8 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



culture at all that the sooner it arrives at that destination the better. We 

 allude to those plantations of trees with sod-bound roots, whose trnnks, shug^y 

 with dead bark and moss, unshorn branches straggling fora feeble growth, and 

 dwarfed and sickly fruit, furnish only a paradise for birds and insects. 



" Oh, reform it aTtogetber." 



The subject of marketing is only second in importance to productiou. 



The ends to be attainpd are embraced in two leading ideas: 



1st. Salety in the carrying of fruit. 



2d. Eeduction in the cost of packing, transportation, and sale. 



The first depends almost equally upon careful packing by the producer and 

 careful handling by the boat or railway lines. 



The second must look mainly to the future for its realization"; when the. 

 increased production will command the facilities for trade, and when the 

 Alden, the Baltimore, and Williams processes of drying, and perhaps other 

 improved methods, may be generally introduced, and especially after the expir- 

 ation of their patents, when every neighborhood can have its drying estab- 

 lishment, or several of them on a cheap scale, to consume the surplus in an 

 over-abundant year. , 



In cases where the average crop shall outrun the home demand, these dried 

 fruits, with their cheap transportation, will seek more distant markets. With 

 almost the freshness and flavor of green fruits, they will be furnished to the 

 consumer at a much less cost, and will therefore go into more general use. 



Thus drying, canning, and preserving will be the safeguard against over- 

 production. 



In the marketing of fresh fruits we have easy water communication to the 

 valuable markets along the lakeside, while the railway lines are able to take 

 the tender fruits of Michigan and lay them down in safety almost at every 

 man's door in the Northwest. 



You remember, and will not soon forget, the 22d and 24th of December last. 



You know how our worthy President sat in his otfice at Cascade Springs, 

 while the arctic wave cams sweeping over the land, leaving its record of 

 unprecedented cold, his heart yearning in sympathy with the stricken fruit- 

 grower, as he exclaimed : " The State Fair of 1873 is gone ; the State Pomo- 

 logical Society is gone; the Michigan Fruit Belt is no more." But soon came 

 in the glad news from every quarter, — "The fruit crop is not destroyed," — and 

 he is here to tell you that Michigan comes out of this frosty ordeal witli "all 

 her blushing honors thick upon her,'' and that we shall have a State pomolog- 

 ical fair in 1873, and still bear excelsior upon our banner! 



It seems desirable that our society make as full a representation as possible 

 at the Vienna Exposition, to be held the present year, — and offer an earnest 

 invitation and welcome to old-world patriotism, to bring the choice fruits of 

 their industry to the grand decoration at the centennial birthday of our 

 American liberties. 



The American Pomological Society meets at Boston in September next. A 

 full collection of our fruits, in charge of a suitable delegation of pomologists, 

 sbould be there. This will be expected of Michigan, and with nothing less 

 than this should we be satisfied : for Michigan in all laudable enterprises of 

 national importance should send her quota. 



In what cheajjer or more effectual way could we bring the attractions of our 

 soil and climate to public attention ? 



