GRAYLING INSTITUTE. Sia^ 



onward I didn't have to feed them anything. By the middle of Ajml every 

 year I find that they need but very little more feed, for they can roam over 

 the plains and pick up a living and do splendidly, and by the first or middle 

 of June the later grasses get started and by the first of July they -will get 

 fat enough for beef. 



The trouble with our soil is the lack of vegetable mould. It has been 

 stated here that the fires have burned up the vegetable matter. As I wag 

 driving my cattle across the State from below Grand Kipids I examined all 

 kinds of soil, and the poorest ground was down in "God's country," as they 

 call it down near Grand Rapids. I found all the way up this same formation; 

 and I don't think you can distinguish the soil at all from the kind of trees 

 that grow upon it. I find this jack pine we have been talking about grow- 

 ing upon all varieties of soil wherever they get a chance. Bat the vegetable 

 mould here has been burned up and not replaced, though the other elements 

 of fertility are present. We must replace that vegetable mould, and how is 

 it to be done? To solve that question is the object for which we have met 

 here. In my opinion, clover and green crops turned under are going to do 

 it, and make this whole country a paradise. But we want something besides 

 this. We can't send our cattle roving over the plains and bring them home 

 nights and yard them. We must have root crops. I believe root crops are 

 going to be our stronghold, and we must feed them to stock for the manure. 

 When I was coming up here I stopped at a good looking farm-house, and the 

 lady of the house told me that they liked the country, and were getting 

 along very well. She said, " We nurse our land just as we would a baby." 

 There is the secret of it. We must nurse our land just as we would a baby. 

 We don't want to come up here and crop and crop aud takeoff all we can gety. 

 we want to put something back on the soil to make it grow better, so that 

 when our children come after us they will find the land enriched and grow- 

 ing better all the while. That must be done by stock. Stock-raising and 

 grain-raising must go hand in hand. 



FRUIT. 



« 



Mr. Wayne: Apples will grow here, quite a variety of them. I set out an 

 orchard of 25 trees five years ago and 11 out of the 35 have winter-killed and 

 the balance look well. They have borne frail for three years. Plums do 

 extra well. I have had three crops. As to small fruit, of currants, goose- 

 berries, blue berries aiid raspberries, you can raise any quantity. Last sum- 

 mer I had about two rods by six rods of black caps. Mammoth Clusters, and I 

 sold 100 quarts besides using a bushel or more in my family. They do better 

 here, I think, than in the southern part of the State. I know strawberries 

 do exceedingly well, they grow wild upon the plains all over. Wikl huckle- 

 berries are very abundant. They fail us some seasons, but I don't know why. 

 Our native fruits produce from very small plants. 



Dr. Baal: Our professor of horticulture, who is not here, is taking a good 

 deal of interest in improving huckleberries ; he is devoting quite a spot of 

 land to it, and he proposes to get a larger berry than we have ever found. It 

 is a matter worth talking of. 



Mr. Evans: Four years ago I set out fifty apple trees. They did well for 

 two years. I thought I was going to succeed. A year ago this last winter 

 we had a very cold spell, with the snow two feet deep, and the trees froze at 



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