.34:4 ANNUAL REPORT. 



vive make very poor returns. Such soils should be always 

 avoided for orchard purposes. 



"Some orchards, I have observed, that make a good annual 

 growth and bear full crops of fruit, are pastured very close with 

 hogs or sheep, and by pastured very close I mean kept constantly 

 gnawed down to near the surface of the ground. A lai-ge pro- 

 portion of the codling moth is destroyed, and trees are not sapped 

 by the evaporation that a rank growth of long grass produces. 

 Other successful orchards are cropped with a rotation of crops 

 the same as other j)arts of the farm, and by judicious fertilizing 

 are kept in good thrifty bearing condition. There is every en- 

 couragement for the careful grower to plant young orchards. 

 Nearly all the old, neglected orchards are going to decay, and 

 will soon be gone, while the young trees of the best and most 

 popular varieties are doing well. 



"The grape succeeds admirably except in an occasional sea- 

 son when frost destroys the croj). The Concord is sometimes 

 troubled with the rot, but is usually very healthy. The Delaware, 

 the Wilder, the Worden, the Brighton, and many other varieties 

 are quite uniformly successful. The vineyards are kept well 

 cultivated, and the vines trained upon wire trellis, of from one 

 to three wires. Where a single wire is used the vines are trained 

 with a single horizontal arm three and a half feet from the 

 ground. Where more than one vine is used, the amount of new 

 wood left for the production of fruit is in proportion to the vigor 

 of the vines. If very strong in their growth, from four to six 

 canes are left with from twelve to twenty eyes each. The fruit 

 is usually marketed in baskets holding from fifteen to twenty 

 pounds each. In good seasons it can be grown at a profit as low 

 as three cents per pound." 



A correspondent writing from Ottawa County, says : 



" Lands are not exceedinaly high. Improved places, fairly 

 stocked with fruit, can be obtained for seventy-five to one hun- 

 dred dollars per acre, and wild lands, some distance from market, 

 can be purchased very cheaply. As to profits, one man grew 

 5,000 quarts of strawberries on less than an acre of land, for 

 which he received five hundred dollars; 1,700 quarts were har- 

 vested at one x)icking. Another man clears about $2,000 a year 

 on a small fruit farm near Grand Haven." 



