462 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fruit on the tree, and if so, when?" and hundreds of like questions, many of which it 

 would be impossible to answer, all showing a rapidly-growing interest upon this branch 

 of fruit culture and an inclination to study the question of plum growing to the 

 exclusion of everything else in the way of fruits. Apple, pear and peach seem to be 

 ignored in the stiuggle to push the plum to the front. Hence, the occasion of taking 

 up these points in treating the subject at this time. Perhaps the reading of a letter 

 received only yesterday would better illustrate the situation, and yet this is only one 

 of hundreds received during the year, except that this is more concise and easily 

 answered. "Is the Japan plum hardy? What are the three best varieties of Japan 

 plums? Are Bradshaw and Niagara identical? What live varieties of plums, and in 

 what proportion in a hundred would you set for market? Is the Wilder pear hardy? 

 The questions relate to our location here, where we have only summer and winter. 

 The ground never freezes; potatoes and carrots can be left in the ground all winter. 

 Snow comes in the fall and stays until spring. We have two feet now. Mercury goes 

 a little lower sometimes, but we do not feel the cold so much and like this climate. 

 Peaches will do about as well here as at Rochester. We lost a few Reine Claude last 

 year, set the year before. It is not hardy." 



Even in the state of Maine, as represented at the late annual meeting of the State 

 Board of Agriculture, they seemed more interested upon this than any other topic, and. 

 to my surprise, showed a degree of intelligence upon the subject and all of its bearings 

 not equaled in this favored region. They are there growing this fruit with great 

 success, and are sooner or later to become sharp competitors with New York growers, 

 Boston and other eastern maikets. 



Nova Scotia, through her Annapolis Valley, so long noted for her production of 

 superior apples, is now pushing the plum interest more rapidly and extensively than 

 any portion of equal territory in the United States; and with the removal or reduction 

 of the existing tariff as a possibility in the near future, can place her products in New 

 York, Boston and Philadelphia, by water, in better condition and at far less expense 

 than we of Western New York. 



California is already supplying our city fruit stands with its fruit, so beautiful in 

 appearance, although poor in quality, as to force the sale of such varieties as are grown 

 by us for the same purpose, at prices far below what we received a few years since. 



The lake regions of Ohio are planting plums more than formerly in resetting land 

 formerly covered with vineyards, as they have been found to be far more profitable. 



This fruit will find its way south and westward to markets which have heretofore 

 been supplied largely from our own state, and possibly in seasons of surplus to BuiTalo, 

 which by water communication can be reached quite as cheaply and in better condition 

 than from many sections of New York, while Northern Michigan, unequaled for the 

 production of this fruit, on its cheap lands, with a climate tempered and rendered 

 especially congenial by the waters of Lake Michigan, can defy competition from Cali- 

 fornia or any other section for a long way to the south and westward to the Missouri 

 river. 



Let the doors be opened wide and the province of Ontario will fill the markets bor- 

 dering and contiguous to the lake region, which are already compelled to unload their 

 surplus at interior points by express at rates of transportation entirely too high to 

 afford very protitable returns to the producer. 



I trust I may be regarded as no pessimist, but my observations made and compiled 

 with care with reference to practical deductions, impel me to present these thoughts to 

 the fruit growers of Western New York now here assembled in convention, with the 

 suggestion that this subject be studied with the care and wisdom that it deserves, as I 

 know that the profits of a few years since have led many to regard this branch of 

 horticulture with exceptional favor when considering the subject of what to plant. 



The fact that my own ventures, began years since, have been accompanied with a 

 fair degree of success, has in some instances at least, produced a misapprehension in 

 the minds of those who have assumed that I was an ultra advocate of universal plum 

 planting. This I desire to assert is a mistake. There is a very strong tendency upon 

 the part of our people, whether in New York or elsewhere, to over-production in every- 

 thing they undertake. As goes one, so goes all. This has been notably so in all man- 

 ufacturing, the result of which is the extreme prostration of such interests in this time 

 of financial troubles, and none understand this better than those in the production of 

 trees, an industry involving risk and an outlay of capital which often requires years to 

 again turn into money. Conservatism should govern at every corner, but the reverse 

 has proven to be true. The strife has been to see who could plant most with no 

 thought as to the final outcome, hence, the existing conditions of the hour — over- 

 production and incalculable loss on every hand. We had once been led to believe that 

 America could never supply the world's wants for bread, but labor-saving machinery 



