188 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The gentleman asked for early, medium, and late varieties. Now, if we 

 are to judge by this year's experience, I think we would do well to follow 

 Mr. Stearns' advice and steer clear of the early varieties, or set verv 

 spariagly of them, as there is no early variety in Michigan with which I 

 am familiar that amounts to much in quality as compared with the south- 

 ern peaches we have to compete with at that season. Early peaches have 

 paid in the past, but these early varieties meet a new competitor in this 

 southern fruit, something that has come up within a few years, and for us 

 to throw in our early varieties in competition with the southern Craw- 

 fords is simply to spoil the market for both of us. It ruins the price for 

 them and the demand for us. There is no demand for our peaches against 

 that quality, and I don't know as there is much choice between those 

 peaches. We have used Alexander ourselves, and then Hale is 

 better than those which precede it, and begins to avoid the brunt of the 

 competition from the south, and is really the first peach that has paid us 

 very Avell, in our vicinity, this year. The fact is that, though we had an 

 immense crop of these early peaches, it would have been better for the 

 growers in our vicinity if some one had gone into the orchards and 

 stripped them, just as soon as set. It would have been better for the 

 trees, and there was so little profit that it didn't pay for the work and the 

 care of the trees. Coming down to the peaches ripening with Craw- 

 fords, I confess I am not familiar with many of the newer varieties. We 

 have never even grown Lewis, which is spoken of very highly, by those 

 who have tried it. It is a large, handsome, white-flesh peach. As grown 

 by Mr. Morrill they were certainly as fine peaches of that description as 

 I ever saw. The time of ripening is a little ahead of Early Crawford. 



Mr. Morrill : Quite a good deal ahead. It would vary, I presume, with 

 different sections and seasons. It was the 13th of August last year, and 

 the 10th, this year, with me. 



Mr. Williams: Crawford is an excellent peach, but condemned by 

 a good many growers. Most of the growers on the lake shore would say, 

 "^et but very few Early Crawfords," and that has generally been the 

 result of our experience. We think a good deal of Oldmixon, which 

 is a fine, white-flesh peach, which is well known in the market, and gener- 

 ally of such fine size and appearance that it is a good money-getter. 

 Gold Drop we have had experience with, and it has proven with us very 

 good. &!onic years it would bear heavily and do well, other years, with 

 no apparent cause, it did not seem to bear so well. 



Mr. Morrill: The years in which it bore heavily, did you thin thor- 

 oughly? 



Mr. Williams: It was always thinned, and we were well satisfied with 

 it in those years; and yet other years it has not borne when other varieties 

 would, and it has been with us troubled with the black rust, and cracks 

 somewhat, which are objections to it; and yet, taken altogether, it is a 

 good market peach, and I know that in some orchards it is entirely free 

 from these blemishes. 



Mr. Baldwin: I would like to know if Chili is troubled with that 

 scab? 



Mr. Williams: Yes, it is troubled, but with us not so much as 

 Gold Drop. We plant the Chili because of its bearing qualities, expect- 

 ing by fertilization, thinning, and water, to get the size. We have some 



