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Show f HORTICULTURE STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY SO-CIETY CONVENTION. ., t The Annual Convention of the Utah State Horticultural Society held in Salt Lake City January 25-26-27, wasp"nc of the most interesting ever held by the Society. A great many valuable papers and reports were presented, pre-sented, and the discussions and ad1 dresses- were splendid. We print the address of President Duffin. 1 mt President's Annual Address. - ' JAMES G. DUFFIN. Since the last annual meeting of the State Horticultural Society we have passed through a harvest, one of the most abundant in the history of our - country. And, though some of the fruit growers may not have received the prices they anticipated in the early part of the season, there has been much to encourage them for the season's seas-on's work. On every hand we sec evidence of better methods in the planting, cultivation, pruning, and ,, spraying of orchards, and in the pick ing and packing of fruit. The general gen-eral tendency has been one of im- provement and progress. We sec in this. -condition the fruits of work that has been done for a number of years, by, the different State organizers and schools, State and County Societies, and by individuals, to develop the horticultural interests of the State. Looking at the situation from every point of view, we see nothing to discourage dis-courage but everything to encourage the further development of the fruit industry of the state. Growth of the Fruit Business. Up to the year 1907 when the State Board of Horticulture was appointed by Gov. Hebtr M. Wells, under the law creating that Board, there had not been shipped out of the State in solid car lots, to exceed ten cars of fresh fruit. During the year 1908 there were shipped more than 1200 qars in addition to the vast quantities sent out by express. By careful calculation, cal-culation, taking the number of acres of trees now in bearing and the number num-ber jOf acres planted' but not in bear--ng,,k is estimated there will" be shipped ship-ped out of- the state within the next few years, at least 5000 cars of fruit annually. When to these estimates is added the product of the large acreage that will be planted every year, one can begin to form an idea of the wondcrfuul future of the fruit industry of our state. Exhibits at Albuquerque. Our exhibit at the Irrigation Congress Con-gress at Albuquerque, New Mexico, scored another triumph, carrying off the great sweepstakes trophy the Hearst Cup. The exhibit made at the Apple Congress, at Council Bluffs, Iowa, in December, though gotten up when material was scarce, was well received, and did) much to bring before the fruit men of the country the horticultural hor-ticultural possibilities of the state. Wc have thought that some means should be provided for securing suitable suit-able fruits while thty arc abundant in the state, to be kept in storage for late fall and winter exhibits at the fruit congresses and other gatherings of those engaged in the growing or distribution of fruits. If this were done and the exhibits made, it would do a vast amount of good in bringing before the fruit dealers of the country coun-try the excellence of the products of our orchards. State Fair. The managementt of the State Fair Association has been generous in its recognition of the horticultural interests inter-ests of the state. In making up the premium lists for the horticultural department, the State Board of Horticulture Hor-ticulture and the State Horticultural Society have been consulted and their recommendations adopted. In making exhibits at the State Fair, we -earnestly recommend, that while artistic displays of fruit should be provided for, the commercial end of fruit growing be emphasized. Commercial Com-mercial exhibits should ibe put up in commercial packages, packed according accord-ing to market requirements, suitable prizes offered to encourage this form of exhibiting. That the commercial package and methods of packing the different varieties of fruit might be more carefully studied by visitors to the Fair, a section of Horticultural Hall should be set off for this class of exhibits. , (Continued on page 12.) WWW 1 miI ' 1 n HORTICULTURAL CONVEN- i TION. (Continued from page 9.) Varieties to Plant The question is often asked: "In setting out a commercial orchard what varieties should I plant?" The answer to this is: "The commercial varieties varie-ties that do best in your particular district " There is one peach the Elbcrta that docs well in nearly all peach belts. This isnot true of apples ap-ples and cherries, for we find by observation ob-servation that some varieties of these fruits do very much better in some districts in the same state than in others, henoe the importance ofniak-ing ofniak-ing a careful study of local conditions affecting the different varieties of these fruits before planting the orchard. or-chard. Distribution. There arc three distinct divisions of the fruit business production, packing and distribution or markct-ing. markct-ing. To get'thc best Ttsults fron'11 his orchard the grower must understand the best methods of handling it and of packing his fruit, and while he 'may not be enabled to attend to the business of placing his fruit on the market, he should understand something some-thing of the methods by which his fruit is placed in the hands of the consumer. He should also kee.p in touch with the crop conditions of the country, also the conditions of the markets. If this were done the grower grow-er would be in a position to protect himself and give intelligent support to those who are marketing his products