PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 16*3: 



missiouers, appointed under the law, the appointment to and acceptance of 

 the office, and the record of the same, to be made according to forms and 

 instructions furnished by prosecuting attorney, in order that no technical 

 flaw may be found should the matter come into court, and who are of suf- 

 ficient intelligence to work according to the law and instructions thereon, 

 and with sufficient backbone to prosecute to the full extent of the law any 

 infraction thereof, even by their nearest neighbor or dearest friend, and 

 justices who will not refuse to act in a yellows case, or, when they do act, 

 will not be deluded nor scared by an attorney into throwing the case out of 

 court on any trifling claim of technical error in the proceedings. It is a 

 notorious fact that, in many cases, owners of diseased trees refuse or neg- 

 lect to destroy them according to law, in some cases defying the commis- 

 sioners and scaring them from doing their duty, and in other cases, when 

 arrested, getting off on payment of a small fine, or are discharged on 

 account of some technical flaw in the proceedings; and such men have lost 

 and are still losing their own orchards and causing the loss of all neighbor- 

 ing orchards. It is evident that the continuance of peach-growing depends 

 on the rigid enforcement of the yellows law, and every enlightened grower- 

 should do all he can to strengthen the hands of the officers charged with 

 the enforcement of the law. A few convictions, with severe penalties, 

 would make the future work of the commissioners comparatively easy, and 

 render it possible to keep the disease in check. But neglect to enforce- 

 the law, allowing a few shortsighted individuals in each neighborhood to 

 infect, by their neglect, all the surrounding orchards, as has been done in 

 some sections, will result, in a very few years, in making peach-growing a . 

 thing of the past. 



Henry Hawley. 

 Ganges, Mich. 



Time was too limited to permit discussion of these papers or their 

 important subject, so President Lyon proceeded with the following account 

 of 



WORK AT THE SOUTH HAVEN EXPERIMENT SUB-STATION. 



The chief object sought to be accomplished by the establishment of the 

 fruit-testing station at South Haven seems to have been, by actual fruit- 

 ing, to afford the public reliable information as to the comparative values 

 of such varieties of fruits and plants as are, from time to time, originated 

 and offered for sale, and to gain some reliable idea of their adaptation to 

 the climates and soils of this state, whether for family or commercial 

 purposes. 



Important, though incidental, objects to be gained, were the comparative 

 values of different systems of pruning, training, and management, as well 

 as the most effective methods of combating insects and fungi. 



We think it well to state that planting was commenced, upon a portion 

 of the present premises, as early as 1888, with no expectation that it was 

 to be employed for experimental purposes. These plantings comprised 

 nearly the entire circle of the hardy fruits and nuts, carefully selected, 

 chiefly, for their adaptation to home, rather than commercial uses, and 

 included the cream of the high-quality varieties of such classes. In 

 grapes, however, considerable numbers of commercial varieties were 

 planted, with more or less reference to the propagation of plants. It will 



