PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 159 



Protection from Pests — To prevent injury from mice and rabbits and 

 borers, use a mixture of soft soap and sulphur, equal parts, and apply to 

 bodies from the limbs to roots, replacing the soil that had been removed 

 so as to apply to large roots and lower parts of the body. Tarred paper 

 will, if properly put on the bodies, answer a good purpose if the first is not 

 conveniently secured. 



Thinning — Proper thinning of the fruit must be observed if choice, 

 good-size fruit is desired, and for the purpose of retaining the full vigor 

 of the trees, which are much exhausted by an overproduction of pits. 



Picking and Handling-— ^Picking requires a practiced eye to discern the 

 proper condition of maturity, careful handling, and honest packing (alike 

 through the entire package). Good fruit picked and packed properly in 

 clean, full-size packages, will win its way in any market to good prices 

 and continuous trade. In fact, the market will seek the producer of such 

 fruit. 



Peach Yelloivs — This dreaded disease of the peach, apricot, and nectar- 

 ine is, in my opinion, a benefit to the peach-growing industry. It tends 

 to deter the timid from planting, and soon destroys the orchards of the 

 careless or negligent, which would, quite likely, fill our markets with an 

 'inferior quality of fruit, while the energetic, watchful, earnest growers but 

 little fear the disease; for, where a persistent policy of total destruction, 

 as the law provides, of every tree in which one peach or twig has developed 

 the disease, is followed, the interest continues to thrive, as it has for many 

 years along the lake shore in this and Allegan counties. While our 

 scientific men have, without doubt, discovered bacteria existing in all dis- 

 eased trees, no remedy has been discovered. Only total destruction of all 

 affected trees, in any locality, can save the interest where it exists. 



Is the peach-growing interest likely to he overdone? — Many years ago I 

 feared such a result, and was very cautious about engaging in extended 

 cultivation. The first crop from my orchard sold for from 25 cents to SI 

 per bushel. The latter price encouraged me to set more. Not until I had 

 sold five successive crops from my small orchard of less than 1^ acres, for 

 an average of $300 per year, did I gain full confidence in the permanence 

 of the industry. And today, to all living where location and climate are 

 congenial, and who are willing to give the same energy and attention to 

 secure full knowledge of the business, and bestow the care required as the 

 price of liberty, I can say, in my opinion the future of peach-growing 

 promises more success than does any other agricultural industry. 



While the area seems to be circumscribed to some extent, almost yearly, 

 where peaches can be grown, the markets are extending, and in all local- 

 ities the demand is increasing. Only a few years ago, canned fruit was 

 only in the homes of the well-to-do. Now, in ever so humble a home, 

 canned fruit (peaches, largely) are counted among the necessary family 

 supplies. I remember when from 20,000 to 40,000 baskets received in 

 Chicago would send the price down so low as to bring loss to the grower. 

 Now it requires from twenty-five to thirty thousand baskets each morning 

 to supply one peach to each of the residents of Chicago alone, besides the 

 demand from millions of homes near which such fruits can not be raised,, 

 including many cities that will use a train-load each day. 



When I came to Gobleville, in 1887, I planted on some village lots 

 eighty-four trees, sixteen feet apart, about one half acre, from which I 

 harvested in 1891 (when the trees had been set four years) 169 bushels of 



