The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1905-03-03

and profitable varieties OF fruit to
grow; the exercise of better judgment
as TO favorable location; better and
more thorough cultivation and en-
riching of the soil; more general and
intelligent use of the spray pump; in
short, less haphazard guess work and
more brains. The man, for instance,
who sets his peach orchard in a hol-
low, as | have known people 10 do,
need not expect to harvest enough
fruit 10 pay him for his time and ex-
penses and his trees will be quite apt
to be all dead before, or at least soon
after, they arrive at a bearing age.
And the man who plants an orchard
or a vineyard and then lets it alone,
leaving it without manuring or cult
walton, as many have done and are
still doing, is simply wasting his
money, and might just as we'll throw
it into the fire and so save himself the
trouble and labor of planting his vines
and trees.
The man who plants vineyard on
low, cold ground may, in the most
favorable of seasons, harvest crop,
but he would have done much better
to sell his low land for what he could
get and purchase a more favora bic To-
cation, even if smaller in area.
And the day has long gone by when
fruit can be successfully grown in
Michigan without the liberal and in
telligent use of the spray pump. Yes,
its compulsory use, if compulsion
need be to compel a man to do that
which is not only for the protection of
his neighbors, but for his own saliva
ton. Year after year, have seen
apple orchards III this county, a
county that prides itself upon being
one of the greatest and best of the
fruit growing counties of the state,
completely denuded of their foliage
by the canker worm, if that be the
right name, (they are cantankerous
at any rate), and looking as though a
fire had run through them; and all on
account of the negligence of their
owners, who not only permitted their
own orchards to be thus destroyed, but
bred an army of insect pests TO prey
upon their more sensible and ener-
getic neighbors. Such men should be
compelled TO do one Of two things,
either 10 give their trees thorough
and timely spraying or TO cut them
down and burn them. The price of
good fruit, like the price of liberty, is
eternal vigilance. BY all means,
brother fruitgrowers, let us spray.
We also need relief from corporate
oppression and we need it badly. Be
tween the oppressive and unjust
transportation rates eXacted by the
railroads and private car companies,
the fruitgrower is we'll nigh ground TO
powder between the upper and neither
millstones. J. Ogden Armour, the
head of the most oppressive and info
uitous trust in the world. not except
ing Standard Oil, Consolidated Steel
or Amalgamated Copper, levies trib-
ute on every meal of victuals eaten in
the civilized world and on every pack
age of fruit sold outside of the grow
er's own little retail market Rail
road rebates, disguised of course, to
the large shippers and exorbitant and
outrageous charges for icing by Ar
nour, who has entered into an unholy,
iron-clad combine with the railroads
of the country TO haul none but Ar
mour refrigerators, leaves but small
profit TO the producer. You all know
how Armour has held us up in the
matter of icing charges. And you al
so know how we appealed to the inter
state commerce commission for relief,
and that the commission found that
the charges were unreasonable and
unlawful. But what cared the trust
for such finding? The illegal charges
continued just the same, because the
commission is powerless to enforce
its DEGREES.
This is an anomaly in American
Jurisprudence. Here we have a court,
for it is court, created for the ex-
press purpose of redressing specific
injuries, and yet absolutely powerless
to give force and effect TO its decis-
ions. In any other case, when man
brings suit in an inferior court and
obtains judgment in his favor, such
Judgment stands and becomes of inn
to the suit takes an appeal to higher
court. Not so in a suit before the
interstate commerce commission. A
man may bring a case in that court
and obtain judgment in his favor,
but before he can reap any benefit
from his victory he must go to another
court and get that judgment confirm
ed. This puts the laboring oar in the
hands of the wrong party. We as
fruitgrowers might carry our griev-
ances TO a federal court and ask that
the decision of the commission be af
tirned, but we ought not to be COM
PEELED to do that. If the car trust was
dissatisfied with the judgment of the
commission it should be the one to
appeal, and not the party in whose
favor the suit was decided
The commission, III it's annual re-
port, calls special attention to this
weakness of the la, and asks legisla-
ton to obviate the difficulty. In con-
Guiding its report, the commission
says:
THE most important Legislative act
no ,,-I- Ia