FORTIETH ANNUAL REPORT. 103 



to give you the thoughts as they come to me. As to varieties, the best 

 early black cherry I think is the Purple Guine. It ripens about the 

 IStli of June — about the first of June with you. There are trees on 

 my father's ])Iace of this variety that were planted in 1868 and also 

 trees of the early Richmond that are fully as old that are still bearing 

 crops. So you see this country is adapted to cherry growing. 



I i>lant these trees about 30 feet a])art each way. Some of you may 

 say that this is too far apart but I would like to know what you are 

 growing cherries for — just for the fun of it? Certainly not. You are 

 growing cherries — if you are growing them at all, for profit and I want, 

 to say th^rt it will pay you to get the very best trees and take proper 

 care of them so 'that when they come into bearing you can get the 

 reputation of having the best fruit, and this means the best price. 



After your trees are set out they must be fed. There are hundreds 

 of acres of fruit Jand that are farmed to death before ever the owner 

 has put on it a bit of fertilizers. You can't grow croi>s continually 

 and not put something back into the soil. In Michigan you must 

 fertilize and the better and more intelligently you do this, the better the 

 returns will be. I would like to know what is the use of raising 25 

 cent potatoes at the expense of |3.00 peaches. I would advise: every 

 young man to plant an orchard. You want an orchard so that you 

 have something on which to depend in later years. 



I have planted the early Purple Guine. It is a quick growing tree 

 yields quite abundantly and is a good, early cherry. For a sweet 

 cherry I like the Eockport. One tree of this is standing on my father's 

 farm that was planted more than forty years ago and it is still a 

 healthy tree and for all I know it will be bearing for 100 years. This 

 cherry, while very early, and a good one is liable to crack in rainy 

 weather and I am not planting any more of them. The next chen\y 

 that comes in line is the Black Tartarian. It is soft and the skin is a 

 little tender, and has to be packed prettA' carefull}-, in order to reach dis- 

 tant markets in good shape. Then we have the Ro3'al Ann and the 

 Napoleon. They are a yellow cherry. We have others in our orchard 

 which I would not advise planting, among them being the Governor 

 Wood. We have the YelloAV Spanish, but while this has some good 

 qualities, it is apt to rot and cracks badh, having a hard skin. The 

 best black cherry is the Schmidt's liiggareau. This is a late cherry- 

 and the largest I have ever grown. We came within one-sixteenth of an 

 inch of having the highest record report at Washington. 



We pack our cherries in 10 lb. California boxes and employ girls for 

 this purpose. These girls many of them have been with us right along 

 for years and they know just how to do the work. We use from fifty 

 to seventy-five and sometimes as high as eighty in the packing house 

 packing these cherries and we have been complimented upon our fine 

 packing. We can pack these cherries just as well as the western people, 

 if we only take pains. A man said to me not long ago, concerning some fine 

 California cherries, "Mr. Rose, do you know that these cherries are 

 all packed by Chinamen?" Well I would like to see any of those almond 

 eyed pig-tailed fellows pack cherries any better than our girls can. 

 These girls will pack a box in 20 minutes. We pay them by the day 

 and then require them to do first class conscientious work. We have 

 found that they do much better work when working by the day rather 

 than by the piece. 



