38G STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



With the exception of the small frnit cuUivatiou, fruit-raising is not 

 engaged in as a speciality, but as a part of mixed husbandry. 



EXTENT OF ORCHARDS. 



Very fe.v orchards in the county cover ten acres of ground, and we know of 

 only two that cover forty acres, — those of C. F. Hayden, of Oshterao, and 

 0. E. Clark, of Comstock. The quantity of fruit marketed at this place can 

 only be approximated, and it is only of the shipping sales that we can give 

 definite figures, which, in the fall of 1871 amounted to $25,000 or $50,000, 

 "while there are other and very important centres in this county, in the vicin- 

 age of extensive orchards, where large sums are annually paid for apples, — as 

 Schoolcraft, Galesburg, Augusta, and Climax. Much fruit from the eastern 

 part of the county finds sale at Battle Creek. 



VARIETIES OF APPLES. 



Though not immediately connected with the object of this paper, we digress, 

 to say a few words on the subject of the varieties of apples. In our novitiate 

 experience in fruit-growing, we reasoned, that if more than one variety was 

 desirable, every additional variety increased the value of the orchard. Neither 

 labor or expense was spared to obtain scions of every accessible variety, until 

 the orchard contained some 70 varieties of apples. It did not require all the 

 subsequent years to learn that the number of really valuable varieties was 

 embraced in half a score — of winter apples we would limit the number to six, 

 and of the six, four contained the standard varieties that are always in 

 demand. The proprietor can indulge in any choice varieties he fancies, 

 but the market has its standard demands, so that it is labor lost to try to 

 force our likes and»dislikes upon an unwilling market. 



Summer apples, except for domestic use, are a superfluity in the farm orchard. 

 The fruiting season always comes when the farmer has more important busi- 

 ness than marketing a product that fails to bring adequate returns for the 

 labor bestowed, and compels the neglect of more important services to the 

 farm. 



A succession of varieties, to extend from tlie earliest ripening through to 

 the season of apple harvesting in the autumn, is all that can be either desirable 

 or profitable. 



The successful introduction of the "Fruit Preserver " may work a revolution 

 in the cultivation of summer apples, to that degree that their production may 

 be a profitable specialty. 



Other things being equal, a bright red apple takes the precedence in sales, 

 although the Rhode Island Greening and lioxbury Russet are included in the 

 writer's list of standard varieties. This last, we are aware, will not be accepted 

 by all as one of the four, or even the six standard varieties; but if the object 

 of fruit culture is to secure the largest amount of money in return for labor 

 or capital invested, we should have a large percentage of Roxbury Russets. 

 With proper care in handling and storing, they may be preserved fresh, crispy, 

 and juicy, after other varieties are gone. Its principal value is in its long 

 keeping qualities rather than in its flavor. The writer has kept them a year, 

 and has known of their being kept two years. 



