FARMEES' INSTITUTES. 



65 



from the sale of apples were |52,000, leaving a net profit of about 

 $40,000, a pretty good return for an ordinary farm in Kansas. The 

 number of acres bearing in the foregoing statement were 427. Mr.- 

 Wellhouse also states that he sent 22 carloads of first quality Ben 

 Davis apples to one dealer at one time. This gives a hint of the mag- 

 nitude of some of the commercial orchards; also it is worthy of note 

 that these large orchards usually have but few varieties. 



By the Michigan census of 1884, compared with the farm statistics 

 of 1898-9, we have the following: 



I have singled out Washtenaw county, as it is the one in which we 

 are holding this Round-up. I have grouped Allegan, Berrien and Van 

 Buren together, as they are the three counties used in my comparison 

 of the aj^ple and wheat crops. 



There are about six millions of trees of an age, and mainly in fair 

 condition, to do service for ten years or more. Had these trees re- 

 ceived similar care knd attention for the past two or three years as 

 those in several of the western counties of New York, they would prob- 

 ably have produced the past season double the marketable fruit, and 

 we should have obtained a net of two dollars per barrel <'n the tree, 

 instead of about one dollar. From my observation and experience, and 

 from personal and written information received from many others, i 

 am convinced that there is no other farm or horticultural labor that 

 in the next decade will bring such quick, certain and large profits as the 

 proper care of these trees. By proper care I mean, without neglecting 

 minor details, thorough and intelligent use of the "Big 4," cultivation, 

 fertilization, trimming and spraying. 

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