THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 55 



A Member: The Grimes Golden in the southwest part of Michigan is 

 not a very marketable apple. It bears very heavily, but is not salable in 

 southwest Michigan. I think Chicago is a good market for Grimes Golden. 

 There seems to be quite an agitation about this Steele Red. A great many 

 people get it in their heads to set out an orchard of Canada Red. If you 

 have a sandy soil or red clay subsoil, and some limestone with it, and set 

 out some good hardy variety like Tolman Sweet or Ben Davis, and top 

 graft, you will have the most perfect orchard. Under other conditions you 

 will not. 



A Member: If I were going to top graft Steele Red, I should work through 

 a Northern Spy. 



Mr. Halstead: In eastern Michigan, in Henry C. Ward's orchard at 

 Pontiac, he has about 200 acres in one block; and, as I understand, every 

 other row is Wagner. His Wagners are bearing very well at a young age; 

 they are not a large tree, and they are irregular shaped, unless exceedingly 

 well cared for. In regard to filling, of course to get the best benefits of an 

 orchard we must set them at a proper distance and let the fillers go in time. 



A Member: At Grand Rapids we set out one-third Northern Spies, and 

 then I put out some Baldwins and Greenings ; I think there would not be much 

 room left for anything else. Steele Reds do not seem to do as well in the 

 Grand Rapids region as in the eastern part, where they are well treated. 

 Grimes Golden are good when known better. I have ahout three dozen 

 families in that city that want them. 



President Cook: Jonathan, Spies and Greenings, the old, old timers, 

 seem to stand right by. I think to those three we ought to add a good 

 early apple, and that is the Duchess. It is an early bearer, a good seller 

 every time, and I am more and more pleased with the Duchess. 



A Member: I have a word in favor of the Baldwin. It is the best 

 market apple we can raise in this part of Michigan. The shippers rather 

 have it than anything else. It is certainly the best bearer we have. 



Question No. 10 : Shall we grade strawberries while picking, at the packing 

 shed or not at all? 



President Cook: I do want to change that just a little bit. I should say 

 unless you had conditions of market which rendered it impracticable, grade 

 them while picking. I should say if you were catering to a better market 

 and want to get the best prices, by all means grade them. If you are going 

 to an early market, and are hastening off the berries, I would say most 

 emphatically do not grade them at all ; but the only way fo get the first class 

 prices out of a good grade of strawberries is to grade them and grade them 

 carefully. If the strawberries can be picked while in the pink of condition,, 

 it is all right to grade them at the tent; and one or two or three persons can 

 grade a lot of strawberries and do it right. But if they get just a little bit 

 ripe, then the pickers better grade them. You will get a lot better returns 

 in that case by grading in the field, each picker his own judge, except as we 

 are able to advise with them occasionally and keep them working to one 

 uniform standard just as far as possible. 



Mr. Hetzel: The last three years we attempted to grade strawberries 

 in the field while picking, and every year we have abandoned it because we 

 found there were nearly as many grades. as pickers. We had the pickers to 

 grade them, and had others to grade them afterwards. There are some 

 pickers that grade strawberries all right, and there are others who never will 

 learn to do it, at least I do not believe they will. 



President Cook: If you are so fixed that you can keep those people 



