus- 

 try in this country, or the possibility of its future development; for the 

 work is at present confined to a very small area of our territory, and that 

 is western New York in the main. True, there are other places where 

 there are evaporators, and many of them very large and doing good work, 

 but in no place does the industry take such a hold on the people and 

 become a part of their very existence and life, drawing in every man, 

 woman, and child, as it does in that region. Even the youngest child that 

 can talk, will tell about the "white apples," "chops," and "jelly stock." 

 This is brought about, not by the great evaporators located in the villages 

 and using thousands of bushels of apples each year, but more by the use 



