PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 45 



wrote to hiin, saying that we would like to have a letter from him con- 

 cerning plum culture. His answer came in due course, and is as follows: 



Geneva, N. Y., Feb. 17, 1896. 



My Dear Mr. Ihid: The mercury from 1(> degrees to 20 degrees below zero for the 

 second time within, six weelvs, means that the peach crop of western New York, for 

 1896, is a used-up community. I hope the people of the Michigan lake shore are 

 not in the same position. 



I have just received an invitation to give a talk before a farmers' club in Onon- 

 daga county, where they wish to discuss the fruit interests instead of grain and 

 potatoes. Week before last I spent an evening on fruit topics with the agriculture 

 class at Cornell university, of about 100 in number, and you can imagine those 

 bright, active minds were loaded with all imaginable practical questions on this 

 subject that could be thought of. Among others, where is the best place to grow 

 plums, Mr. Willard? "The east shore of lake Michigan would be my choice, young 

 men, if at your age I could start anew, with my little experience and opportunities 

 for observation." 



What would you grow? "Well, my advice has ever been to not confine one's 

 ■efforts to one single variety. As a rule, I regard it as an unsafe principle to bank 

 on, and yet I should start off with the largest orchard of prunes to be found on 

 the Atlantic slope, with the firm conviction that in this there ^YOuld be no mis- 

 take. The growing cities across the lalce will consvime to the growers' profit all 

 the prunes that will be grown for a half century to come." And thus I elaborated, 

 setting forth the advantages of soil, climate, and surroundings, until you would 

 have thought I had some special interest in your state and was "to the manner 

 born." 



And now, how I wish I could attend your coming meeting in Oceana county! I 

 feel when meeting with your people that I am with my friends, and enjoy every 

 moment, and then add so much to my stock of valuable information that it is just 

 a grand investment. 



Inasmuch as I can not be witli you, and there are so many with whom I feel 

 •so thoroughly acquainted in that most excellent plum region, I am inclined ,to 

 give you a few notes from my big memorandum book that I frequently refer to 

 when preparing for the next season's work. 



Well, while looking ahead to the end of my life work, as a sensible man should, 

 I yet can not stop; hence, in the latter part of December, of my life's calendar, I 

 shall put out a thousand more plum trees, all Lombards— not to be fruited as 

 Lombards, but to be top-worked over to such sorts as I believe will be wanted in 

 the future and may be grown with more profit than others. 



Every year confirms me in an opinion long held, that the profits in fruitgrow- 

 ing are greatest in gi-owing those varieties that the masses do not grow. Hence 

 I shall continue to work on this line, which I regard as the wise thing for me, 

 while at the same time acting up to my convictions. 



Some years ago, when spending a few days at Hart and seeing the acres of 

 promising orchards that had been planted, I said to some of my friends, "Too 

 many Lombards; some one vrill be sick, one of these days." Perhaps the time has 

 not yet come, but it surely will, sooner or later. Hence, I say again, as I have 

 often said, plant the very early and very late sorts, and allow some other fellow 

 to make his ventures on the mid-season sorts that come in when there is a glut 

 of every sort of fruit on the market, from every point of the compass. 



With us Lombard is cheaply produced, and yet, as a rule, it sells at the low- 

 est price, and ofttimes so low as to leave no margin for profit. Again, every one 

 planting an orchard is inclined to plant plums, and also to plant this sort; hence 

 the danger, sooner or later, of an over-production of one kind. Is not this pretty 

 much the situation today in Oceana county? As a rule, the demand is greatest, 

 in all markets, for dark-colored plums; and so T would advocate such sorts most 

 largely. But the region where the prune is, or will be, grown, this side of the 

 Rockies, is pretty largely confined to a limited section in New York and the 

 shore of lake Michigan; and, being rather slow in coming into bearing, the masses 

 will be slow to adopt it as their favorite. 



So far as my observation has extended, it has never been sold at anything 

 short of good paying prices, while there is an Increasing demand for the fruit 



