164 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. VanDeman : If they are thinned they will not drop so much. They 

 drop because there are too many on. 



Mr. Morrill : We will carry that a little further. Is not that the effect, 

 oftentimes, of exhaustion, which would not take place if the fruit was 

 thinned? 



Mr. Wilde: The red apple is always popular in market, but the man 

 who neither trims or thins raises evergreen apples — evergreen Baldwins, 

 evergreen Ben Davis. Who wants them? 



Mr. Killen : I must say, in regard to the quality of the fruit of Michi- 

 gan, that in New York citj^ your fruit of all kinds brings a higher price 

 and is in greater demand than the fruit of any other place in the Union. 

 1 was in Liverpool market some time ago, and in the London market, and 

 your apples there were in great demand. I have some friends over there, 

 and they consider your apples and peaches something remarkable. Refer- 

 ring to your packing, I notice that you take more care in packing your 

 fruit than they do in Europe. The best quality of your fruit, for the 

 foreign market, is well packed, or they are repacked by the shipper in 

 New York or Philadelphia. I was down south some time ago, in Missis- 

 sippi, and a box of your fruit came in. It was sold in five minutes and 

 there was no more to be had. I notice that the demand for Mit^higan 

 fruit is great. You have not grown half enough, and they need more. 

 As a nurseryman I notice these things, so I take the liberty of mentioning 

 them. I hope you will continue to imprcfve in your fruit, and send more 

 of it to the places where the demand is great. 



Mr. Sherwood : Why is it we are losing so many of our Kings in this 

 county? In a few years we won't have any. 



Mr. VanDeman : The King is a tree of weak constitution, and take this 

 whole country over it may be said to be a failure as a tree, with the excep- 

 tion of the place of its origin, northern New York. I have seen it in 

 almost every section, all over the apple country. It generally is weak or 

 diseased, and I am not at all surprised to learn that the old trees are 

 dying off. Young ones will do as well as the old ones, and no better. 

 You need not be surprised to see them die. 



