116 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Some use cover crops and commercial fertilizer. I am doing tins. Just 

 at present I am paying $16.70 a ton for sheep manure from Aurora, 111. 

 Will it pay to ship in stable manure to this territory. It is my judg- 

 ment that it will. In this connection there is one thing that I want to 

 raise my voice against, and that is cropping the little orchard. Don't 

 do it at all. If you are going to grow fruit, then grow fruit or get 

 out of the business and get a job in town. 



A Voice — Were any of your trees affected by cold weather Jast year? 



Mr. Rose — We lost no trees by the freeze, but there was considerable 

 frost. These trees are not Michigan trees, but are from 



A Member — What about thinning peaches? 



Mr. Rose — I was about to speak of that. Many do not thin near 

 thorough enough. I took four trees this 3'ear, two on each side, Wealthy 

 apple, and pulled off three-fourths of the fruit on two of them, and 

 the other two were not thinned at all, and when the apples were gathered 

 in the fall, and it was found that the apples from the trees not thinned, 

 amount to little or nothing, are not marketable, while those that were 

 thinned have on them a good crop. This is due wholly to the thinning. 

 I am convinced that if we would think more we would get better and 

 more satisfactory fruit. 



A Voice — Would you thin an old Baldwin tree? 



Mr. Rose — I would thin any tree, if I wanted'to get good fruit. The 

 greatest problem we have in our territory in Michigan, is the slack 

 grower. He is damaging us. He sells apples that are poor, and they 

 go onto the market and peddlers buy them, and sell them out. You 

 say that this does not interfere with the sale of good fruit, but it does. 

 The question we are up against is, how are we going to get these fellows 

 who do not grow good fruit, and who do not attend this meeting, to 

 do as they should do? We have men in our neighborhood who have be- 

 come bankrupt growing fruit. Then there are others who are growing 

 rich following the same pursuit. One does thorough work, attends to 

 little details of business — the others spend every Saturday in town— 

 and I want to say right here, that if this Saturday was put in on his 

 work, his orchard would have looked better, and you would not find 

 him down in the town looking for a job in an automobile factory, as 

 he is now. 



Then comes in the marketing of fruit. The large grower is not de- 

 pendent on an association, for he is in a class all by himself. A great 

 many people have built up a market, and they are doing fairly well. 

 Still, it is a problem, I cannot answer. What experience I have had 

 with associations in the west has been fairly satisfactory, but in gen- 

 eral, I do not like the association idea. Some of them are holding back 

 while others want to go ahead. If we could get in a location where there 

 is a body of men together like those of Northport, where they will work 

 together, I am sure it will be better for them than to work separately. 

 I think the better way is to have a packer go to the fields and pack the 

 fruit. 



Then there is the western and southern competition. We all know 

 what this is. They put into the little towns all over these cars of fruit 

 and they are so thoroughly distributed that the market is very well 

 supplied with Georgia, Arkansas, and Texas peaches. They were 

 quoted to them and delivered to them this year on track at $1.25 to 



