124 STxVTE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ous elements, sucli as tlie niauufactuvo of alcohol, uuder the specious guise of 

 cider and ^vine — especially the domestic article. 



lliursday Morning. 



There having been some additional fruit brought in, Messrs. Gulley and 

 Stearns Avere elected as a committee to supplement the report already given by 

 the committee on fruits. 



The topic for morning discussion was : 



AVATER IX HORTICULTURE— HOW CAN WE EMPLOY IT TO THE BEST 



ADVANTAGE ARTIFICIALLY ? 



Mr. Merriman. — 1 regard this as a topic of the time. AVc have plenty of 

 •water below us, biit oftentimes just as we want it the most there is none to 

 come from above us, and as yet there seems to be no adequate means employed 

 to bring it from below. Windmills with reservoirs attached can be used for 

 this purpose witli success and economy, and I suggest that while fanners are 

 <3mploying the windwill for watering their stock that they elevate a tank from 

 which to distribute to their lawns, their gardens, and small fruit patches in 

 times of drouth. By some such method as this we may not always be held at 

 bay by the weather and without anything with which to defend ourselves. 



Mr. Clubb. — Although we are located in a high northern latitude, still the 

 heat of the sun is exceedingly powerful in summer, and if during this season of 

 excessive heat there is a long interval between rains, crops suffer more or less 

 severely. I am not so much in favor of windmills for all places as my friend 

 Merriman, for I have a cheaper process. I have seen on this lake shore large 

 tracts of uncultivated land, level yet comparatively high, known as swamp land, 

 left as tlie lake receded from its old boundaries, that are valuable, yet made of 

 no value whatever. In them I have found numerous springs of water. The 

 beavers in some instances have set the example and dammed the water, thus 

 producing a system of irrigation on their own hook. They have taught us a 

 lesson if we Avill only use it, the same lesson that is put into practice in Cali- 

 fornia and Colorado. We have a great acreage of just such land that can be 

 managed in the same way, just the place for economical irrigation for cran- 

 berries, strawberries, and huckleberries. The circumstances can be chiefly 

 arranged so that one sliall be independent of water from the clouds. It only 

 requires the skill of earnest men to make these marshes mines of untold wealth. 

 I think it would be well for the State Pomological Society to ap])oint a com- 

 mittee to investigate this matter and suggest measures for the development of 

 this latent wealth in many of our Michigan marshes. We arc poor and still 

 have these sources of large income at our very doors. These lands have been 

 largely legislated away, and have become the prey of speculators who have no 

 more idea how to develop them than a South African, even if tliey had a desire 

 to do so. 



Mr. Stearns. — I am interested in this matter of artificial watering, and wish 

 to present a new phase of it. Tlie question of how to apply the water when it 

 is in our gras}) is a grave one, and even when it is attempted on a very small 

 scale, grave errors are very often committed. I scarcely ever sell a bill of trees 

 to an orchardist without the question is asked : ''llow shall I water them?" I 



