SUMMER MEETING, 1S79. 79 



notwithstanding this from some unaccountable peculiarity the vines were 

 much injured. 



Mr. Bridgman of same county spoke of certain statements that came from 

 the southern part of the county saying that peaches were promising well and 

 little or no signs of the yellows visible. Apples blossomed very full but failed 

 to set fruit. The prospect for wild fruit is too fiue for the good of the cultiva- 

 tors. 



Mr. Brown. — I desire to say one word concerning ^Ir. Bridgman's reference 

 to the yellows. This disease is in the southern towns of our county and there 

 is abundance of testimony which I can bring to bear by a visit to that locality 

 in a few weeks. Either the people there do not know the disease or are willfully 

 perverse in their statements and equally foolish. Tbe fact is we must meet 

 this matter squarely and use every means in our power to eradicate diseased 

 trees and fruit. 



Mr. Emmons Buell, Kalamazoo, said every thing in the fruit line promised 

 well in his section ; the strawberry crop is enormous. 



A. Chapman, Van Buren county, spoke of his Crawford peaches being very 

 thin, but other varieties very full. Said they would get no cherries because 

 iiineteen-twentieths of them were taken by the cherry bird. Tiie law ought to 

 protect us from the robber. 



Mr. Culver, of Muskegon, said the fruit prospect of his county was just 

 moderate. In the north of the county, he knew a large peach orchard that 

 promised well; just about the city the frost had done a good deal of damage. 

 Pears promised better than for a number of years. Apple orchards are varia- 

 ble on account of condition of trees. We supposed we had a poor soil and 

 must stimulate some years ago. It was a mistake, for it only tixed the trees 

 so they were the more damaged by severe winters. 



Question. — Does the curculio injure you? 



Mr. Culver. — No; for we make a good fight of it and come out ahead. 



Mr. Graham, of Grand Rapids, said he had by accident learned a fact con- 

 cerning curculio. Having left his coat in the crotch of a plum tree over night, 

 and upon getting it, 300 curculio were taken from under it. 



A Voice. — That tree could not have been under very careful surveillance 

 previously. 



S. B. Peck, of Muskegon — Grapes about town that were not favorably sit- 

 uated, were very much injured by the frost on the night of the Tth of May. 



Several gentlemen inquired about insects, particularly the rose beetle and 

 snowy tree cricket, and were referred to back volumes of our reports for the 

 information desired. 



The meeting then proceeded to discuss the first topic upon the programme, 

 ^vhat is the 



IDEAL MARKET STRAWBERRY, 



and what varieties approximate to it? 



W. A. Brown, of Stevensville. — The ideal market berry with us is the Wil- 

 son. We have 4,000 acres planted to it in our immediate vicinity, and I would 

 name as next to it tiie Triomphe de Gaud, and next the Monarch of the West. 

 I spent two days in Chicago last season w^ith the avowed purpose of learning 

 the answer to this very question, and visited all the prominent commission 

 houses only to find that with unanimity they placed the Wilson first as a mar- 



