422 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



On this ride I was seated beside J. H. Hale's son, who has charge 

 and management of their Georgia peach orchard of three hundred 

 thousand trees. I learned from him that this orchard is given 

 thorough and clean cultivation and, at the proper time, is system- 

 atically pruned and sprayed. When the fruit is the size of a hazel 

 nut, it is thinned, leaving them four to six inches apart, and the 

 trees are regularly jarred, dropping the curculios on to sheets made 

 especially for this purpose. The curculios are then destroyed. The 

 fruit is carefully picked and carried to the tables and assorted into 

 three grades, wrapped in tissue paper and packed in baskets, six 

 of which are put in a crate ready for shipment. 



He gave me a good illustration about thinning and pruning the 

 fruit. A noted peach grower was visiting their grounds and noting 

 their methods said, "If you were working for me and should butcher 

 and thin my peach trees as you have your father's trees, I would 

 discharge you." At time of picking and packing the same man 

 made another visit to the orchard and seeing the trees loaded with 

 fine, large specimens of fruit, patted young Hale on the shoulder 

 saying, "Young man, you are all right and know your business ; 

 I wouldn't turn you off now." 



Luther Burbank, in an address before the California Fruit Grow- 

 ers' Convention said, "With the world as a market, competition is 

 keen, and only the best fruits in the best condition will pay ; fortu- 

 nately it generally costs much less per ton to produce large, first- 

 class fruit than to produce the poorest and meanest specimens that 

 are ever offered. Small fruit exhausts the tree much more rapidly 

 than large fruit, as one pound of skin, stones and seeds represent 

 at least ten or twelve pounds of fruit pulp. It will thus readily 

 be seen that improved varieties which produce uniformly large, fine 

 fruit are more economical manufacturers of fruit, and also that 

 the product is more salable ; the difference in many cases will decide 

 between success and failure." 



T must not end this report without mentioning several exhibits 

 of peaches and pears that were of great interest to those situated 

 where these products flourish. The thirty-six plates of Americana 

 plums, from Wisconsin, contained some of the best of the cultivated 

 varieties and several seedlings originated by the late Prof. E. S. 

 Goff, which are valuable improvements to this fine fruit so well 

 adapted to the Northwest. The exhibition of apples from Canada 

 was very fine, of high color and valuable as commercial varieties. 



One thing I learned which may be well for our fruit growers 

 to recognize, that the finest colored fruits are, as a rule, produced 



