366 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Answering to a call, G. U. Siple of Hamilton said his brother and himself 

 had 3,000 bearing peach trees, and this season a full crop. Some hardy sorts, 

 such as Amsden, Waterloo, and Chili, bear every year, but for most kinds he 

 thought the region unfavorable. 



Mr. LaFleur: If peaches do not succeed here with such cultivation as the 

 Messrs. Siple give, it is evident that they can not now be raised. But the 

 blackberry (Snyder especially) will do well, as will other small fruits, includ- 

 ing currants and gooseberries. Probably, too, the Russian apricot will suc- 

 ceed (I shall set 400 next spring), as it is hardy in the extreme temperatures 

 of the west. Grapes will be profitable, certainly, for they have already been 

 tested by Mr. Taylor. Several good sorts have been mentioned, the Niagara 

 especially. A Milwaukee commission man said he could have sold tons of 

 them last fall at a shilling per pound had they been obtainable. They can be 

 kept three months and then placed on the market. Apples, also, will pay, 

 and must not be neglected. I would rather have ten acres of Baldwin apples 

 than ten acres of peaches, for profit year by year, and they will last longer. 

 The Baldwin will do well on light soil. Do not plant too many kinds. I 

 would not set more than six sorts of apple if I were required to cover the 

 whole county, and then only three for the most part. My preferred sorts are 

 Baldwin, Stark (none better than this), Spy, Jouathau. I would set as stocks 

 upon which to graft these, Talman Sweet, Astrachau. Spy, Duchess, and Ben 

 Davis. 



Mr. Andruss: Astrachan is the best stock I ever grafted into. 



Mr. LaFleur: I do not dispute you. At the east men pay Sl.OOO per 

 acre for laud upon which to grow grape?, because it is near good markets. 

 Here we are close to the best of markets, and all this cheap land will produce 

 some sort of fruit at a profit. 



Several speakers, in course of their remarks, commended very highly the 

 Allegan Gazette as a horticultural paper of most excellent quality, Mr. Phil- 

 lips going so far as to declare it the best one in the whole country, for 

 Michigan fruit growers, because it contains the experience, opinions, and 

 practice of Michigan pomologists, which necessarily are peculiar to them- 

 selves and obtainable in no other publication. 



