86 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE SEASON'S OVERPLUS. 



Discussion followed upon the prospective surplus of fruit for the season,, 

 the chief remedies proposed for the anticipated low prices bein^; honest pack- 

 ing, shipment of good fruit onl}', and better distribution of it, together with 

 thinning, even to destraction then of half the existing green fruit. Mr. J. 

 N. Stearns of Kalamazoo, pertinently remarked " that he never saw 

 an overplus of first-quality of fruit. He is now selling 100 quarts per day of 

 strawberries at 12 cents net and 300 quarts at 8 cents, but could sell 800 quarts 

 of the better grade. People will buy more of good fruit than poor. The 

 thinning of apples, pears, and peaches is the way to get good fruit, and 

 when we make that and that only there will be no cry of overproduction." 



Thursday Morning Session. 



President Phillips having appointed the usual committees, Mr. E. W. 

 Branch of Grand Haven read a paper on "The Life of a Fruit Grower." 



Mr. Branch is the Artemas Ward of the society; and whenever he arose to 

 Bpeak, peoj^le began to laugh but had to stop suddenly, sometimes, to think, 

 only to resume laughter again. His paper a- this time, in its opening, prom- 

 ised to concern everything but fruit growing; but after various comicalities 

 he got around to say: "If I were to live my life over again I would be a 

 fruit grower, for the man who has planted a tree or vine, or whose wife has 

 nursed a flower or plant, can esteem himself a prince or a potentate and mon- 

 arch of all he surveys. He can enjoy the sweetest of flowers and 

 the finest of fruits. What better is a king upon his throne? I 

 hope the time will soon come when every lover of fruit culture may 

 sit under his own vine or fruit tree, happy and contented, surrounded 

 by the beauties of nature and the luxuiies of fine fruits. I rejoice 

 that the life of a fruit grower was granted to me. To do the work, however 

 perplexing and fatiguing, has been a pleasure — and more, a perpetual joy — 

 and yet more, an intoxicating delight. Great men, honored and noted, have 

 passed over the river of Time. I imagine them, congenial spirits, camped on 

 the other shore. So you may behold Washington, Lincoln, and Grant. Bat 

 Buch are not the only great men who have gone hence and merit our rever- 

 ence and respect. I may here fittingly mention James Vick, the lover of 

 flowers, and imagine him passing in the paths of Paradise with that veteran 

 fruit giower, Charles Downing. Long may their names be revered and their 

 good deeds be recounted from generation to generation." 



A. S. Dyckman of South Haven, A. C. Glidden of Paw Paw, and Joseph 

 Lannin of South Haven, each spoke of the pleasures and delights of fruit cul- 

 ture and its wholesome influence on both mind and body. 



D. 15. Williams said he had, in thinning peaches, taken in* one season from 

 one tree 12,000 youu;; fruits, and that tree always bore a fine crop. 



From the afternoon's programme was borrowed Mr. A. S. Dyckman'g 

 paper on 



