TPIE ANNUAL MEETING. ICO 



each fruit grower related tlie mistakes he had made. I said nothing, because 

 I did not know enough to know when I liad made a mistake ; but at tliat meet- 

 ing I learned more than the worth of my membersliip fees, since the organiza- 

 tion, at one thousand per cent, interest. I then learned how to steer my own 

 little craft so as to avoid numberless sand-bars, the location of w^hicli I knew 

 nothing before. 



H. P. Ilanford, Bristol, Indiana. — When wo began in our locality there was 

 no one aliead of us from whose experience to profit. We had to mend our 

 ways by means of our own observation as fruit-growers and liave reaped the 

 benefit of a practical application of the excellent thoughts which the young 

 men have given us in their essays to-night. W^e made lots of mistakes, and 

 very ludicrous ones, too. It is a wonderful help to have some one go ahead 

 and make mistakes and then be honest enough to confess them for the benefit 

 of others. On the principle that " confession is good for the soul," there must 

 be some benefit recur to those who relate their unfortunate experience. One 

 word about observation. You can not make a good observer of a man who 

 does not delight in his calling. The fruit-grower must love his business to 

 make the most of his perceptive faculties in his vocation ; he must love the 

 trees and plants for their own sake; remember that 'Hove is the fulfillment of 

 the Law," and the maxim applies to the Pomologist as truly as to the Puritan. 

 Good strawberries can not be raised by one who does not love the growing of 

 them. 



Byron Markham, Saugatuck. — So far as fruit-growing and horticultural 

 societies are concerned my experience has all been one way, and that is in favor 

 of tlie societies. I came from Wisconsin to Saugatuck to grow fruit. I knew 

 nothing about the business, and was headstrong about some things. People 

 related their experiences in society, and I thought I knew enough to do better 

 than they did in the same method. I always found out I was wrong. Our 

 Lake Shore Society has held monthly meetings for years and I have never 

 attended an unprofitable one. The society has been my school, and I do not 

 hesitate to give it the credit of teaching me nearly all I know in the fruit 

 growing business. 



Aloys Bilz, Spring Lake. — The successful cultivation of fruit in Ottawa 

 county went along with bright active society work in the old Western Michigan 

 Horticultural Society. Its decline and the death of the society were con- 

 comitant. I believe to-day that nothing would help us more in recuperation 

 than a local horticultural society. 



W. N. Cook, Grand Rapids. — In our local society we do not reap the benefit 

 wo ought, because other business steps in and takes the place of the society. 

 We are not so exclusively engaged in fruit culture as to maintain a working 

 interest in the organization, still we keep up our monthly meetings. 



0. N. Merriman, Pentwater. — Men do not let their selfishness work in the 

 proper direction with us. They do not see that it is for their highest benefit 

 to put forth their best efforts in establishing and maintaining a local society, 

 but, notwithstanding, this is a fact. 



Mr. D. M. Brown spoke of the damage done to careful growers by careless 

 ones who flood the markets with poor fruit. The peaches in Berrien county 

 had been entirely killed by the yellows, and their cultivation was abandoned 

 entirely. He represented fruit culture as being in a deplorably dilapidated con- 

 dition in his county. 



Mr. Sherwood dissented from this, and said that state of affairs must be 

 local — it did not, he thought, extend over the whole county. 



