PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING-. 295 



varieties all by themselves in solid blocks, yet by a mixture of varieties, 

 or a closer intermingling, you can have better results, and yet many of 

 us dislike to practice that because it is difficult; we v^^ould rather have 

 one clean block of one variety, and gather the fruit, than to have different 

 kinds all through the orchard, a mixture. I have had the finest fruit and 

 the best pollenization and the best development of fruit and the surest 

 <;rop, where I have had different varieties intermingled. 



As to the production of other crops in the orchard, the past policy has 

 been to grow other crops in the orchard. The peach-grower of the future, 

 I think, will learn better than that — one thing at a time, and that well 

 done. In planting your peach orchard, do not get the impression that 

 you can run two crops on that soil at the same time. The successful 

 peach-grower of the future will never do it, and very few of the most 

 successful peach-growers of today are doing it as much as they used to. 

 It can not be done, year in and year out. Some of you may jump up and 

 say that in the early days you got all the growth you wanted, and more 

 too. Perhaps you did. But, one year with another, the man who puts 

 out his peaches and believes in peaches and works for peaches, and stays 

 with them, will get peaches that bring him his final reward, and he will 

 get it on this earth, too — he does not have to wait to go over "the river." 



Peach-growing of the present, peach-growing of the future, soil produc- 

 tion, production of flowers and plants of any kind, is really a manufactur- 

 ing process, brothers. We are manufacturers, and the results of our 

 product depend very largely upon the improved machinery, the 

 methods of handling our factory, the labor we put upon it, and the raw 

 material we furnish. Now, I noticed by the discussion this morning as 

 to the plowing under of oats, that you have many acres in Michigan that 

 •evidently have an abundance of plant food, at least of certain kinds; but 

 in the future some of that food is going to be used up, and some of that 

 raw material will be gone, and we must study the feeding of the trees 

 for the best results; and, as has been said here by your worthy president, 

 potash is the main reliance of the peach-grower who is on sandy soil, but 

 he must have a reasonable amount of phosphoric acid and a certain 

 amount of nitrogen. Just at present he will get his phosphoric acid, 

 probably, by using raw ground bone. Whether he will do so in the 

 future or not, I do not know. He gets potash in hardwood ashes, those 

 who can, and those who can not have to take the potash of the German 

 mines. You must have phosphoric acid, you must have nitrogen to a 

 certain degree; your nitrogen you can not trap entirely from the atmos- 

 phere. That matter was pretty thoroughly gone over by Professor Craig, 

 this morning, and it will pay to crowd the growth of trees thoroughly and 

 well from the start. 



Now, there comes a question of ceasing cultivation in midsummer, 

 stopping early, that the trees may ripen. I do not know but I am tread- 

 ing on dangerous ground, now, but observations within the last few years 

 are convincing me that the hardiest of our plants, our outdoor plants, 

 are those that can be kept growing longest. I used to think of my peach 

 trees, that if I ceased cultivation pretty early, and they ripened up and 

 were thoroughly well matured early in the season, and dropped their 

 foliage some time in November, that I had the best results. That is one of 

 the things that I do not believe now. Keep your trees growing pretty 



