66 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



failure the past season, caused, no doubt, by the excessive rains early in 

 the season. 



The same cause seemed to affect the peach crop quite seriously, although 

 a few orchards, both at Lawton and Paw Paw, have borne fair crops. A 

 large portion of our peach crop is sold at home, to buyers who come with 

 teams, frequently from a distance of fifty miles or more. The great obsta- 

 cle in the way of peach culture is yellows. The disease appeared here 

 about fifteen years ago. Persistent determination in destroying infected 

 trees, with the aid of the law, seems to keep the disease in check. The 

 past season, however, yellows has seemed unusually virulent. To repair 

 the damage done to our orchards by yellows it is necessary to set young 

 trees each spring, and the usual number will probably be set. 



At the present time our fruit buds of all kinds, except apples, seem to 

 be in excellent condition for a crop the coming season. 



N. ATWELL. 

 ABOUT ANN ARBOE. 



Ann Arbor is a citv of about 10.000 inhabitants, besides 3,000 non- 

 resident students in its university and high school. It is situated on the 

 Huron river at the intersection of the Toledo and Ann Arbor and the 

 Michigan Central railways, being forty miles from Toledo and nearly the 

 same distance from Detroit. 



Ever since this part of the state was first settled, more than sixty years 

 ago, the clay hills of Washtenaw county have been noted for the excellent 

 quality and the uniformly good yields of wheat which they have produced, 

 the county being for a long time the banner county of the state at the time 

 when Michigan was the leading wheat-producing state in the Union. But 

 changes have taken place in the agricultural conditions of the county. 

 Wheat, though yielding good returns, unsurpassed in quality, is no longer 

 its controlling product. iStock-raising has succeeded grain-growing with 

 many farmers, while others have diversified their products in the direction 

 of horticulture. 



From the time of the earliest settlements the apple has been freely 

 planted throughout the county, and it has proved so successful that at one 

 time this became the leading county in the state in the production of 

 apples. The area devoted to apple orchards in the county is now about 

 12,000 acres yielding a revenue in a favorable season of about $200,000, 

 besides the value of the fruit consumed at home. Within the past ten 

 years, however, almost no new orchards have been planted and many of 

 the older orchards have become neglected and are falling into decay. A few 

 growers give their orchards proper care and receive good returns, but as a 

 whole the apple industry of the county appears to be on the decline and 

 the yield probably does not now equal, either in ({uality or amount, that of 

 some of the newer counties in the western part of the state. The cause of 

 this decline is doubtless chiefly the increasing age of the orchards, 

 together with the fact that many of them do not receive the care necessary 

 to maintain their vigor and productiveness. Consequently, the yield has 

 become more fluctuating, being more dependent upon the character of the 

 seasons. The scab and codlin moth have also apparently become more 

 destructive in recent years, and but few of our growers have yet made any 

 adequate efforts to prevent their ravages. 



About fiteen years ago the bluffs along the Huron river began to attract 



