REPORT OF MEETINGS-1874-5. 



THE OCTOBER MEETING AT SPRING LAKE. 



The meeting of the State Pomological society at Spring Lake, which com- 

 menced on Tuesday, October Gth, 1874, was a very interesting one, with 

 President Dyckman in the chair. The attendance was fair, and the show of 

 frait was very good. Spring Lake took the lead in the exhibition, and her 

 show of fruit elicited much commendation. Especially did the exhibition of 

 Baldwin apples by Walter G. Sinclair receive the plaudits of the audience. 

 The display of grapes was especially fine. There was a table, also, well loaded 

 with vegetables. 



On Wednesday Secretary Thompson spoke of the exhibition of apples from 

 Grand Traverse, grown in the township known as " Peninsula," a strip of 

 land twenty miles long and two miles wide, between two arms of Traverse 

 Bay, on which scarcely a rod of land could be found not adapted to fruit cul- 

 ture. Mr. Thompson exhibited the Northern Spy in perfection. It was the 

 apple that took the first premium for the best winter apple at the state fair. 

 The characteristics of the Grand Traverse apples are hardiness, solidity, and 

 fine color, as shown by the specimens of Cayuga Kedstreak, Fallawater, and 

 Hawley. The Baldwin appeared in two distinct samples, so unlike as to be 

 scarcely recognizable, the difference arising from difference of location or soil. 

 Mr. Thompson said that another apple was on exhibition that did not look like 

 a Rhode Island Greening, and yet it was. They will have to get up a new de- 

 scriptive catalogue in Grand Traverse. A plate of peaches here shows that 

 even at Grand Traverse the peach can be successfully raised in latitude 45'^ 

 north. Pears also appear here in perfection, as shown by samples of Louise 

 Bonne de Jersey. Grapes are also grown there successfully. Judge Eamsdell 

 sends from his vineyard on "Mount Eamsdell" fine specimens of the Agawam 

 (Rogers 15), the Wilder, Israella. At the state fair, Grand Traverse had sum- 

 mer apples in perfection, and Peninsula township took the first premium on 

 township collection of apples at that fair, — the first time it had competed 

 for that honor. Traverse is also an excellent country for general farming, and 

 Mr. Marshall has a farm well stocked, which produces wheat and farm crops 

 in abundance. 



Mr. Soule inquired whether the codling moth was troublesome in that sec- 

 tion, as he saw its marks on the apple. 



Mr. Parmelee said in the new orchards it had not yet appeared, but in the 

 old ones it is becoming troublesome. 



Secretary Thompson read a report from Benton Harbor. Fruit crops are 

 generally good. Strawberries, full crop; raspberries, good, but not abundant ; 



