FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 105 



for at least twenty-five or thirty years, perhaps longer. Then I want 

 that location should be where the trees will be as immune from frost as 

 possible. Then you recall the question came up yesterday as to whether 

 a fair location close to a railroad or a good location considerably back 

 would be the one you would choose. My advice would be emphatically 

 to take the location back, because if you have not got the fruit you can 

 not market it. If you do have it and it is not back too far, you can 

 get it to market. The vital thing is to get the stuff; the rest you can 

 take care of. 



One thing that has knocked, as a horticultural state as much or 

 more than anything else is the advertising and exploiting and selling 

 of lands by real-estate men for fruit culture that are entirely unsuited 

 for that purpose. Michigan is the grand old state for fruit — no ques- 

 tion about it — I don't mean that every inch of land in Michigan will 

 raise peaches. There is only a very limited area that is really good 

 peach land. I honestly don't believe that there is over one acre in a 

 hundred that is exploited or sold for good peach land that is even half 

 way fair, and especially the more tender fruits, such as peaches, and 

 the one great orchards in unsuitable locations. 



If yon are going to build a good house, the most important thing 

 would be to put it on a firm foundation so that it would not be de- 

 stroyed by the elements or blown down in time of a storm. So it is 

 with the orchard, put it on a firm foundation, and then it will give 

 you paying crops for twenty years or thirty years. I have seen peach 

 orchards forty years old in Northern California, still in a thrifty con- 

 dition. 



Another important thing is the setting of the trees. Some make the 

 mistake of getting the trees in the ground wrong. That is possible, 

 especially on rolling ground. You may get them in deep enough. A 

 peach tree should be put in, even on level ground, two inches below the 

 surface, and on side hills it should be six or eight inches. It is safe 

 to put them in deep. More trees are lost by being planted too shallow 

 than too deep. 



As to the distance apart, our own orchard is planted twenty feet 

 each way. If I had the thing to do over again, I would plant at least 

 25 feet one way. 



As to the growing a crop between the trees, there is quite a diversity 

 of opinion. Many advocate in our farm papers that the land should be 

 first cropped for two or three years to get it in a condition for setting 

 the trees; but my personal observation has been that in most of our 

 soils in Michigan, the ground is none too good at its best — there may 

 be here and there a spot that is very rich that it would be a good 

 policy to crop it, but in nine cases out of ten, the thing to do is to 

 put in fertilizer and give the tree a good start. But if you have laud 

 that will grow 100 bushels of corn or 200 bushels of potatoes to the 

 acre, it will pay to put in a crop two or three years. 



As to cultivation I presume we are considered as sort of a crank, 

 but we do a lot of cultivation and we start it early. It should be 

 st ;iited about the time the buds begin to swell and the growth starts, 

 and stop early. Late cultivation has ruined many a prospect for the 

 coming year, and perhaps for coming years, by making too spongy 