pro-ducts for him. There should be farmers' organizations organi-zations in every county and district of the state. At the meetings of these organizations conditions affecting affect-ing the welfare of the farmer should be discussed and methods for improvement im-provement adopted. One branch of thcr organizations is for the marketing mar-keting of the farmers product where organizations arc .effected for this purpose, pur-pose, it should be born in mind that the purpose of the organization is to place the product on the market so as to procure the market price, not for the purpose of trying to get cx-horbitant cx-horbitant prices from the dealers. Every business lives by its profits not by its losses. Every dealer js as much entitled to a reasonable profit in handling the farmers product aa the farmer is in producing it. Eyory house that aloses its doors by reason of paying prices during times of excessive ex-cessive competition, 'beyond what the market will standi for, lessens that much the opportunity of the grower to reach the consumer. If these basic bas-ic principles arc kept in view we believe be-lieve farmers organizations will be more successful than some of them have. There is another thing that contributes to the success of these organizations that should not be lightly light-ly passed over. Competent men, interested in-terested in the development of the state shoulld be employed to handle' the business of the associations. Preserving the Fertility of the Soil. It is estimated that $125,000,000 an-nualy an-nualy in the United States, arc lost by waste of manure1. Not one load of this precious material in this state should be allowed to go to waste where, by reasonable expense it can be gotten into the orchard. It is but a matter of a few years when the unfed un-fed orchard will become unprofitable. Not only by the use of stable manure ibut by other methods of fertilizing the soil, should the fruit grower keep up the fertility of his orchardl Experiments Ex-periments conducted by the New Jersey Jer-sey Experiment Station for a period covering ten years, to test the effect of manure, commercial fertilizers, and without manure or commercial fcrti-' fcrti-' lizcrts upon the productivity of peach trees gave the following results: Average yield per acre each year with manure, -1947 baskets Average yield per acre with conv- mercial fertilizers, ....183.4 baskets Average yield per acre without manure or fcctilizcr, 60.3 ibaskcts In the mining camps, large cities, and at some other points in the State along the lines of the railroads, there arc annually vast quantities of manure that goes to waste. We have thought that the railroads could well afford to furnish free cars to the farmers who would take the manure from these places where it is going to waste and place it upon their farms. Think of the enormous tonnage this would give the railroads through increased productiveness pro-ductiveness of the farms and orchards. Insect Pess. Damage to crops in the United States, annually, by insect pests, is estimated at the stupendous 'sum of $700,000,000. A large amount of this loss is borne by the fruit industry. When we consider that a heavy percentage per-centage of the loss can be prevented by judicious spraying, we sec the im- portancc of following up the splendid work of Prof. Ball of our Agricultural College, along this line. Care should be exercised in buying spray material, for in strength of material used, 5s . I well as by the skillful handling of the spray pump, depends the success in tj handling the orchard pests. That I i spraying material shall bo of strength advertised by the manufacturer is of . such importance that it is made the subject of legislation by Congress. j As to the commercial value of thor- f ough spraying, apples from orchards 1 that were thoroughly spraycdi were contracted for at $2.00 and $2.25 per barrel, while there was little demand for the fruit from imperfectly sprayed orchards, and where taken at all, brought only $1.25 to $1.50 'per barrel. By-Products of the Orchard. One of the problems to be solved in this State is how to turn to profit that which goes to waste in the orchard. One cannot ibut be impressed with the vast amount of fruit and other products pro-ducts of the farm that arc allowed to go to waste, and which by proper handling han-dling might be turned to profit. In California, until recently, the .pits of apricots were thrown away. Now they bring from $10.00 to $30.00 per I ton, and are used in the manufacture f of prussic acid. We need more canneries, jelly and jam factories, evaporators, vinegar factories, and such other industries as will turn into commercial products the waste from the farm. Overproduction. Almost from the beginning of time there has been raised the cry of overproduction. over-production. Is there danger of overproduction over-production of fruit? We answer, yes there is always danger of an overproduction over-production of inferior fruit. But who has ever seen any market overstocked with first-class products of any kind. It is an aphorism that there is always "room at the top." Fruit raising follows fol-lows the natural law. But there is a significant fact given us by the United Uni-ted States Department of Agriculture for the decade ending with 1907: In 1895 there were produced in the United States 60,540,000 barrels of apples; ap-ples; in 1896, 69,070,000 barrels. From these dates there has been a gradual decrease in apple production notwithstanding notwith-standing the fact that the West has been increasing in production. In 1906 there were produced 36,130,000 and in 1907, 25,000,000 barrels. This decrease does not come from the i i i |