86 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The report of the Superintendent of the Upper Peninsula Experiment 

 Station shows that while good work has been done in demonstrating the 

 adaptability of certain cereals to Upper Peninsula conditions, still the small 

 area of cleared land limits not only the number of experiments which can 

 be undertaken but their efficiency as well. It is demonstrated annually 

 that until the cleared area shall be increased to at least 60 acres no definite 

 experiments of permanent value on cultural methods can be imdertaken. 

 I am glad to report that at the close of the year the state legislature has 

 appropriated the sum of S9,000 to add to the equipment of the station and 

 to clear and drain more land. The present plans include the proposition 

 to cut off the timber from the next forty west of the present cleared area 

 and to put in necessary drains, to add live stock and live stock experiments 

 to the present equipment and to enlarge the present barn and house room. 

 No conspicuous results are to be recorded for the work of last season. The 

 practice of planting potatoes in the fall still continues with unvarying good 

 success. All root crops do well in the central section of the Upper Pen- 

 insula and fall wheat is to be recommended in every respect save that the 

 harvests come at a season of the year when wet weather is certain. Oat» 

 succeed most admirably giving a good yield of grain with stiff straw. The 

 early varieties only are to be recommended since rust is always present. 

 As a grain crop for feeding swine or' even for horse feeding, barley is used 

 wherever corn finds a place in the ration of the live stock of the farmer of 

 southern Michigan. 



As to the garden vegetables the broad statement may be truthfully made 

 that all of them that are successfully grown in the central part of the south- 

 ern peninsula succeed at Chatham with the exception of sweet corn and 

 tomatoes, which do not mature in this latitude, far enough to warrant at- 

 tempts at their growth. The orchards, although growing thriftily, are 

 threatened by the annual excessive snowfall which, on the level, amounts 

 to at least four feet at some season of the winter. This snow drifts in the 

 orchards breaking down the limbs from the trees which must be headed 

 low to prevent injury to the south side of the trunks by the bright sunshine 

 on the crust of the midwinter snow. Of the apple trees seven varieties 

 have borne fruit the past year, all Russians. There is a good promise of 

 successful apple culture in central northern ^Michigan to supply the imme- 

 diate needs of the markets during the fall. The winter sorts will necessarily 

 be imported from some more favored section. The cherries are not doing 

 well. It was assumed that sour cherries would be a certain crop but a 

 disease of unknown origin and unknown character has seized upon the 

 roots and the base of the trunk of many of the cherry trees and their lives 

 even are threatened. Plums have also suffered from diseases peculiar to 

 that northern climate. The present experiments do not indicate that these 

 two sorts of stone fruits are to play an important part in the fruit supply 

 of the upper peninsula. Late sour cherries are produced in some consider- 

 able quantity about Marquette and it is hoped to secure trees that will 

 withstand the rigors of the winter and will live to produce paying crops 

 for many years. 



The strawberry has succeeded at the station against all sorts of adverse 

 conditions. Late frosts have caught them while in bloom and later when 

 the fruit is fully formed, yet the yields have been surprisingly large. The 

 aim is to secure late varieties which shall come into the market after the 

 supplies from southern Michigan have been exhausted. 



