94 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Prof. John Graig of the central station at Ottawa, in connection with 

 his interesting talk, presented charts giving date of the first blossoms 

 and of the full maturity of the pollen of different varieties of fruit grown 

 at different stations. This report is of great value to all planters as an 

 aid in grouping varieties for more perfect poUenization, and is worthy 

 of careful study. 



The government's assistance in spraying will have a tendency not only 

 to instruct the farmers but to show the benefit of the work. Three com- 

 plete spraying outfits, with men and teams, were arranged for different 

 parts of the province of Ontario, and placed in charge of A. H. Pettit of 

 Grimsby. He divided the province into three sections and then selected 

 ten orchards in each section that were a fair average, and sprayed as 

 many trees in each orchard as could be covered by one barrel of the 

 mixture, making the rounds once in twelve days. He sprayed each 

 orchard five times. First, before the buds had started; second, just 

 before the blossom opened, and three times after the blossoms had fallen. 

 Farmers from quite a distance gathered to witness the work at each place. 

 Some thirty different counties in the province were visited in this way, 

 and the results were eminently satisfactory. 



In conclusion let us briefly look at some of the lessons that one might 

 learn from these Canadians. The division of the territory into districts 

 and giving one director to each district would seem to be worthy of 

 imitation. This would necessitate a larger number of directors than we 

 now have, but w^ould not the work be made of greater benefit to all parts 

 of the state in proportion? It should be not merely to help ourselves 

 that we gather in these meetings from time to time, not merely to build 

 up the fruitgrowing industry in the most favored fruit belt in the world, 

 but to help those not so favored. In other parts of the state they are 

 looking to us and demanding our help. While all can not grow the 

 finest of peaches, yet some variety of fruit may be found adapted to 

 almost every locality, no matter how sterile the soil nor how frigid the 

 climate. It may be apples, plums, and pears, or where only the small 

 fruits may be grown with success and profit. It ought to be our province 

 to help the poor man, the hardy pioneer of our forests, in his log cabin, 

 with his few acres of clearings. He needs our help. It is as important 

 to tell him what to plant and how to plant it to produce the greatest 

 comfort for his family, as to give so much attention to the development 

 of commercial plantations. He is not able to come to us, so we should 

 reach out after him. 



Draw a line from Detroit northwest to Ionia, and thence to the north 

 line of Oceana county, and what representatives have we in all of that 

 part of the state east and north of that line, and what are we doing to 

 counsel or encourage the immense fruitgrowing interests of that, the 

 larger, part of the state? 



A few years ago the so-called " Thumb " produced immense crops of 

 the finest apples, plums, and pears. Under this stimulus large orchards 

 have been planted. Peaches have met with but one failure in several 

 years at the lower end of lake Huron. Above Saginaw there are 

 thousands of acres that are but " jack-pine lands," that are fertile and 

 have proved to be well adapted to apples and plums, especially the latter. 



