PROCEEDINGS OP THE WINTER MEETING. 19 



Mr. Thos. Mars: I am not a fruitgrower, but there is a considerable 

 amount of fruit grown in my vicinity, principally apples, all of which are 

 believed to be very in bad condition. Only a few varieties made any 

 growth at all last year, and yet many blossomed again in the fall, so 

 we have no expectation of a crop this season. 



Mr. Miller : Last year the twigs and blossoms died back — the new 

 growth at the end of the branches. By what cause can this be explained? 



Mr. Brown: It was the unfavorable, cold weather. The circulation of 

 sap stopped, and so the new growth died for lack of sustenance. Two 

 years before, the orchards of New York suffered in the same way, yet last 

 year they had a good crop. So will ours recover. It is a grave mistake 

 to cut out the apple orchards, as some are doing. 



Mr. Clark of Pipestone said the people of his vicinity are discour- 

 aged about getting an apple crop, but a good one this year will do much 

 toward stopping the cutting. 



Mr. Morrill: Those of our people who are not directly engaged in 

 horticulture have little idea how greatly our prosperity depends upon it. 

 Latterly, of course, manufacturing has come in and become a powerful 

 aid, but before that the horticulture of the vicinity was the main source of 

 prosperity, and still is a most important factor. Two years ago (I have 

 no later statistics, but the sum can not have been less last year) there 

 were one and one quarter million of dollars paid out in Benton Harbor 

 for horticultural products, and enough more in St. Joseph to make the 

 total two millions. Our business men should realize that horticulture' is 

 the rock upon which we have built. 



Mr. Brown: Yet the pomologists of one vicinity hardly know what' 

 those of another are doing. There are here now hundreds of Germans 

 on small farms, who do not go to our meetings. These small places are 

 set to fruits, and presently we find their occupants well off. I greatly 

 wish I could get the statistics of our fruit industry, but there seems no 

 way to gather them. Certainly, however, the industry is immense, in the 

 full meaning of the term. 



President Lyon presented the following paper upon 



DETERIORATION OF MICHIGAN ORCHARDS AND FRUITS. 



That there has been sad deterioration in the health and vigor of Mich- 

 igan orchards, taken as a whole, as well as in the size and perfection of 

 their fruits, would doubtless go without saying. We recall the circum- 

 stance that, when western New York was yet a comparatively new region, 

 not having yet fully won its more recent standing as a fruitgrowing locality, 

 the first notable general convention of the devotees of pomology was held 

 at Buffalo, in connection with the annual state fair. A large and excellent 



