210 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The fact is, the people of the whole United States have been and 

 are, with few exceptions, growing their fruit in a careless, haphazard 

 way. Many orchards of five hundred trees will have from 50 to 200 

 varieties; while others of from five to ten thousand trees will have but 

 three or four varieties, and of these 75% will be Ben Davis. 



Bat very few orchards are cultivated in the true sense of the term. 

 Grass and weeds are allowed to grow at will, and then fall down and 

 decay on the ground, making a desirable and effective protection for a 

 horde of destructive insects that infest and ruin the orchards and both 

 trees and fruit. The fruit is gathered in every stage from green and 

 half-grown to dead ripe and half-rotten, and in these conditions sent to 

 market. Is it any matter for surprise that fruit in such cojjditions sell 

 for half nothing, or that the growers express surprise that the markets 

 are broken down ? 



Our Legislature wisely passed a law last winter to have a water- 

 melon inspector appointed to prevent the shipment of unripe melons 

 by greedy growers ; and I now suggest the necessity of a similar law 

 and a like appointment to prevent the shipment of unripe fruit. 



I do not wish to reflect upon the intelligence of our fruit-growers. 

 As a class they are intelligent and progressive; but the marvelous 

 growth of our fruit markets and the speculative prices fruit has often 

 sold at within the past 20 years has caused a grand rush for quantity 

 in many cases regardless of quality, crowding the markets with every- 

 thing in the shape of fruit that would sell. 



What shall we do about it 1 Stop planting and discourage this 

 great anu\i"tnportant industry ? By no means. But rather let us follow 

 the example of pro^a-reggive and wide-awake horticulturists. Cut down 

 all old, wornout, used-up ix...<i dilapidated orchards, and plant new ones, 

 with but few varieties, and these^ guch as meet with the demands of the 

 markets of today, mostly of choice, red fruit, desirable always and sal- 

 able everywhere. \.^ 



Then cultivate thoroughly, just lik.^e a gardener, have the surface 

 loose two or three inches deep, and thon^^ughly pulverized. Have low 

 heads with trunks not more than two feei^^^. prune but little; allow no 

 grain, grass or weeds to occupy the grouii^d . cultivate its root crops 

 whilst the orchard is young, and when it is tjQ^e years old cultivate for 

 fruit alone. 



Do not allow the trees to overbear, thin oi.jt t^e fruit by hand-pick- 

 ing. Commence when the fruit is the size of a^, marble. Be careful to 

 first pick out all that is scabby, wormy or ill-shaj^pe(j^ and boil it in water 

 till cooked thouroughly to kill the larvte of th,^ codling moth and all 

 fungus growths. Then thin enough more so yithat the fruit left will 



