418 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



transit, our fresh fruits, will always sell well in the east, for the 

 farmers there cannot equal them. 



In this connection, I would not be true to myself if I did not say a 

 word upon wine making. France is an older country than the United 

 States; she has had larger experience than we have in wine making. 

 Louis Phillippe, King, 1830-48, said that it would be a great benefit 

 to that country, if as vines died out the land could be planted more 

 largely with grain. Poverty reigned when the people were most 

 devoted to wine making; more objects of government charity came 

 from those parts of the country. To manufacture grapes into wine is 

 to convert a good fruit and a wholesome food into a drink which has 

 in it an irritant poison, which the highest medical authority, both in 

 this country and Great Britain, declares has no place in the healthy 

 human system. The most reliable science, the sure testimony of 

 experience, and the most enlightened moral sentiment, all combine to 

 say : Do not convert grapes into wine. 



The grapes raised on this coast are much sweeter than those raised 

 in the east. This is what makes them superior for food, but when 

 converted into wine the larger amount of sugar makes the wine so 

 much stronger with alcohol. The Board of State Horticultural Com- 

 missioners advise that in the adjustment of the tariff the large interest 

 in making raisins receive its due share of attention. In time we 

 can supply the whole country with the best of raisins, as the south 

 supplies it with cotton, and the northwest with corn and wheat. 



Our mild Winters are inviting, not only to people who fear pulmo- 

 nary diseases, but also to sundry insects and pests which injure and 

 destroy our fruit. They can live and prosper in this climate. 



The best science of the age, and much skill and industry, are arrayed 

 against them, and they are bound to be conquered. Hon. Webster 

 Childs, of Michigan, realized from his apple orchard an amount equal 

 to the interest on two thousand dollars an acre; and sold his crop at 

 two dollars a barrel. This he did, while most farmers did not count 

 their orchards anything by way of profit. 



He selected his trees with the utmost care. It costs no more to raise 

 a good tree than a poor one. When it was young he formed its top to 

 suit him ; he wanted it to be an inverted tripod — three good branches 

 radiating from the branches of the trunk. When grown and laden 

 with fruit, one man could pick many barrels of apples in a day, and 

 his orchard was a source of large profit. 



He explained to me how three men in the western part of the State, 

 owning land on Lake Michigan, and very much separated from other 

 farms, raised apples without any worm holes in them. They learned 

 the habits of the insect, where he was born, where he lived while 

 very young, what were his movements when he waked to activity, 

 which way he traveled, and what accommodations he wanted on his 

 journey from the heart of the apple down the tree to the ground. 



They set a trap for him in the shape of an inviting, soft, protected 

 stopping place, consisting of rags wound about the trunk of the tree. 

 The insects invariably stopped at these places. They could not get 

 over them. They put up there for awhile; this place suited them; 

 since coming out of the apple they felt the need of a little protection; 

 they rather liked their ragged home; they would stay quite contented 

 for a few days. And the owner came round every few days and 

 destroyed them. Thus, one generation after another was cut off, till 



