FORTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 71 



to produce good fruit. The Northern Spy and Russett trees are the 

 longest lived trees we have growing in Michigan today. I do not know 

 of any two varieties that will s+and so long. 



Q. Have you ever had any e u'ience with purple raspberries? 



A. Yes, i tried them. For market purjjoses they are not good. 

 They turn sort of a dull, dead color and look stale. They do not api)eal 

 to the consumer half as much as a bright, clean berry does. The quality 

 is good and they are good bearers, but they freeze clear to the ground. 

 They are weak in that respect. 



Q. I would like to have a description of your soil for g owing black 

 raspberries. 



A. It is gravelly, sandy soil and occasionally a little clay. The rasp- 

 berries do better where the soil is sandy. 



PLANNING THE WORK ON A 200 ACRE FRUIT FARM. 



MR. CLARK ALLIS, MEDINA, N. Y. 



Friends and Fellow Fruit Growers: 



The Secretary of this Association has tried for two or three years 

 to get me out here to show my ignorance. Every time I have worked 

 off some of our best fruit growers and you have heard some of the best 

 growers in the state of New York. He asked me last spring if I would 

 come and I made several excuses, but he would not let me off, so last 

 night when I met him at the hotel, I asked him what he wanted me to 

 talk about and he said : "Talk about anything you want to." I at 

 once informed him that I was more interested in ladies than anything 

 else, but he immediately informed me that Michigan men needed no 

 help on that subject. So I have lost the subject I am most interested 

 in and shall have to talk on the topic he has assigned me. 



It seems almost out of place for me to come out here and tell you 

 how to grow fruit, for I think Michigan is far ahead of New York 

 state and that is because so many of your Michigan men came from 

 New York state. I sometimes think that more good ones have left the 

 state than are still there. 



The principal thing that I try to keep in mind is to do the work as 

 far ahead of the time it has to be done as is possible. In this way 

 I keep ahead of the work. Most of our orchards are under cultivation. 

 We practice clean cultivation. But if the grass and weeds get the 

 start of you, whatever you do, make the other fellow think you are 

 doing just what you have been trying to do. 



One of the things we are doing now is fall plowing, as much as we 

 can. We get as many of our orchards fall plowed as possible and wlien 

 winter sets in and we cannot plow, we begin trimming. We have a 

 brush burner, made of steel sheeting. We hitch a team to it and draw 

 it right with us. When we get through trimming the orchard, we try 

 to have the brush all burned right up to the trimmers. This year we 

 have trimmed heavier than we ever did before, thinking it would 

 do away with the thinning of apples. 



