530 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MANISTEE HOKTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



REPORTED BY SECRETARY MUKAUTZ. 

 OFFICERS FOR 1888. 



President — Edwin Itussell. 



Vice-President — A. V. McAlvay. 



Secretary and Treasurer — Jos. V. P. Mukautz. 



The membership is small, and I will forward you names and fees early in 

 December. 



Owing to the scattered locations of members and avocations that prevent 

 ever getting more than two or three together at a time, our meetings have 

 been few in number and at long intervals. Besides this, I may state that 

 interest in horticultural matters has hitherto been below zero, as regards the 

 general rural community. • 



Lumbering interests have been too engrossing to permit of any enthusiasm 

 towards the forwarding of anythiug else. The foreign element prepon- 

 derates among our working class, and they cluster mostly around mills 

 and logging centers. These, as well as the great class of farmers, come here 

 with nothing or at most very little, and their first efforts are bent to gaining 

 a foothold. But now that their lots in town are paid for and the little 

 farms outside are beginning to give a return for time, money and labor 

 expended on them, this great class of laboring people, the real blood and 

 sinew of our State, is turning more attention to fruit-growing. Horticultural 

 matters look brighter for the future. I am further encouraged in enter- 

 taining this hopeful view from tl^p fact that fruit tree agents in our country 

 are doing well. 



This is the case even with two certain firms located in western New York 

 who, within the past four years, have swindled our people badly by palming 

 on them worthless stock. Notwithstanding this fact, however, people will 

 keep on buying from these same firms to their own loss and to the detriment 

 of fruit interests in general. * 



The past season witnessed another drought in this section of the State, but 

 not such a serious one as we experienced last year. 



Fruit is plentiful, however. Apples having ripened prematurely on account 

 of drought, near close of growing season, their keeping qualities are not as 

 good as in other years. While some present a fine appearance, others again 

 show great negligence on the part of the grower in attending to the ravages 

 of the worm. 



Peaches and plums were the finest ever seen in this market. The curculio 

 seems to have declared a truce this year, a fact appreciated by all who are 

 lovers of the plum. 



The Bear Lake region, in the northwestern part of this (Manistee) county, 

 is our great fruit producing district. Some fine orchards are located there. 

 That is also one of the finest hard-wood sections in the United States, and it 

 will soon be opened up by the Manistee & Northeastern Railroad, which is 



