INDIANA HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 525 



objections, suggestions, or any way that will be helpful. I am forgetting 

 myself. We were to have a short time to devote to the exercises for the 

 morning. We have two strong fellows on the program this morning. 

 The Possibilities of Fruit Culture in Northern Indiana. I thinli our people 

 realize what these possibilities are. I hope we will give our views on 

 this subject— such views as will strengthen our belief in the position of 

 fruit culture in Northern Indiana. We have men who realize this responsi- 

 bility. We will take the rest of the morning for the discussion of these 

 two topics. It is my pleasure to introduce to you Mr. H. H. Swaim, of 

 South Bend, who will speak on this subject. 



H. H. Swaim: Benjamin Franklin said that he could tell all he knew 

 on any subject in five minutes, and I think perhaps it is particularly for- 

 tunate for me that the time is short. I do not pretend to be able to com- 

 pete with Franklin in knowledge, and I assure you it will not take very 

 long to tell all I know on the subject of Fruit Possibilities in Northern 

 Indiana, W^hen we speak of possibilities a wide field opens before us. 

 In this day of progress and invention, we dare not call the wildest dreams 

 of man impossible. In the mechanical world we have many inventions 

 and appliances in everyday use that fifty years ago were unthought of, 

 or if suggested, were considered wholly visionary. In Horticulture many 

 of our delicious fruits and beautiful flowers are the product of the last 

 half century. Man has brought the apple to its present high standard of 

 excellence from the sour wild crab; our juicy, luscious pears had their 

 origin in the puckery seedling. Men yet living can trace each step in 

 the development of the strawberry. We have learned now to control in- 

 sect pests and plant diseases, and each recurring season brings new fruits 

 and improved methods; so that when we speak of the possibilities we 

 open a wide field for the imagination. But rather than indulge in any 

 flights of fancy, let us take a look at the conditions and prospects which 

 confront us as fruit growers of Northern Indiana. 



SOIL AND ELEVATION. 



We have an elevation of from seven hundred to one thousand feet 

 above sea level, which precludes all danger from floods. The land is suffi- 

 ciently rolling to give good air drainage and in some portions is quite 

 broken and hilly, sometimes rising abruptly to a height of one hundred 

 and fifty feet or more above the surrounding country. The land formation 

 is what geologists call drift, that is, soil that was carried and deposited 

 here by the advance of the ice fields during the glacial period. As a 

 result of this formation we have a great variation in the soils, ranging 

 all the way from the muck of the marshes and lowlands to heavy clay 

 loam. It is not uncommon to find muck lands, sand and gravel loam 

 and heavy clay loam upon the same farm. This makes it possible to grow 



