FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT. 29. 



feet long or about which are set on edge and are fastened together near 

 the middle by two other planks parallel to each other and abont four 

 feet apart and at right angles to the first two plans. The horses drag 

 the leveler by means of chains fastened to the first two planks or run- 

 ners. The Kimball weeder or cultivator, an implement which stirs the 

 soil without disturbing the surface mulch is very generally used. Cul- 

 tivation usually ceases sometimes in August and the use of cover crops 



IS increasmg. 



In harvesting their apples, tin pails, padded baskets and various fonus 

 of picking sacks and aprons are used. The utmost care being taken to 

 keep from bruising the apples at any time. After the apples are picked, 

 they are deposited in orchard boxes and hauled away to the packing 

 sheds, where they are wiped, sorted and packed. A word as to packing. 

 The packing is done by the association and so a uniform pack is put 

 up. Crews of three or more packers, under the direction of a head 

 packer, pack according to a set of instructions furnished by the asso- 

 ciation. They go around among the orchards and stay at a ranch until 

 the packing is completed and then move on to the next ranch. 



Just a word as to pruning. The trees are headed very low. It is usual 

 to head the trees at from eighteen to twenty inches from the ground. 

 The vase form is almost the only system used. The trees are pruned 

 with very open centers and this, taken together with the clear, bright, 

 sunshiny days, explains the high color their apples take on. 



In closing this paper, I wish to point out some advantages which we, 

 as Michigan growers, possess, and some lessons that we can learn from 

 our brother growers in these other states. We certainly have great ad- 

 vantages in location and in having both rail and water transportation 

 and in nearness to market, and its consequent lower transportation 

 rate. Michigan raises apples of the highest quality, firm in texture, of the 

 highest flavor, of excellent keeping quality and with high color if the 

 trees are kept sufficiently open and the apples are left on long enough 

 to take on the same wonderful polish that sells western fruit. There is 

 no question of the superiority in flavor of our apples over all western 

 apples. There was only one western apple that I tasted, while in the 

 west, that I considered approached our eastern apples in flavor and that 

 was a fall apple and not of much commercial value to them, the Graven- 

 stein. 



At Hood River they have found that a very few varieties of the highest 

 quality succeed splendidly in their section and they confine themselves 

 to these. We ought to learn the same lesson. In the different sections 

 of Michigan the apple growers ought to confine themselves to two or three 

 varieties of as high quality as will succeed in the region. The public 

 is rapidly becoming educated to the differences in quality in apples and 

 the demand is becoming stronger each year for the better apples and 

 at better prices comparatively, while poorer apples are rapidly becoming a 

 drug on the market. We must take better care of our orchards, give 

 better attention to spraying, cultivating and feeding our trees and prac- 

 tice more open pruning and we will assuredly get better results. Then, 

 we must attend better to the business end of apple growing. We must 

 adojjt the association idea. Lastly, we ought, like the best apple grow- 

 ers all over the country, east and west, study our trees and our soil and 



