WINTER MEETING, 1S77. 19 



Is there danger of over-production ? "We say no. So essential is remunerative 

 pay to prosecution of any calling, that wlicii the time shall come that fruit 

 growing, for a series of years, will not pay, fewer trees will ho set, orchards will 

 by many go uncared for, — the apple difficult to reach will bo shaken off. The 

 apple will cover the ground rather than shelves in our cellars. The orchard 

 will be let to the coddling moth on shares, the owner to do the work and the 

 moth to divide the crop. Soon the su{)ply will be diminished and those who 

 have gone on surmounting difficulties will rca}) the reward of their patience. 



Ileaven has wisely ordained that all success lies through the door of toil. 

 Wherever you find nature producing spontaneously her fruit for human sus- 

 tenance, there you will iliid man indolent and degraded. I have no patience 

 with that theology that calls toil an evil and labor a punishment. Toil gives 

 value to everything. Other things being equal, results are valued as labor is 

 the price of enjoyment. What would be the result if the sun and frost would 

 not blight, if all fruit would keep a twelvemonth, if the curculio and the moth 

 would take to feeding upon the soil instead of upon apples? I apprehend that 

 the occupation of our orciiardists would be gone. All would have apples to sell, 

 and few would need to buy, and the end would be a neglect as fatal to our fruit 

 trees as are now the enemies against whose depredations we must struggle. 



The greatest good is subserved if we make fruit so cheap that all can obtain 

 a reasonable portion, and yet so dear as to afford a fair compensation to the 

 grower. Were it possible that science could improvise a full grown tree in a 

 year, and load it with fruit, tliat could defy insect enemies as well as frost, heat, 

 and time itself ; if we could always reap where we had not sown, if our oil and 

 wine always flowed as from some never failing fountain, no good end would be 

 subserved. Society would go back to its primitive condition of indolence and 

 vice, and man be lacking in that power which alone comes from a struggle with 

 obstacles and which obtains its strength and greatest glory from well earned 

 victory. 



The battle, then, if not to the strong, is to the vigilant. When tlio time 

 shall come that labor and zeal shall outwit the moth and the curculio, we shall 

 not then grow indolent, for Heaven, that kindly sends the discipline of evil, will 

 give us other oI)stacles to overcome, otlier foes over which we may triumph. 



Prof. Boal. — I have, from considerable observation, decided that the lack of 

 apples some years is due to poor male organs in the flowers. This has come 

 under my notice while crossing apples. Some years it is almost impossible to 

 find pollen to use in crossing, and these are the "off years" with the apple 

 crop. 



Prof. Whitney. — I am of the decided, impression that oftentimes the entire 

 essential organs of the flowers' are so injured as not to be worth any tiling before 

 the blossoms open, and still there is sufficient vitality to open the flowers. Such 

 years I have perceived the difference in the appearance of trees so injured by the 

 petals looking whiter than usual. 



Mr. Merriman. — I believe that often times dry winds at the time the blossoms 

 open blast a full crop of fruit that would otlierwiso develop. This is wliat sug- 

 gested to me the practicability of employing plaster at this season to sprinkle 

 through the trees, and I have found it very efficacious in preserving the frait 

 while setting. 



The Secretary then read an address from Mr. George Parmelee of Grand 

 Traverse, on 



