Wallace and Laura Heuser

Wallace Heuser, once the owner of Hilltop Nurseries, has been instrumental in the research and retailing of dwarf fruit trees.  Laura Heuser founded American Agricultural Women and assisted agricultural women in gaining political clout. 

• We began growing fruit trees on our little seven-acre farm near Lansing , but we didn’t grow professionally.  The growing of fruit trees [dwarfs, as well] is a highly complicated process.  You never allow a tree to grow on its own, you have to train them.  Wally ships trees to other nurseries all over the United States , and all over the world.  I worked at training trees a little bit during our first year.  Then I started having babies.  I’ve got five children.  I raised the kids and Wally raised the trees.

• I decided at an early age that I was going to be a fruit grower.  I was determined to attend Michigan State [and] I graduated, with luck.  I benefited from the mentorship of Dr. H.P. Tookie, a pioneer researcher in the dwarfing of apple and fruit trees.  So, our nursery became highly specialized.  No one else, perhaps two or three nurseries in the entire country, used technological advances during this period to their benefit.

• At Hilltop we specialized in dwarf trees, planted orchards models, and the farm grew because of them.  We sponsored tours, and groups of people visited regularly.  The nursery grew rapidly and in the [19]70s and the [19]80s, we were the largest in the world. 

• Wally has always worked closely with the M.S.U. (Michigan State University) extension people.  We attend fruit grower shows and educational meetings all over the United States .  Each state offers such programs.  The local extension horticulturists and I organized the International Dwarf Fruit Tree Association in 1956.  We called a meeting and drew a large crowd.  It was successful enough that the next year [we] invited Dr. Tookie and others from Michigan State University .  He deserves much credit for the formation of the organization.  We later changed the name to the Dwarf Tree Association.  I served as president for four years.  As the industry changes we look to modernize whenever possible.

• One time, I hired a young guy ‑ Chris Reiser, from Michigan State and sent him to Europe .  On his first trip, he discovered sweet cherry dwarf trees.  He checked it out, came back and said, “We should be looking at this.”  So I returned to Germany , acquainted myself with the professor in charge, and after twenty-some visits to Germany over the next two or three years, we secured the rights to these rootstocks. 

• It takes a lot of equipment to run a fruit farm today.  You cannot survive any other way.  Equipment is needed to cultivate, spray, and prune.  To haul the fruit, a business requires a packing house that both grades and packs.  It can be a rough business

• I was running around the country talking to women about organizing and having some affect on the farm business.  I traveled to every state in the Union .  I counted them up one time and figured that I visited Iowa twenty-one times.  I told farm women that to survive, they had to organize and be able to gain political clout.  In Michigan , we organized a motorcade and went to Lansing to visit the governor and the secretary of agriculture.  We complained about the prices of apples which, at that time, were atrocious.  We garnered nice results and later formed a national convention entitled “American Agricultural Women.”  We elected officers; a president, vice-president, and so on.  They offered leadership to the group, and organized discussion groups.  We often selected picket places.  One time in Bangor we built a makeshift coffin, donned dark clothes, and paraded through town to the processing plant.  We emphasized that it would be the grave for all of us if we did not get more money for our product.

• I always worked with local growers; we had to maintain a working relationship with our grower base.  In this business, it is imperative to do so. 

• We tried to hire the best people.  We sought young people out of college, and many were good people.  Unfortunately, someone would hire them away from me. 

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WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY / FT. MIAMI HERITAGE SOCIETY OF MICHIGAN