TWENTY FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 193 



A. They are very different in season. The Mountain Rose is not so 

 large, but rather more delicate and earlier in its season. They are 

 neither of them very high flavored. Early Michigan is higher flav- 

 ored than Mountain Rose, though the latter is understood to be an 

 earlier market peach. But I do not suppose that any of us will have 

 failed to learn that peaches, more than almost any fruit, are changed by 

 locality. There are only a few that are successful everywhere. 



Mr. Collar: I would like to ask Mr, Lyon in regard to Barnard 

 and Hill's Chili; why they dry and blacken or become brown. Is it 

 because of overloading, and could it be overcome by thorough thinning? 



Mr. Lyon : I infer that the mark is due to something of a fungoid char- 

 acter rather than a peculiarity of the fruit itslf. The variety has been 

 heretofore very popular with us as a late market peach, but I think it is 

 not so popular today as it was ten or twelve years ago. In the first 

 place, it is of too mild a flavor to suit a good many tastes. It has a very 

 rough, fuzzy exterior, and that is an objection in the market. It is not 

 attractive, although, when it is thoroughly well grown, it loses most of 

 that defect. But the greatest trouble is, with those who are not thor- 

 oughly up in the business, that it is likely to overload, and consequently 

 the fruit is small and unprofitable. It brings low prices. Those who 

 grow it thoroughly well (cultivate, manure, and thin) are generally very 

 well satisfied with it. The same is true of Barnard. Under ordinary 

 circumstances it is too small, but if thoroughly thinned and highly culti- 

 vated you can keep it up to a good size. 



Mr. Collar: Is there any remedy for that brown patch? 



Mr. Lyon: I don't know, sir. I have never had any of it, but I pre- 

 sume it would disappear under the influence of careful spraying. 



Prof. Taft: I have always resorted to spraying as a remedy for curl- 

 leaf, and I find it thoroughly effective; and in addition to the effect on 

 curl-leaf, other difficulties have entirely disappeared, apparently from the 

 use of the spray. We know what its effect is on apples and pears, and I 

 see no reason why it should not have the same effect upon the spot that 

 you speak of. It has never troubled me at all. 



Mr. J. W. Helme, sr. : I think with Mr. Lyon, that these black spots 

 are owing to lack of pruning and cultivation. Two years ago I had some 

 Hill's Chilis, and we had a very dry season, and they were ruined by that 

 black spot. I laid it to the drouth, but last year I cut out a great deal of 

 the top of the trees, and certainly one half of the limbs, and this year 

 they were perfectly free, and I had an excellent crop of Hill's Chili, and 

 it was as dry or dryer than when I failed; and not a brown spot on them. 



Prof. Taft: My opinion is that, although it is of a fungous nature, it 

 is attributable to the fact that the trees are too thick, cutting off the sun- 

 light; and, too, poor culivation and lack of mineral food would tend to 

 increase the scab. It is of a fungous nature, and any one who sprays 

 his trees for leaf-curl will have no trouble with this disease. At least 

 that is our experience. A question was asked of Mr. Lyon, regarding the 

 Bronson peach, and it seems to me he didn't say enough for it. It was 

 classed by him among the medium varieties. As we have it under culti- 

 vation, so far as I can see, it is practically the same as Kalamazoo. 

 For all purposes I believe it is as good. Regarding Crosby, I have 

 known that now fifteen years, and I have come to value it very highly, 

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