HISTORY OF HORTICULTURE IN MUSKEGON COUNTY. 



MR. C. D. MC LOUTH^ MTJSKElGOiN. 



I propose to divide 1113^ paper into three pnrts, as follows: 



1. The Muskegon Conntj^ Horticultural Society and the people who 

 made and sustained it. 



2. Crops that have succeeded and those that have failed in Muske- 

 gon county. 



3. The geological history of the county in relation to horticulture. 



1. The first meeting of the Muskegon County Horticultural Society 

 of which I find a record preserved in writing was held on April 16, 1887. 

 Ex-Lieutenant Governor, H. H. Holt, then president of the organization, 

 occupied the chair. At this meeting it Avas resolved to re-organize the 

 Society, incorporating under the statutes of the State. The drafting 

 of articles of association was assigned to a committee of three members 

 composed of C. L. Whitney, F. F. Bowles and Wm. M. Collier. 



At a meeting following, May 2S, the articles of association were adopt- 

 ed and acknowledged before a notary, E. N. Lattimer. Officers were 

 elected as follows: 



Henry H. Holt, President. 



F. F. Bowles, Vice-President. 



C. L. Whitney, Secretary. 



Orman Baxter, Treasurer. 



Wm. M. Collier, Geo. F. Ashton, members of the executive committee. 



Some indication of the activities of the Society at that time is shown 

 by the api)ointment of four standing committees "on transportation," 

 ''on fruits," "on flowers," "on vegetables," respectively. 



In September of this year the Society held its first annual fair. 

 Nearly 150 cash premiums were offered by the Society and about 20 

 special premiums, some of considerable value, were put up by business 

 men of Muskegon. The outcome of the fair was successful and in the 

 autumn of the following j^ear another fair with a still larger list of 

 premiums was held. 



Records of the Society show that so far back as 1887 the question of 

 a public market and ordinances relative to the sale of garden products 

 in Muskegon were being discussed. About the year 1908 a market was 

 established by act of the city council but it received only scant patron- 

 age and Avas soon abandoned. 



In 1880 the Society received a report from L. N. Keating, relative to 

 the subject of establishing a local cannery. This was a scheme long 



