ANNUAL MEETING AT SAGINAW. 479 



Exhibitors in all cases to be members of the Society, whether local or gen- 

 eral. 



The, to me, obvious 'importance of this subject impels me to invite the 

 careful and earnest attention of the Society to the matter, with the hope that 

 it may lead to effective results in the direction indicated. 



We may also, perhaps, profitably consider whether some modified scheme 

 of similar general character may not be so adapted to the circumstances of 

 auxiliary societies as to increase their efficiency; and perchance to even 

 redeem them from the too common tendency to demoralization and inaction. 



Within the past year we have had occasion to inquire somewhat carefully 

 respecting the actual capacity of the newer portions of lower Michigan, as 

 well as the Upper Peninsula, for the pursuit of Horticulture ; and within the 

 last few months opportunity has arisen to institute a somewhat close compari- 

 8071 in this respect between it and the regions in the same latitude farther 

 west. 



While the fact is unquestionable that, especially in the Upper Peninsula, 

 there are large tracts of rough land not adapted to profitable cultivation, 

 there is much land well adapted even to horticultural pursuits ; and although 

 the prairie soils farther west are generally more fertile, this advantage is, in 

 a good degree, neutralized by increased liability to drouth, the diminished 

 moisture of the atmosphere and the increased severity of the winters as we 

 go westward, the combined influences of which render the culture of even the 

 hardiest fruits westward of Lake Superior, a very precarious business. An 

 additional obstacle to success there is also found in the blight, which attacks 

 and often ruins the trees during the heat of summer — a malady which, if it 

 exists at the north, in either of the peninsulas, is of so slight a character as 

 to attract little or no attention. 



With these favoring circumstances, coupled with the selection of thorough- 

 ly hardy varieties for plantmg, the occasional ventures in fruit culture, made 

 mainly in connection with the mines, have already very effectively determined 

 the practicability, in the Upper Peninsula, of apple, pear, cherry, plum and 

 small fruit culture, where suitable soils occur for the purpose. 



Under these circumstances, since the permanency of the mining interests 

 is already assured, and the country is being rapidly opened by railroads, the 

 development of both agricultural and horticultural pursuits must soon and 

 rapidly follow; and the alternative will then be presented to our society 

 either to extend a fostering hand to the new though distant interest, or to 

 compel it to establish an independent organization of its own. 



The problem may perhaps be solved by the adoption of a plan akin to those 

 of Illinois, Iowa and perhaps other States ; consisting in the organization of 

 district societies tributary to a single central society, of which, as we infer, 

 delegates from district societies are, for the time, at least, members. 



The tendency of farm orchardists is, aj)parently, toward indifference re- 

 specting the correctness of their nomenclature, and even toward carelessness 

 respecting the quality of the products of their orchards, provided the varie- 

 ties be large, showy and productive ; in f orgetf ulness of the general truth that 

 these qualities are usually attained at the expense of delicacy of texture and 

 flavor characteristics, more or less indispensable in both dessert and culinary 

 fruits, while a slightly deficient productiveness will, for the family orchard 

 or garden, became a matter of slight importance. 



Similar but even more decided is the tendency of many if not most com- 



