16G STATE BOAED OF AGKICULTUKE. 



FEIDAY EVENING. 



The closing session of the Institute was opened by Dr. Bartholomew, who 



gave the following address on 



FKUIT CULTUEE. 



What little I have heard in this Institute has been in relation to successes, 

 and I propose to talk of some things wherein I have failed. I will begin with 

 cranberry culture. I cleared off an acre which scientific men said was just the 

 l^lace for cranberries. I set it well with plants, and everything looked promis- 

 ing. About the 1st of March there came on a freshet, and I thought I would 

 walk down and see how ni}^ crop came on. I found the plants sticking in the 

 ice about two feet from the ground, Avith their roots stretching do\ynward try- 

 ing to touch the earth. That was my last attempt to raise a cranberry crop. 



I was one of the first men in Berrien county who went into the culture of 

 small fruits, and I first cultivated about two acres of black raspberries. I got 

 an abundant yield of berries. I could j^ick 30 quarts in a day, carry them to 

 market, and get $2.50 for them. I could have taken my cradle at the same 

 time and earned |3 per day. I have tried two or three varieties of blackberries, 

 and got a most abundant yield. I have raised the Lawton where I could pick 

 13 quarts without moving out of my tracks, but the raising, picking, and get- 

 ting them to market took off all the profits, and they, too, proved a failure 

 pecuniarily. 



Then I cultivated two acres of currants, and did it so successfully that when 

 I took them to market everybody said, " Did you ever see such cherry currants?" 

 but the profit was what troubled me. I think I shipped about the first straw- 

 berries to Chicago from Berrien. I cultivated two acres of this delicious fruit, 

 and it grew large and fine. After picking, and paying the freight down the 

 river and then over to Chicago, I sold them for about eight cents a quart, and 

 that proved a failure. If a man has a small piece of ground, not large enough 

 to raise other crops, then he may succeed with small fruits ; but so far as my 

 observation goes, Avherever a farmer has gone into the business it has proved a 

 failure. 



In tlie cultivation of fruit your first exj^erience is with the nurserymen ; and 

 as far as my experience goes you cannot always depend on Just Avhat a nursery- 

 man tells you, for he most always has just the varieties you Avant. 



When I first Avent into the fruit business, I set four acres to apples and 

 peaches, the apples by themselves and the peaches by themselves. The next 

 spring I went to the nursery in Niles and got apple trees enough to set fiA^e acres. 

 They AA'ere nice, smooth trees to look at. In about tAvo months I noticed one 

 tipped over, and on examination I found it broke easily, and the inside Avas like 

 cork. I then Avent over the five acres and did not find a single sound tree. I 

 then made a list of the varieties I Avanted to set 16 acres. I Avanted BaldAvins 

 in particular. So I sent to Kalamazoo, where I had no trouble in procuring 

 them. They came all labeled, each variety by itself. Besides the tAVO acres of 

 BaldAvins, AA'hich turned out pretty Avell, the rest, AA'lien they came to bearing, 

 were all Kussets except seven. 



This much of my experience I relate to shoAV you that it AA'on't always do to 

 depend on Avhat imrsorymen tell you. 



The peach Avas originally the bitter almond, but from cultivation Ave have 



