70 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I want to say one more thing, while I am up, regarding something I 

 forgot to mention. In this trimming business I believe it is essential to do 

 it before the period of pollination. I believe that is a severe draft on a 

 tree and the work should be driven along, so that it is completed before 

 the bloom opens. It is the same as doing the pruning before the pit 

 forms. 



Q: Would you wait until after the blossom before doing any cul- 

 tivation? 



Mr, Morrill : In future I think I shall start before that, providing the 

 weather is right. Often a man will go on and stir up his land just before 

 a freeze, and suffer very badly from doing so. 



The Chairman: I will announce the committee on credentials of dele- 

 gates to this meeting from the various agricultural societies: Hon. 

 Robert D. Graham, Mr. L. J. Post and Mr. Farnham. 



MARKETING OF PEACHES. 



HON. ROBERT D. GRAHAM, GRAND RAPIDS. 



During the last few years much has been said and written upon the 

 planting, care, and growing of peach orchards, while the question of mar- 

 keting has received little attention, not from a lack of care on the part of 

 the grower, but because there has always been a ready market for all 

 our product at fairly satisfactory prices near at hand. But conditions 

 are changing. The low and unsatisfactory prices obtainable for nearly 

 all farm products, coupled, perhaps, with the large stories told of the 

 great profits in peach growing, have stimulated the planting of a very 

 great number of trees, and our production of this fruit will soon be out 

 of all proportion to the demand, in the territory heretofore tributary to 

 our orchards. It behooves us as growers and shippers to cast about for 

 an extension of our markets. This brings in the all important question 

 of transportation and freight and express tariffs, for it has been demon- 

 strated time and again that we can put our peaches into almost any mar- 

 ket in the United States and Canada, providing rates can be procured 

 which will warrant the shipments. 



A somewhat superficial, though I think a very conservative estimate, 

 discloses the fact that during the past season Michigan shipped to points 

 beyond her borders, in the neighborhood of 2,500,000 bushels of peaches. 

 This vast amount of fruit was distributed largely in the States of Illinois, 

 Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, New York and the Province of 

 Ontario. In the latter place we are finding a good and constantly grow- 

 ing market, notwithstanding the duty of 50 cents per bushel imposed by 

 the Canadian government on imported peaches. This duty, however, 

 costs the Michigan grower just 50 cents per bushel on all fruit shipped, 

 and very seriously curtails the shipment of the poorer grades as the 

 prices obtainable for them will not more than cover expenses. 



