194 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Of Yellow Harvest and Red Astiacliau we have many. On the higher 

 ground between here and St. Louis, the first two miles out of the village, 

 there are some very good orchards, yet they have not taken good care of 

 them. The}^ are elevated and produce good crops. 



Mr. Keid: I suppose it might he said, then, that if they grow^ good 

 apples in Gratiot county they will be sure of a market, providing they 

 have enough to attract buyers here. 



Q: What varieties should be planted, and in what proportion? 



Prof. Taft: It seems to me there is more occasion for some local 

 grower to answer that then there would be for another. But of varieties 

 that are commonly grown Northern Sp}' and Wagener and perhaps Red 

 Canada, would do well for this section. Of the other apples, or those 

 less known, I should certainly try Hubbardston and Sutton as well as 

 Jonathan. The latter should be in the first list, and Hubbardston and 

 Sutton I would put out to tr}-. 



Mr. Morrill : Those are all winter apples. I believe the conditions 

 here would rather preclude expectation of profit in summer apples, would 

 they not? 



Prof. Taft: I would not put out many. Yellow Transparent, I think, 

 is the best of its season, and Oldenberg would also be well to grow here. 

 Wealthy is also another hardy and productive fall variety. Of the other 

 kinds that ought to do well, Shiawassee I would mention. 



Mr. Allen : I have lived here f ortv vears, and I do not know of a good 

 orchard on low land. On the high, rolling land you can raise good fruit. 



Prof. Tracy: I feel very earnestly that it would be of immense benefit 

 to this county if there were a great many hundreds of little orchards of 

 two, three, four or five dozen trees. I think that the gentleman who last 

 spoke referred to coming here forty years ago and having apples do well. 

 That comes up exerj now and then. We hear people who are old settlers 

 referring to the brighter times there were in earlier days. Now, it seems 

 to me that when you come to an analysis of that, that one great source of 

 the happier time, of the fruit being better, was the interest the settlers 

 took in their farms and in their new region; and today so many people 

 in this county (unless it differs from other counties in this state), the 

 younger people especially, have lost interest in the farm and in the 

 village and in their personal surroundings — lost very largely their in- 

 terest in the homes. Now, my friends, I believe there is nothing so potent 

 to keep a boy interested in the place where he lives, and so grow up into a 

 public-spirited man who will care for his home, his village, his county, 

 his state, and his country, as a little interest in some garden or some 

 orchard about the house. Look back to your earlier days, and do not the 

 pleasant memories cluster about some plant or tree that grew then? As 

 you look back, is not that true of all of you? You may think you do not 

 care for the tree now; but is it not true, when you think of the old home 

 you think of some tree or plant that was there? I think that is just as 

 true today as it was then, and that immeasurable good will come to the 

 community by a revival of the old interests in the immediate surround- 

 ings, in tree-planting by the roadside and the development of the beauty 

 and homelikencss of the home. If we can have something that will 

 interest the children as they grow up it will develop a love for the imme- 

 diate home, for the tow^n, for the county, for the state, and for the country. 

 It will blot out a great deal of this selfishness, this ruling of trusts and 



