210 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



must in time produce sterility and consequent poverty. Hence the ques- 

 tion of fertilizing-, after the exhausting crop of '9G, is a matter of vital im- 

 portance. The necessity of using fertilizers of some kind is generally ad- 

 mitted, but opinions differ in regard to the kind. Some would not use barn- 

 yard manure, yet this contains all the elements of plant food. Happily for 

 the peach-grower, the forage plant known as crimson clover tills a long- 

 felt want. ^Yhile it is comparatively inexpensive, it will, I think, if prop- 

 erly managed, prove a veritable blessing to the fruitgrower. Instead of 

 drawing all its plant-food from the soil, as most other crops do, it is 

 claimed to receive most of its nitrogen, -sNiiich is its principal element, 

 from the air. A report was made some time ago in regard to the value 

 of this crop, seeded down in the spring and plowed under in the fall of 

 the same year. This, upon analysis, indicated a value of |18 per acre. 

 The growth of this plant we know is not full and complete until the second 

 summer, in this latitude about the first of June, when it is in full bloom, 

 presenting a beautiful sight, its bright crimson blossoms over-topping 

 the dark-green foliage below. A single root will sometimes support thirty- 

 five and forty well-developed stems. If the young and immature plants, 

 as stated above, are worth $18 per acre, what would a mature crop be 

 worth? Thus, by the addition of potash, in the application of wood ashes, 

 which is a home product, and bone meal, we can restore and build up the 

 fertility of our fruit lands, as well as farm lands in general. 



Another lesson we learned in '96, was that in a year of great plenty and 

 a heavy glut, the buyer becomes the chooser, and nothing but the best 

 seems to satisfy his demands. The demand last year was for yellow- 

 fleshed peaches. For awhile the demand of our buyers on the streets, to 

 fill outside orders, was for "Yellow Crawfords," and almost any large 

 yellow peach would readily sell as a Crawford. I think, everything else 

 being equal, or even unequal, the yellow peach is more in favor than the 

 white. 



The prospect now, in our locality, for a peach crop in '97, is somewhat 

 precarious. While some varieties have some showing of a crop, the greater 

 part have little or none; besides, the curl is more general, it set in earlier 

 than common, and bids fair to continue an indefinite time. This condition 

 of the trees never fails to affect the fruit for the worse. 



So, all in all, the prospect for peaches in our locality, and I think 

 throughout the county of Berrien, is not flattering. 



