FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 79 



of time and means. In regard to cultivation, we have implements that 

 will do the same amount of work in much less time and more saTisfactory. 

 The fruit grower of today has all of the advantages of the horticultural 

 societies and the Experiment Stations, bulletins from the Agricultural 

 College treating upon all subjects pertaining to horticulture, at his hand 

 free of charge. 



The fruit grower of today finds that fruit growing is not an experiment 

 but an established industry. He has information at hand to select varie- 

 ties from, suited to his particular locality and soils. The package fac- 

 tories are giving us more sizable and smoother packages for less money 

 than formerly and hope to see more improvement in that line in the 

 future. We have better shipping facilities at present than formerly, 

 trains run on faster time, full cars with open packages giving the com- 

 mission houses the advantage of moving the crop faster and arriving at 

 its destination in better condition. 



Some will ask, what are the prospects of fruit growing in the future? is 

 it not being overdone? We find that the commercial fruit growers had 

 the same question to answer in the first ten years of experience the fruit 

 grower had in this State. We can only judge of the future by the past, 

 we know that we are setting five trees today where we set one five years 

 ago, with n. larger per cent to set the coming spring. The profits of 

 fruit growing in the future depend largely on the amount of brain work 

 that is put into the, business. The business must be carefully attended 

 to in all of its details. 



Plow deep first, fit your ground well, set early and a little deeper than 

 the tree was raised in the nursery. I think it will do to plant corn or 

 some home crop on the ground the first year's setting, after that should 

 prefer letting the trees have their full swing. Cultivate often until the 

 first of or not later than the middle of July. 



It would be well before pruning to go to some of the leading fruit 

 orchards, examine their new orchards, see if the heads are start(!d two 

 and one-half or three feet from the ground, well headed in and thinned 

 out, giving a chance for fruiting near the body of the tree, or whether 

 they are trimmed in the old slipshod way of simply cutting out the dead 

 wood. The same will apply to the plum and pear. 



Q: I think it might be well to secure, and I would ask these gentlemen 

 to give us, a few of the varieties that they know to be more hardy than 

 others, that we may know what to use in the interior of the State; we 

 are not in the belt, though this year we got a large crop. But we would 

 like to get something in there that we can have choice fruit from. 



Mr. Morrill: I can give what my experience has shown to be good. I 

 would not commence with any of the early varieties, although they are 

 hardy. I would commence with the Lewis or Early Michigan, which are 

 practically identical. The Lewis or Lewis Seedling or Early Michigan — 

 either one. You want strictly hardy varieties. Then there would be a 

 little break there. The Old Barnard is quite hardy, then comes the Kala- 

 mazoo, a Michigan production, and Snow's Orange. There is the Gold 

 Drop, the Crosby, and the Elberta, which latter is perhaps not quite as 

 hardy; my opinion is that it is not. There is a new peach coming out, the 

 Fitzgerald, which will probably prove to be all right. There are numer- 

 ous other varieties just below these. 



