WINTER MEETING, 1879. 55 



blight is to bo looked for simply by locating the pear and the peach orchard 

 to2:ether. 



Mr. Thompson. — A lady wrote me of a mistake which cost her family 

 $6,000. It was an error in selecting soil for an orchard site. Tiiere are hun- 

 dreds of such instances in this state Avhere men have sunk money because of 

 false ideas upon the matter of location. I think the elevated counties will 

 prove to be the best for fruit. Washtenaw is a good example. Ionia county 

 has a number of prominent contrasts between the low land and high land 

 orchard sites. Grand Rapids handled over 810,000 worth of peaches last year, 

 all from tlie elevated lands. 



Mr. Merriman spoke of contrasts in Washtenaw county, that had come under 

 his own observation illustrative of the same law. 



Mr. Dorr confirmed this statement with illustrations in his own experience 

 in AVashtenaw county. He said : Judge Lawrence planted 1,000 trees on a clay 

 bluff of the Huron and three crops netted him $L,000. This gave an impetus 

 to the planting of peach orchards, until now there are about 250 acres of these 

 orchards close to Ann Arbor. My own place is high — so high that my well 

 is 104 feet to the water. I get peaches six years out of seven. 



Mr. Potter thought water drainage as important as air drainage, and if the 

 water were all taken out of some of our flat lands they might prove to be 

 pretty well adapted to orcharding. 



Mr. Lyon said there was a limit in the matter of elevation above which 

 peaches could not be profitably planted in this state. He had seen^such 

 examples. 



Mr. LeValley said that he planted the first peach tree in Ionia county 38 

 years ago. His first orchard was well protected by timber on the west and 

 north; but that one bit of experience Avas sufficient for a life time. Since 

 then he had planted other orchards, and the one that went through the hard 

 winter the best when the thermometer went 10° below zero, then 20°, then 

 28°, then 38° below zero, was thoroughly exposed on the north and west. His 

 choice of a location would be one on high ground with a deep and sharp slope 

 on the north and west sides. Then he would plant evergreens among his 

 orchard trees. 



Mr. Selover spoke of a protective wind break on the west of his orchard, 

 which he valued because it saved his apples from blowing off when his neigh- 

 bors would have but few left on their trees. 



Mr. Guild spoke of a new plan adopted quite successfully in the Saginaw 

 valley of draining the surplus water into wells. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON VEGETABLE GARDEN. 



The committee to whom was referred the recommendations in Mr. Daven- 

 port's essay on farm gardens and who were instructed to report a list of vege- 

 tables for farmers to grow signified their readiness to report. 



In submitting the report of the committee, the chairman spoke of the 



IMPORTANCE OF HORTICULTURE. 



To strengthen the Society we should embrace garden culture. The impor- 

 tance of this is nearly equal to fruit culture. The two go hand in hand, and it 

 is impossible to divide them. Small fruits coalesce with kitchen and even orna- 

 mental ffardeninsr. The committee besr leave to remind the Societv that a 

 farmer is not a vegetable gardener. He cannot go into the general cultivation. 



