80 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



KEPOIIT OF THE IIOKTICULTURIST. 



Prof. C. D. Smith, Director: 



Sir — I liaA'c tlio honor hor(»witli to present the report of tlie work in 

 the Horticultural I)ei)artnient for the past year: 



With the openino- of the year the resignation of Prof, H. P. (jladden, 

 who had acted as assistant horticulturist for ten years, left the work in 

 ex])erimental lines at the College to be performed by Mr. Dean and 

 myself. Before closing his connection with the College Mr. Gladden 

 w'rote up his notes upon strawberries for 1899 and they were published 

 as a bulletin. The work for the season as outlined in my last report 

 was carried through and plans w^ere made to publish the results, but 

 press of other work has made it impossible to prepare them for the 

 printer. 



During the spring a new plantation of raspberries has been made 

 and the vacancies in the vinej'ards and orchards, caused by the winter 

 of 1S9S-9, have been filled. The loss was almost total in the case of 

 the older peach trees, and a very large per cent of the grapes also were 

 killed. The wind storm of June 8 broke down many of the large trees 

 in the apple and cheri*y orchards and overturned a considerable number 

 of the young trees. The large apple orchard promises a good crop of 

 fruit, and many varieties of pears, plums and cherries are also quite full, 

 but the 3'oung trees will give but a light crop, although it is hoped that 

 there will be enough in most cases to give an idea of the value of the 

 fruit. The strawberry plants made a poor growth last year, and as a 

 result only a light crop has been secured this spring, and the test of the 

 varieties has not been satisfactory. 



THE SOUTH HAVEN SUB-STATION. 



^Ir. S. H. Fulton has been in charge of the work at South Haven for 

 the past year and has performed his duties in a very acceptable manner. 

 The orchards and grounds have been w'ell cared for, and his notes and 

 reports have shown excellent judgment. During the last season many 

 new varieties came into bearing and descriptions were given in the bulle- 

 tin ])ublished during the winter. Although the crop of peaches w'as 

 quite light, nearl}' all of the other fruits gave a good yield and brought 

 good prices. The returns from the sweet cherries and English goose- 

 berries were especially satisfactory, being about twice as much as w'as 

 received for ordinary fruit, and the extra care taken in preparing it for 

 market was well repaid. 



During the summer, photographs of the orchards and of specimen 

 trees of tlie different kinds of fruit were taken for exhibition at the Paris 

 exposition. Copies of these photographs and forty plates of fruit of 

 different kinds were also exhibited at the meeting of the American 

 Pomological Society in Philadelphia last September and were awarded 

 a Wilder silver medal. 



Various experiments in spraying, pruning, thinning and fertilizing 

 were tried during the year and the results were published in bulletin 176. 



