FORTIETH ANNUAL REPORT. 135 



By referring to the reports of this Society of the eai'ly 80's one can 

 find questions of the following nature: ''What can I do to prevent my 

 peaches from Scabbing? How can I keep my phims from rotting," and 

 so on. One can see from these that this was the beginning of a period 

 of improvement along the line of horticulture. Growers were beginning 

 to awaken to the fact that it was highly necessan- to use fungicid{ s and 

 insecticides if success was to be had, an idea which has been spreading 

 ever since. But although growers were awakened to this fact, they 

 did not possess an accurate knowledge of the habits of the diseases 

 and insects which caused the destniction of their crops. Likewise today 

 growers are deficient in knowledge along the lines, although they 

 do realize and know that protection is necessary. But after realizing 

 the necessity of these fungicides and insecticides, the questions which 

 naturally follow are: How, when and where are these remedies to be 

 applied? In order to answer these questions, the grower must be 

 jjerfectly familiar with the habits of the diseases and insects which 

 he has to combat. As Dr. Freeman of ]\Iinn. says, ''Often when cure 

 is impossible, an intelligent understanding of the conditions and effects 

 of a disease will often aid in its prevention." So the possession of an 

 accurate knowledge of plant diseases and their causes is not only of 

 a commercial value to the fruit grower both in cure and prevention 

 but also in making him an intelligent observer. The advantage of such 

 a condition amongst fruit growers would far surpass the "hit or miss" 

 method which is practiced so much today. A grower may know all 

 about fungicides and insecticides, but if he does not know how, when 

 and where to ap])ly them, his knowledge is worthless. Why is it that 

 a certain fruit grower up near Ionia received $50,000 for one crop of 

 apples off a forty acre Spy orchard? Why is it that another man near 

 Traverse City received |2,000 from a five acre plot and why is it that 

 our Uncle David Woodard succeeds as he does? Wliy do all these 

 growers succeed while others in their immediate neighborhood, fail? 

 It is simply because these successful growers hav^e an accurate knowledge 

 of the habits of their enemies and consequently know how to combat 

 them in an intelligent and businesslike way; in other words they know 

 their business. 



As jvas stated before, the possession of an accurate knowledge of the 

 habits of iilant diseases and insects makes a man an intelligent observer; 

 he knows how, when and where to look for his enemies in this plant 

 and insect world. Therefore, in fact, it is the intelligent, observant 

 man who excells in fruit production. 



SOIL FERTILITY AND BACTERIA. 



BY AROA ITANO. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: My subject is soil fertility and bacteria. I 

 wonder if you people ever heard of this great discovery of soil bacteria 

 i^garding the soil fertility. The fact is this: Supposing that you have 

 here plots A and B. They are equal in the size aud quality of soil and 



