226 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



interest in the cultivation of the peach in this county, particularly in the 

 southern portion of it, and peaches are now in the Jackson market from the 

 vicinity of Brooklyn. Mr. Dwight Merriman, of Summit, is quite a successful 

 grower of peaches. He has also extensive orchards of all kinds of fruit raised 

 in this latitude. 



Peaches were shipped from this county full thirty-five years ago, and apples 

 thirty years. The exact time I cannot give. 



There has been no destructive visitation of insects, but apples and plums 

 have suffered somewhat; but I cannot, for want of time, ascertain and give 

 particulars. 



There is now a horticultural society here, formed within the past year. 



The shipments of fruit can be ascertained from the books of the railroad 

 company, but to do so would take more time than I can devote to that point. 

 The shipments of apples from this county have amounted, however, to many 

 thousand barrels for most of the years for twenty-five years past. 



KENT COUNTY. 



The very earliest history of horticulture in Kent county is connected with 

 Grand Eapids as a French trading post. Louis Campau, previous to 1834, had 

 improved a piece of land extending from the present site of the Eathbun 

 House on the corner of Monroe and Ottawa streets, to the Eagle Hotel, and 

 from thence to the river bank. This was a vegetable and flower garden with 

 shrubbery and trees scattered through it and a few fruits. The most attractive 

 thing about it was the flowers, and it was a place of resort for whites and 

 Indians. The latter used to land from their canoes and go up through the 

 garden by a well trodden path to Mr. Campau' s house. An old canoe answered 

 for a propagating bed in which to start things before they were planted in the 

 garden. 



About the year 1S35, Mr. Abel Page moved to Grand Eapids and located on 

 the bank of the river near the foot of Huron street. Mr. Page and John 

 Almy, his nearest neighbor, started gardens upon the bank of the river, and 

 planted in them such things as they brought from the east and could get 

 through the mails from friends, in the form of seeds and slips. They also 

 made some selections from the woods. It was in Mr, Page's river garden that 

 the first tomatoes were raised in the Grand Eiver Valley. They were a great 

 curiosity, and grown as ornamental plants and called "love apples." There 

 was but one person in the country that would eat them, and that was the 

 school teacher. This was a matter of astonishment to the people, and at first 

 dire consequences were expected as a result. 



For a good many of the first things planted in the gardens of the settlers, 

 they were indebted to the kindness of Uncle Louis Campau, who grew nothing 

 to sell, but gave many things away. 



In 1838 Mr. Page moved up on Bridge street hill and planted another gar- 

 den with a sort of nursery attachment, the whole occupying perhaps three 

 acres. This was the year of the great flood in the river which occurred in 

 February. It was in this second garden that Mr. Page grew Morus multi- 

 caulis and raised silkworms, dealing in the cocoons. It was about this time 

 the Eohan potato had such a great run. Mr. Page raised specimens that 

 would weigh two pounds and sold them for seed at the rate of from $16 to $20 

 per bushel. The fruit in this garden was grown largely from plants found in 



