THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 135 



the year. The apple has been and is the chief fruit crop of the state and 

 country, but the same changes that have occurred in the growing and con- 

 suming of the "King of Fruits," are present in the history of all other fruits. 

 Strawberries are becoming more common on the average farm and it is not 

 difficult to find pears, plums, grapes, etc., about the agriculturist's home. 

 While there is a general tendency of the commercial grower to become a 

 specialist, it was the observation of the speaker that the general farmer in 

 the more progressive sections of the state is giving this part of his planta- 

 tion some of its merited attention. 



MICHIGAN FRUITS AS COMPARED WITH OTHER FRUITS. 

 (henry c. ward, pontiac.) 



Apples grown in California lack juice and flavor, but general appearance is good. The 

 reason why the fruit lacks flavor seems to be the cliipate and the soil; the lack of juice is 

 caused from long continued drj^ weather before the fruit is gathered. The fruit being 

 dried or cured on the trees before it is picked usually keeps well. 



Apples grown in the Great Salt Lake Valley are high colored, very pretty to look at, 

 and fair quality. I saw and ate Ben Davis there as high colored and beautiful as the 

 Gano. The best Ben Davis I ever ate was grown in the Salt Lake Valley. It was a good 

 apple. 



Apples grown in Colorado are high colored, grow perfect when thoroughly sprayed, 

 and have a fine appearance, but lack the rich flavor of the well grown Michigan apple. 

 The western apples disappoint the consimier from their fine color and outward appear- 

 ance; the quality is not up with the show. 



Apples grown in the middle west and Arkansas are generally of the Ben Davis type, 

 which look and keep well but lack juice and flavor. 



Apples grow well from Georgia along the Blue Ridge up to the St. Lawrence River 

 Valley. The home of the apple is in the northern states and parts of southern Canada. 

 The Steel Red grows at its best in Oakland Co., Michigan, and in parts of Canada this 

 apple^is becoming more extinct because the localities where it succeeds are very limited. 



Apples grown in the upper part of the lower peninsula of Michigan, on high elevations, 

 from 900 to 1000 feet above the Great Lakes are usually high colored, good quality and 

 excellent keepers. The summer apple becomes a fall apple and the fall apple an early 

 winter apple, and winter apples have been kept there in solid condition in a common cellar 

 for a period of two years. I have picked Yellow Harvest up there from the tree, solid, 

 in prime condition, in September. The Wealthy is at its best in January, and Snow or 

 Famuse in February. 



Oregon, Washington and Idaho apples are high colored, look well, but lack the flavor 

 of the well grown Michigan apple. 



I showed some fine specimens of apples grown in my orchards in Michigan to Mr. Fer- 

 guson, of Duluth. He remarked they were the finest he had ever looked at, and he ad- 

 vised me if I should ship them to that market it would pay me to brand them as New 

 York apples. 



He said that Michigan apples were the poorest fruit that was received in that market, 

 the reason being that the orchards were not usually properly cared for and the fruit not 

 honestly packed. Mr. Ferguson is an Oakland county boy, was born and raised here, 

 and is at the head of the largest fruit house in Duluth. At Minneapolis and St. Paul 

 the dealers generally complained of the way the Michigan apples were packed — poor ones 

 in the middle of the barrels, etc. 



California fmit and the fruit on the west coast is outselling the Michigan and the New 

 York fruit in the big markets, the reason being this fruit is carefully, picked, honestly 

 packed, and put up in an attractive manner so as to be pleasing to the eye. This over- 

 comes the lack of quality. The Japanese and Chinese usually gather and help pack this 

 fruit, and they are trained to do it carefully and do it as they are told to do. 



It is very difficult to secure help in Michigan that will do this work as it should be done. 

 If shown how to pick the fruit carefully with the stems on, and also laid in the basket 

 instead of being dropped or thrown in the basket, and when your back is turned the help 

 will usually commence dropping the fruit instead of laying it in the basket, which bruises 



