60 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



WILL IT PAY TO SET APPLE TREES? IF SO, HOW TREAT THEM 



FOR PROFIT? 



HON. C. J. MONROE, SOUTH HAVEN. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — One of the natural and most 

 important productions of Michigan is the apple. It does fairly well 

 in each of the 83 counties of the State, and in most of them, under very 

 ordinary care, has yielded bountifully of apples of fair size, good form, 

 color, and excellent quality. In quality it is generally conceded that 

 Michigan has stood among the first. The wide territory over which 

 the apple is grown, its variety of uses, and its long keeping in 

 a fresh or natural condition, makes it the king of fruits. It brings 

 health as well as wealth, having important dietetic advantages. 



During the past few years frequent mention has been made of the 

 decline in the orchards, the lessening yields, more irregularity in bear- 

 ing, and the great increase of gnarly, wormy, scabby fruit, all tending 

 to degenerate the quality. 



In view of the above, the orchard and its fruit are deserving of more 

 thoughtful attention. 



The fact that a few in our own State, and many in others, notably 

 New York, have produced the old-time quantity and quality, with even 

 more regularity of crops, has emphasized the need of learning their 

 methods and trying to induce the growers generally to apply them to 

 their own orchards. 



I know of no better way to accomplish this than by showing the 

 money side, or that there is a profit in it. 



I appreciate the difficulty of a very exact demonstration. 



W^e have only meager statistics showing cost of land and its prep- 

 aration, its rental value, the trees, the setting, and the after cultiva- 

 tion and trimming; the expense of fighting diseases and insect enemies 

 of tree and fruit, also the cost of fertilizer, if used. The difficulty is 

 further increased by the fact that from five to fifteen years intervene 

 before any returns. In Ihe meantime some farm crops are raised, and 

 no account kept of them. In view of this it has seemed to me I could 

 give a clearer idea of the value of the apple orchards by comparison 

 with the wheat crop. This is chosen, not only because of being a staple 

 crop, but the leading money crop since the settlement of the State. 



In the fall of 1887 I collected the statistics of the fruit crop, includ- 

 ing every sort, raised in the counties of Allegan, Van Buren, and Ber- 

 rien. Values given are those which were realized at the station or dock, 

 as the money paid out in raising, for packages, and in delivery to the 

 station or dock was nearly all within these counties. No account was 

 taken of the home consumption of the 23,000 families, whether used 

 fresh, dried, preserved, in apple butter, jam, jellies, canned, or in any 

 other form of keeping beyond their natural life. The prices given 

 are the average taken from a large number of reports from buyers and 

 sellers in different portions of these counties. 



The report mentioned above is published in the State Horticultural 



