504 BOAED OF AORICULTUEE. 



There are localities where every farmer has a good orchard of apple, 

 pear, peach, plum, cherry and quince, with an ample supply of grapes, 

 while strawberries, raspberries and blackborrios are in such abundance 

 that it takes many hands to harvest the crop, and large loads are taken 

 daily to market, usually with good returns. In these neighborhoods we 

 usually lind l)etter health and more contentment than in the localities 

 which are the opposite. 



There are but three commercial apple orchards in the district, viz., 

 W. B. Flick, LaAvrence, Ind.; Ed. Eickhoff, Wanamaker, Ind., and Chris. 

 Muesing, Cumberland, Ind. (The latter ton acres planted in the last two 

 years.) 



There liave been quite a numlier ot Kieifer pear orchards planteil in 

 the last fifteen years, but a number of these are on the decline on ac- 

 count of blight, some of the largest pear orchardists reporting from 75 

 to ItM) trees dying yearly. 



Manj^ farmers plant trees each year and sow oats in the orchard as 

 soon as the ti'ees are planted, or before, and of course they soon become 

 discouraged. 



One great drawback in this district is the price of land, there being 

 but little that is at all suitable for fruit growing that can be purchased 

 for less than $100 per acre, while a great deal of the land suitable for 

 fruit growing is worth from $300 to $500 per acre. 



There has been but little attention given to tree planting along the 

 public highways from the fact that so few men have, as yet, learned the 

 value of beauty. The school grounds are as a rule without any trees, 

 only those supplied by nature before the school house came. Ai-bor day 

 is observed in many places, but the trees -are so poorly planted, and illy 

 cared for that scarcelj' one in a hundred ever grows. As to parks we have 

 none save those about the city of Indianapolis, which are becoming places 

 of beauty. 



The groves were God's first temples and today the grove is a fitting 

 place to meet and hold sweet communion with Him. 



One correspondent in answering the question, "In your opinion what 

 is needed to better conditions in your part of the county?" says, "Eveiy 

 man to vote the Republican ticket at our elections, to vote all the saloons 

 out of existence and kill all the dogs and drive the 'nigger' back to his 

 home in the south. There are other things badly needed here. We need 

 more ready cash here in Perry townshii) 1o Ituy votes with, and Ave have a 

 few chicken thieves to spare." 



I think this is a fair sami)le of many of the woul(l-l>e horticulturists, 

 getting some things where they ought not to be, and doing others which 

 are ridiculous in the extreme, hence, with them horticulture is a failure. 



J. .T. MILHOUS. 



For Eighth District report see page 49. 



Report from Ninth District received too late for this report. 



