4C4 EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 



YELLOWS IN PEACHES. 



[The following interesting paper, by Prof. Kedzie of the Michigan 

 State Agricultural College, was read before the April Session of 1872,heW 

 at Lansing. It was deemed by the officers of the State Pomological So- 

 ciety best to place it before the people as quickly as possible, and it is 

 accordingly given place in this Report.] 



Nature has formed our State to be the fruit garden of the 

 West. She has thrown her arms strongly and lovingly around 

 our beautiful Peninsula, by the Great Lakes, which inclose ns 

 on three sides, to shield us alike from cold and heat ; she has 

 given us a soil of Avonderful fertility and variety, and a forest 

 growth which is the astonishment of all beholders, and which 

 only the stupidity and folly of man can banish. Nowhere 

 else in the Northwest can be found such favorable conditions 

 for the growth of fruit. Like the Canaan of old, it is a land of 

 grain and fruit, and flowing with milk and honey, and you 

 pomologists are invited to '•' Enter in, and possess the land," 

 but like the favored people of old, if you would find yourselves 

 crowned with peace and plenty, you must " drive out the 

 Canaauites'"' — these "hewers of wood" — who, with axe in 

 hand, are destroying our forests with a remorseless persistency 

 with which the devouring fires of October, 1871, offer no 

 parallel. 



The cultivation of fruits is not alone a question of dollars 

 and cents, though their value may be shown to go far up 

 among the millions, when the possible production of the State 

 is considered. Its influence in refining and elevating the 

 masses, if less tangible and more difficult to state in monetary 

 value, is nevertheless no less real or desirable. The food of a 

 race has much to do with determining the type of its civiliza- 



