112 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the different topics before the meeting with much interest. Gov. Alger was 

 present and made an able address, after which the convention adjourned and 

 gave a hearty reception to Gov. and Mrs. Alger. This meeting closed with 

 deep interest, and will long be remembered by those present. 



And now, nearly at the close of the present year, we meet in council at this, 

 our annual meeting, to sum up the results of our year's work and also to dis- 

 cuss topics calculated to educate us to a higher standard of fruit culture. 



As regards the quantity of fruit raised within the territory of this Society 

 during the past year, we have no reason to complain. Small fruits have yielded 

 abundandantly. The crop of apples, peaches, pears, and grapes, has been 

 very great. Thousands of barrels of apples and millions of baskets of the 

 smaller fruits have been shipped to Chicago, Milwaukee, and to many of the 

 leading cities of the great northwest, thereby strengthening the position al- 

 ready assumed by western Michigan, viz: The producing and marketing 

 emporium of native fruits in northern America. As regards the prices received, 

 they have been only fair — not so good a return for labor and capital invested 

 as in some former years ; not as much as, in my opinion, would be received 

 under a more complete distribution of fruits over the territory looking to us 

 for their supplies. When we look upon fruit growing from a commercial 

 standpoint, I do consider, in order to make it a success, that one of the most 

 important problems that we must solve in the near future is, how to distribute 

 our fruit products more perfectly — how to reach more markets. This involves 

 the questions of handling and marketing, as well as a complete system of dis- 

 tribution. In this year of great abundance of fruit, especially in western 

 Michigan, there has not been so much grown but that, if it had been properly 

 distributed in the markets of the great west, prices would have been realized 

 that would give the producer fair profits. But our system of distribution is 

 so defective that it leaves one-half of the families in tlie states lying west of 

 us, where fruit is not grown to any gret extent, without any fruit at all. When 

 the time arrives that apples, pears, peaches, grapes, and all the small fruits, 

 find their way into every farm house and laborer's cottage all over the great 

 west, and to each miner's cabin among the mountains, to all the new homes 

 being built on the wide plains, then, and not till then, will we receive the high- 

 est prices obtainable for our surplus fruits. In view of this, let us at this 

 meeting awake to the great interests involved in this matter. With this end 

 in view, I w.)uld recommend that this Society take action at this meeting rel- 

 ative to developing a plan or system whereby our fruits going into market 

 may be more evenly distributed all over the large territory looking to us for its 

 fruit supplies. 



And now, after summing up the results of the past year to some extent, 

 and also having called your attention to the points already referred to, for a 

 few moments let us consider the importance of the social and educational 

 advantages of our Society. We need these regular meetings for mutual 

 encouragement. It is well to have this interchange of practical experiences, 

 and thus be enabled to instruct and encourage each other. It is also good for 

 us to have this social inspiring communion of thought, that we may learn 

 new ways and means that will enable us to rise higher and higher, to a more 

 complete standard of fruit culture ; and also, as we come together from time 

 to time, or in everyday practical life, let our intercourse be of that high, genial 

 character that our hearts may be drawn nearer together and that we may feel 

 day by day a marked sympathy for each other in the struggles of a practical 

 life. 



