WINTER MEETING, 18S1. 7 



Messrs. Lyon, Beal and Tracy were elected as such committee, and prepared 

 the following memorial : 



To the Senate and House Committees on Horticulture : 



The American Pomological Societj' is one which for the past thirty-six years has 

 been most influential in moulding and shapinoj the development of fruit culture in 

 cur country, and its biennial meetings have been of great value to pomologists, and 

 through them have excited wide-spread interest among all classes. This society 

 holds its next meeting at Boston, in September next, and efforts are being made to 

 make it an exceptionally large and i)rofitahle one. The State Horticultural Society 

 asks an appropriation of fifteen hundred (1500) dollars, to enable it to make there such 

 an exhibit of the fruits of Michigan as will be creditable to our State and call the 

 attention of future immigrants to its advantages for producing fine fruit. 



REPORT ON LEGISLATION. 



My Lyon, of the committee on legislation, made the following report: 



The committee remark by way of suggestion that we should only look to 

 dryers, whether private or commercial, to consume such fruit as may for any 

 cause be unfitted for handling and sale in the fresh state. That the best and 

 surest remedies for an overcrowded market will be found, first, in growing 

 superior fruit; second, in thoroughly intelligent and careful handling; third, 

 in selecting only the perfect specimens; fourth, in good packing and in good 

 packages; fifth, in such handling and transportation that the fruit shall be 

 laid down in the market sound and free from bruises. Till we shall have mas- 

 tered these requirements there can be little use in seeking foreign or very dis- 

 tant markets. 



The present mode of shipment to Europe, by rail to the sea-board, can never 

 be safe, or on the whole profitable, for the reason that the preliminary railroad 

 conveyance usually induces the condition of injury and incipient decay, which 

 disqualifies it to bear the subsequent stress of water transportation ; the conse- 

 quence being that much of it reaches its destination in a condition unfit for 

 sale or use. 



The only apparent remedy for this difficulty would seem to lie in the estab- 

 lishment of a line of transportation "in the same bottoms," direct from our 

 lake ports to Europe. To attain this object it will be requisite either to secure 

 the enlargement of the Erie canal and the improvement of the capacity of the 

 upper Hudson below Troy, or the increase of the capacity of the Welland and 

 St. Lawrence canals, to in either case enable them to pass a larger class of sea- 

 going vessels. 



The attempt to secure the latter would very probably arouse at least tacit oppo- 

 sition from the entire northern sea-board interest of the United States, espec- 

 ially that of New York, Boston, Portland, and very probably even Philadelphia 

 and Baltimore ; while an effort to secure the former would doubtless be seconded 

 by ISIew York, and quite possibly Boston. 



An effort to secure either object would be quite as much in the interest of 

 mining, lumbering, and agriculture as in that of fruitgrowing. Its success, 

 moreover, is nearly or quite as important to the other northwestern States as to 

 Michigan, and should command their thorough cooperation. 



This is far too important and difficult an undertaking to be attempted by a 

 society like this, or even by a State like ours, singly. Still, Michigan occupies 

 the "key of the situation," and may very properly lead in such effort, and the 

 united efforts of the States commercialy interested could* hardly fail to secure 

 the opening of one, and quite possibly both routes; of which that via New 



