FIFTY-FIKST ANNUAL RF^POHT. 153 



The coiniiiittee requested the department to experiineiit with a Duch- 

 ess orchard in Berrien County, in which indivichial tree performance 

 records have been kept for six years, to determine if the low yielding 

 trees could be made to produce crops equal to those of the hi}Th pro- 

 ducing trees. 



That the committee will bo a valuable asset to the department and 

 the fruit interests of the State and will function for good, was clearl}- 

 demonstrated at its first meeting. Nearly every experimental project 

 presented was thoi'ouglily discussed and seldom did they escape without 

 undergoing some form of alteration or addition that would better fit 

 them to meet the more pressing problems of the fruit growers. 



The committee, in many cases, took ujion itself the task of finding 

 or providing orchards and fiuit plantations in whicli the several experi- 

 ments might l)e conducted. Because of the limited funds at the dis- 

 posal of the department for conducting investigations, the committee 

 volunteered to make arrangements with fiuit exchanges and growers 

 to furnish some of the fertilizer. 



Every effort was made by the committee to thoioughly familiarize 

 itself with the conditions under which the department is working. It 

 was astonished to learn of the limited facilities at the disposal of the 

 department and deplored the fact that more funds were not available 

 to carr}^ out investigations in the industry which brings more money 

 into Michigan than any other agricultural pursuit. 



Plans were discussed for bettering facilities for investigational work 

 in Horticulture and the committee instructed its meiu])ers to acquaint 

 the fruit growers of the State of the facts and to urge the growers to 

 get behind a movement to secure a suitable Horticultural building and 

 equipment. A sub-committee on publicity was appointed whose duty 

 it will be to acquaint the fruit growers of the state with the activities of 

 the committee, the lines of investigation which are under way and the 

 progress being made along the several lines. In other words, the Horti- 

 cultural Society, through this committee will convey the results of investi- 

 gations of the department to the fruit growers. 



That the Horticultural Societj' took a big step in bringing about a 

 closer relationship and understanding lietAveen the Society, the fruit 

 interests of the State and their experimental workers, through the ap- 

 l)ointment of this committee, is to state the facts mildly. 



The third annual mid-summer automobile tour of the Michigan State 

 Horticultural Society through Oceana and Mason counties, August 

 2, 3 and 4, was attended by a jolly ])ut business-like crowd of more than 

 300 fruit growers representing 21 Michigan counties and three states. 

 The tour was educational from the time it formed at the Graham Horti- 

 cultural Experiment Station west of Grand Rapids Tuesday noon until 

 it ended on the shore of Lake Michigan about five miles south of Lud- 

 ington early Thursday afternoon. 



Fully 200 interested fruit growers gathered at the 100-acre Horti- 

 cultural Experiment Farm, half of which was recently given to M. A. C. 

 by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Graham, during the forenoon and were con- 

 ducted through the young orchards where the newly inaugurated cultural, 

 fertilization and pruning experiments with all kinds of tree fruits were 

 explained by Professors Halligan and Marshall. The visitors expressed 

 approval of the experimental projects and voiced a desire to visit the 



