.22 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



kinds. The three apples most grown here for sale are natives of 

 Massachusetts. He holds as an axiom that varieties of fruits 

 most profitably grown for market succeed best in the places where 

 they originate. Alluding to the Concord grape, he said he was 

 convinced that this improvement upon the wild grape came from a 

 native. No grape crossed with foreign varieties is desh'able for 

 market purposes. The Concord is almost as reliable as any other 

 fruit, except when the season is very backward. The Wordeu is 

 somewhat earlier and is more popular. There is one advantage in 

 growing new small fruits in that they can be tested sooner. 



Professor L. R. Taft, Horticulturist at the Michigan Agricul- 

 tural College, expressed great pleasure at being present at this 

 meeting. He was very glad to hear from Professor Van Deman 

 how well the work of the Department is being amplified in all 

 directions, and that the Division of Pomology is making such 

 progi-ess, especially in fruits for the different climates of the 

 United States. Through these efforts he hoped some new varieties 

 would be found that would prove valuable for Northern Michigan. 

 His state, he said, is an empire in itself, extending five hundred 

 miles from its southeast extremity to its northwest, and it is a 

 hard matter to find fruits suited to all its phases of soil and 

 climate. While the common standard varieties succeed admirably 

 in the southern half of the state, and in almost any section border- 

 ing on the lakes, ironclad sorts are needed for the northern penin- 

 sula, and for some fifteen counties in the southern. 



The Michigan Agricultural College has been testing fruits of 

 various kinds, and has found some Russian apples which are 

 •certainly hardy and are said to be productive and to furnish 

 fruit of large size and high quality. These tests were made at 

 various sub-stations in northern Michigan, the principal one being 

 -at Grayling, Crawford County, where some fifty varieties of 

 apples, besides pears, plums, and cherries have been planted. At 

 the College they have just planted an experimental orchard of five 

 hundred varieties of apples, pears, plums, cherries, and peaches, 

 and there are very complete collections of the newer varieties of 

 small fruits. In addition to a number of sub-stations in southern 

 Michigan, the station has at South Haven what is known as the 

 Lake Shore suit-station, conducted by T. T. Lyon, President of th-e 

 Michigan State Horticultural Societ}', and a special agent of the 

 Division of Poniolou^v. 



