FORTIETH ANNUAL. REPORT. 157 



city man, professional or otherwise, to attempt to personally plant and 

 grow a commiercial orchard withont expert help, is about as hopeless 

 as for the old time farmer to go into Wall Street. 



But as before stated, the business is good — for those who know the 

 game. There are not to exceed sixty orchards of any size in the State 

 of Michigan, north of Grand Rapids, that have had expert care from 

 planting time on. I know nearly all of them, and if there is a single one 

 of the sixty that has not made handsomle returns I don't know where it 

 is, and I do know of many from which returns have been phenomenal. 



I cannot say as much for the district south of Grand Rapids, for, while 

 the Fennville District has had some remarkable crops of apples the big 

 freeze in October, 1905, or 1906 wiped out many good peach orchards and 

 damaged some others. 



On the other hand, I know of hundreds of orchards, many of them in 

 good location and in good soil, in all parts of Michigan, that for lack of 

 proper treatment, have made an actual loss to the ownier. 



Between these two extremes are orchards that have had fair or ordin- 

 ary care. Such orchards have usually averaged a reasonable, though not 

 large, yearly profit to the grower. 



While no man living can at the planting of an orchard look far enough 

 into the future to predict what a given orchard may or may not produce 

 ten years hence, or what prices may be, any one with fair judgment and 

 long experience as a grower can come pretty near telling what a num- 

 ber of orchards under given conditions are likely to do on the average^ 

 in a locality with which he is well acquainted. 



The folloAving sets of figures are presented, therefore, as being an aver- 

 age of what might reasonably be expected under the conditions named 

 in. Western Michigan. 



The first column represents probable results on an average of the or 

 chards which receive expert eare from the first, including selections of 

 the proper location and soil ; the second column represents what might 

 be expected under the usifal average care. Neither column is representa- 

 tive .of the great number of neglected orchards so common in Michigan 

 today. 



It will be noted that the estimates are made covering four periods, 

 the first four years (during which there will be almiost no return except 

 from crops planted between the rows) being the first period; the next 

 three years, which are fair bearing years for cherry and peach trees, but 

 with slight return from apple trees, the second; the next three (during 

 which the cherry and peach should bear heavily and the apples lightly) 

 the third. 



The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth years (being the years during 

 which the peach trees will commence to go backward, and being heavy 

 bearing years for cherry and showing good yields for apples of the right 

 varieties) constitute the fourth period. 



To those unacquainted with the few high class orchards of this section 

 of the state, the figures in the first column will look wrong; the picture 

 of the average uncared for orchard of Michigan is hard to dispel, but to 

 such I would say these figures are not made by guess work, but by taking 

 actual average results for the last few years of a certain number of the 

 good orchards of the section above mentioned ; likewise the second column 



