FRUIT REPORTS. 
185 
Davis*, Gravenstein**, Roxbury Russet *, Porter*. Tompkins’ King*, Maiden 
Blush*, Williams Favorite *, Red Astrakhan*, Oldenburg, Duchess of*. The 
above varieties are well known in the market and cover the season. Jacobs 
Sweetf, Mclntoshf, Yellow Transparent! for home use, and Sutton* are 
a few of the promising new sorts. 
4. Cultivation — It is the common practice to cultivate young orchards with 
hoed crops for a number of years and then allow them to remain in sod, but 
no fruit will grow well in grass on high, dry or rocky land, although on rich 
alluvial soil or along the base of hills fair results can be secured without cul- 
tivation’. 
5. Cover Crops — Little attention lias been paid to the use of cover crops 
in orchards for winter protection and the banking of soil around young trees 
is about all the winter protection that is commonly given. 
6. Fertilizers— Stable manure, especially from cattle is desirable on all 
soils and nearly all of our orchard lands need plant food to promote the vig- 
orous growth of the tree and to give better quality to the fruit. Aside from 
stable manure, wood ashes are much used as an orchard fertilizer. 
7. New Varieties — Little reliance is placed upon new kinds, as compara- 
tively few T prove of value. The Jacobs Sweet apple has been known for 
twenty years as a winter sweet variety, and while it is not likely to super- 
sede the older varieties it is a most desirable kind for home use; it originated 
in Medford, Mass. 
8. Insects— Borers in the trunks of apple and peach trees are quite troub- 
lesome, but can be controlled by frequent examination. The tent caterpillar 
and codling moth do much harm to the foliage and fruit if not sprayed with 
arsenites. Diseases— Black knot on the plum and the yellows on the peach 
are the most troublesome diseases of those fruits, and the only remedies are 
the prompt digging of the peach trees and cutting off diseased branches from 
the plum trees and burning them. Peach yellows will often appear in trees 
that are half a mile from the infected orchards. 
9. Irrigation — The artificial use of water is but little resorted to except for 
small fruit plantations. 
11. Evaporation— Little attention is paid to the commercial evaporation or 
canning of fruit. 
12. Winter Injury — Few complaints have been made of the winter killing 
of the larger fruits except peaches, which have suffered considerably in some 
orchards, but where the trees have been cut back to uninjured wood and 
have received good cultivation a vigorous growth has been sent out and they 
have apparently recovered. All apple and pear trees are considered hardy 
and give profitable results, but grape culture is seldom remunerative on 
account of the low prices that can be secured, owing largely to the fact tnat 
better grapes, put up in inviting packages are brought in from other states. 
MICHIGAN. 
BY CHAS. W. GARFIELD, GRAND RAPIDS, CHAIRMAN. 
My report to the committee on catalogue dealt with varieties quite exten- 
sively so that this statement from Michigan will touch briefly other phases 
of Michigan Pomology. 
24 
