:J48 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



SAUGATQCK AND GANGES POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



OFFICERS FOR 1898. 



President — D. W. Wiley, Douglas. 



Vice-Presidents — Rev. J. F. Taylor of Saugatuck, S. R. Lewis of 

 Ganges, Byron Markham of Laketown, and C. E. Bassett of Manlius. 

 Secretary — C. E. Bassett, Fennville. 

 Treasurer — C. B. Welch, Douglas. 



This society has held meetings the tirst Saturday in each month, with 

 the exception of the months of June, July, August, and September, when 

 the care of the fruit crop made a meeting impossible. The discussions 

 and papers have been of a more or less local nature and a fairly good 

 attendance has been secured. 



The January meeting was held in Douglas. Among those present was 

 Amory Bigelow of Chicago who was invited to read his article on the 

 chemistry of plant foods and fertilizers. His article proved quite exhaust- 

 ive, in the course of which he claimed that barn manure is not all that 

 fruit trees require, but other commercial fertilizers are demanded. He 

 claimed that $500,000,000 represents the annual loss from insect pests 

 annually in the United States. 



The article served to introduce an article, sold by Mr. Bigelow, which is 

 known as the "Oriental fertilizer and insect destroyer" and which he 

 claimed took the place of all spraying solutions with even better results. 

 He also "thought" that the use of this preparation would prevent the 

 yellows. 



President D. W. Wiley then read the following paper on 



WHAT THE FRUITGROWERS NEED. 



"The needs of the fruitgrower are so numerous and the subject covers so wide a field 

 that to even refer to more than a few of them would require more thought and investi- 

 gation than I can devote to the question in a short paper at this time. I will therefore 

 confine what I have to say to one or two of the important needs of the grower here on 

 the lake shore, as they appear to me from past experience. 



In the first place I believe the man that intends to engage in fruit growing as a hvL&x^ 

 ness needs to have a natural taste and love for it if he expects to be able to realize all 

 the benefits to be derived for his calling. If he possesses this he has one of the essen- 

 tial qualifications that will do much in guiding him in all the future details of his work. 

 In the second place, the man that contemplates engaging in peach growing needs to 

 know on the start that to allow deseased trees or trees infected with yellows to remain 

 in his orchard for any considerable length of time is poor management and an 

 objectionable practice and even though he may be prompt in cutting them down it will 

 be sure to result in the loss of his entire orchard sooner or later. He also needs to 

 realize that by this practice he is imposing upon his neighbor's interests and the welfare 

 of all that are engaged in peach culture in the vicinity of his orchard. In localities 

 where the custom of cutting down deseased trees and leaving them in the orchard has 

 prevailed, whole orchards have been lost and thousands of dollars worth of valuable 

 property sacrificed. 



To properly gather, assort and pack fruit and put it up in the proper condition for 

 market needs care and careful management on the part of the grower, in order to be 

 able to realize satisfactory results. The fruitgrower will find the task of securing 

 adequate remuneration for the products of his orchard to be one that will need attention 

 to the correction of conditions in marketing that will be sure to be against his interest. 



While the majority of fruitgrowers take great interest in all the details in fruit 

 culture and delight in being able to produce large crops, which is highly commendable. 



