78 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



peaches. Clay is a stronger soil and the trees will bear a larger crop with- 

 out injuring them and the trees are longer lived. Possibly there may be 

 a difference in early maturity, in color, or in quality in favor of one of 

 these soils. The growers in the peach belt are near the lake ports or they 

 have facilities for cheap shipment by rail to the big city markets. These 

 advantages most of the interior orchardists cannot have and though the 

 site may be all that is desired in other ways its nearness to some market 

 is a very important point. It is surprising what a large amount of fruit 

 a small place can be made to take if it be put before the people in the 

 proper shape. If the market place be a small one, do not commence on 

 a large scale. The aim of the peach grower around the interior towns 

 should be to create a demand by growing the best fruit possible, put it 

 before the people in the best shape he can, and then keep a little ahead of 

 the demand. 



THPJRE ARE SOME ADVANTAGES / 



The peach grower in the interior has over the big grower on the lake 

 shore. Although his market may not be so large, yet for a limited 

 amount of fruit, it is a better one. The prices may not go so high as they 

 sometimes do in the large markets, but they do not go so low, and take 

 it through the season better rates will be received. His fruit does not 

 have so far to go to market and can be left on the trees until fully ripe 

 and then when taken to town is fresher and looks better than peaches 

 shipped from a distance. We can always sell our peaches on the Lansing 

 market for from 20 cents to 50 cents more per bushel than the shipped 

 peaches will bring. People come from the city and surrounding country 

 in buggies and wagons and take all the lower grades and culls, and but 

 little fruit is wasted. We have no freight or express to pay, which is 

 quite an item. 



The care and cultivation of an orchard in the interior of the State 

 should differ but little from that given one on the lake shore. Possibly 

 our orchards do not need so close pruning or as much thinning of fruit. 

 An occasional low drop in temperature or a late frost gives the trees a 

 resting spell, and they can bear larger crops when they do have them. In 

 the selection of varieties the interior grower should aim to have a com- 

 plete succession of fruit from the earliest to the latest, and so keep his 

 market supplied. I am sure that there are very many sections in the 

 interior of the State of more or less area well suited to the growing of 

 the peach, and that that industry could profitably be increased. 



DISCUSSION. 

 LED BY H. O. BRAMIN, GRAND RAPIDS. 



What are the prospects of the fruit growers of today compared with 

 the past? The commercial fruit grower has had many disadvantages 

 to contend with. He had to understand what constituted a first class 

 location, and the varieties that would succeed in his particular locality. 

 He had not those advantages at hand to fight the insects and diseases 

 that we have today, consequently had to try experiments at a great loss 



