THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 47 



each year, and when the tree gets to its right size, a shocking into semi- 

 dwarf will throw it into the heaviest kind of fruitfulness. 



The queston of spraying, what for, when and how you have had touched 

 upon here today most thoroughly; no use going into that again only keep 

 improving on your methods. 



The question of feeding is an important one, because my own experience 

 as grower and the handling of commercial fertilizers, or the growing of fruits 

 with commercial fertilizers entirely for more than forty years, has convinced 

 me you can affect quite largely the color and the texture and the quality 

 of your fruits by the fertilizers you give them, from liberal applications of 

 phosphoric acid and potash, and especially potash on the character of soils 

 you have very much in Michigan; in your lighter soils, unquestionably the 

 liberal use of potash will add greatly to the color of the fruit. By studying 

 we find that the land what will go in one section will not work in another; 

 and I believe it is every grower's duty to become an experimenter, all the 

 time finding out what his trees and plants want, and giving it to them as 

 well as he is able, and thus he will get the greatest results. 



The free, open-headed style of tree that will let sunlight in to nearly all 

 the apples is essential. And of course the case of spraying is not to be left 

 out of account at any time in pruning, from the early planting of the trees. 



If I were to emphasize any one particular essential on the final develop- 

 ment of any kind of the tree fruits, there is nothing, seems to me, that has 

 ever paid me as well, particularly in plums and peaches, and in a more 

 moderate way in apples — no one thing has paid me so well for the labor 

 invested as that of thinning the fruits so there might be a proper distribution 

 upon the tree of what were left, taking off all the indifferent specimens. 

 I know there are farmers and fruit growers, and you have got to differentiate 

 between them who will laugh at any hint of apple thinning to improve the 

 product. I think the apple growing of the future is going into the hands 

 of specialists, and I don't believe the average farmer with 25 or 50 or 100 

 apple trees on his farm can afford to keep them there; or, if he has them 

 there, will he find any market for their poor product that will pay him. 

 He has got to grow better apples or else buy better apples of his neighbor. 

 But you talk to the average farmer in Connecticut or Michigan about thinning 

 his apples, and he will say it is absurd to thin the apples. "Why, it costs 

 enough to pick them in the fall, let alone thinning them and throwing them 

 away!" If you are growing the ideal apples that the people of the world 

 want now and in the future and are willing to pay for, you will have to do 

 these things. Of course these fancy stories about Rocky Mountain and 

 western apples selling at $3.50 and $4.00 a box out there, and selling at 

 $3.50 to $5.00 a box by the carload in the eastern market, are all very pretty 

 tales; but the great body of American people won't buy and can't buy large 

 quantities of apples at those prices; but they can buy millions of barrels of 

 apples at a price that will bring profitable returns to the man who will de- 

 liver the goods, and the one that has the most beautiful apples will get the most 

 profitable market; and I can assure you it will be high enough to give a good 

 profit to the man behind the gun in doing it. 



The handling of apples. I was interested in what the Professor said in 

 relation to those apples that were carefull}^ handled and those that were 

 roughly handled: Eighty per cent went down in decay in a given time 

 where they were just poured into the barrel, where only 21 per cent went 

 down where the same apples were carefully placed. Just think of that! 

 Think of that! We are looking for good investments; we have got a little 



