STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 47 



trains. Where the crop is large this of course necessitates a great many pickers system- 

 atically managed, or the close of the four hours before train-time would find the 

 shipper with a vast amount of unfinished business on hand. 



Mr. J. Baldwin, the largest small-fruit grov/er in this county, appears to have found 

 the very secret of success in this direction. At the tap of the bell a little army of from 

 fifty to seventy-five, or even one hundred pickers, each carrying a case containing 

 twenty boxes, and each twenty-five pickers under the care of an overseer, start into the 

 field ; the cases are deposited in the shade at the ends of the rows and each picker 

 places two boxes side by side in a little apron or pocket, made for the purpose nnd 

 fastened about the waist. This prevents the dropping of boxes from careless holding, 

 and consequent loss of fruit, and gives the picker the free use of both hands, and two 

 pickers, one upon each side of the row, insures a clean harvest. 



At the second tap of the bell the little army return to the fruit-house, carrying 

 their berries wiih them, where they are packed in cases, marked and started for market. 

 Each picker must return the same number of boxes, either filled or empty, that he 

 started out with ; if one is broken the pieces must be returned or the picker is charged 

 with a box of fruit. 



From the experience of others and from my own, I am satisfied that a light thin 

 dry soil is better adapted to fruit-culture than our ordinary rich black prairie lands. 



This is proven by the uniformly good crop realized from orchards and small-fruits 

 planted on what are called our barren lands, while entire or partial failure is so often 

 met with upon our otherwise productive soils. 



Were I setting an orchard for profit and had the choice of location I would select 

 a northern or western exposure, not a steep declivity in either direction, but with fall 

 enough to break the force of both the summer and winter sun, believing that more trees 

 and plants are annually sun-struck than are injured from ail other climatic causes 

 combined. 



As for shelter-belts, I am always in favor of them ; but for protection to orchards 

 and fruit plantations I would plant them upon the south and west sides of the grounds, 

 leaving them exposed to the north and east. 



Of course rapid-growing trees are preferable for this purpose, especially in new, 

 treeless districts. Probably the soft maple answers the purpose better than any other 

 one variety, and if interspersed with elm the maples may be removed as they increase 

 in size. 



The Lombardy Poplar has failed entirely in fulfilling the promise it made of making 

 a good timber protection Nearly all this variety of tree, in this county, over ten years 

 of age, are now dead, and their places must be supplied with others of more durability 

 or remain vacant. 



Under the head of "Present State of Horticulture," I will say that the past year 

 has not been one calculated to make the hearts of the horticulturists glad. The almost 

 total loss of the strawberry crop, except in isolated cases, was the first severe blow ; the 

 loss of the cherry crop, following so closely thereafter, was not calculated to encourage 

 the fruit-grower very materially, the drouth so affected the raspberry crop that the yield 

 was not satisfactory, although the market was overloaded with a very poor quality of 

 fruit, and consequently it commanded but an inferior price. The crop of grapes was 

 good, but their market value was too low to be remunerative. The market for winter 

 apples opened at about sixty cents, and as the season advanced the price receded to fifty 

 and even forty cents per bushel. 



I cannot say just what fruit pays best at present, but I presume that the blackberry 

 was the most profitable of any the past season, as it was so thoroughly winter-killed 

 that the grower did not expect anything from it, and consequently did not squander 

 any time or money upon it, therefore lost nothing from it except the use of the land it 

 occupied. 



It seems a little presumptive for any one to select a list of fruits and pronounce 

 them the best for any locality, for a variety that might be a success with one person ' 

 might prove just the reverse withhis neighbor; not through the influence of climate <.r 

 soil so much as through the disposition to "git up and git" of the grower, and especially 

 might this be the case with small-fruits. 



