HISTORY OF MICHIGAN HORTICULTURE. 231 



comb, Oakland and Lapeer counties were supplied. Our orchard was first set 

 with natural fruit and the "Slug Sweeting." The latter my father claimed 

 was a cultivated variety, both root and branch alike. He evidently consider- 

 ably over-estimated its qualities, yet for cider, for feeding, or as a stock upon 

 which to work other varieties, it was superior. The Spitzenburg, for instance, 

 grafted upon it was improved 100 per cent. Four or five years after the 

 orchard was set it was grafted in the top, and in many cases where the trees 

 were small, on the stock, cut off three to four feet from the ground. 



I think my father had the first peach orchard in that part of the county, 

 planted from pits in the year 1825, the red and yellow rare-ripes and some fine 

 later varieties. 



MANISTEE COUNTY. 



BY S. W. FOWLEB. 



This county is comparatively new, having been settled but about thirty -five 

 years, and as lumbering has been the principal business of its inhabitants until 

 within the last six or eight years, farm interests were formerly sadly neglected. 

 The county is well located in the center of the great fruit belt of Michigan, 

 is well adapted to fruit growing, and is probably one of the very best locations 

 in the world for plums, pears, apples, peaches and small fruits. 



The deep water of the great lake (Michigan), which is never frozen over, 

 give off warmth in the fall, so that there is no early frost to injure anything, 

 and the cold is kept off nearly two weeks later than in the interior of the 

 State ; also in the spring the cold water of the lake prevents buds from 

 starting early, and frost never injures fruit, besides the soil and climate seem 

 wonderfully well adapted to fruit culture. 



The first fruit trees were planted in the county, in 1849, by James Stranoch, 

 Sen., in a small place known as Old Stranoch. Some of the trees yet remain 

 near the first framed house built in the county. Mr. Stranoch only planted a 

 few trees around his house, as he was a lumberman. 



Robert Risden planted the first plum orchard in the county about the year 

 1869. He planted two acres, and the orchard is yet the best plum orchard in 

 the county, and yields a revenue of about four hundred dollars a year. The 

 plums are splendid, and are not troubled with curculio. Later, D. L. Filer & 

 Sons planted over 3.000 peach, plum, and other trees, which yield them now 

 a large revenue. Others have planted orchards, until now there is a young and 

 thriving orchard on nearly every farm in the county, all doing well, and 

 yielding profit and pleasure to the fortunate owners. 



THE FIBST NUBSEBY 



was started by James M. Fairbanks on his homestead in Bear Lake, in 1868. 

 He sold trees for several years, and then died. Since his death no one has 

 engaged in that business in Manistee county, although it is one of the best 

 locations in the State for that business. 



The first fruit exported was from the orchard of D. L. Filer & Sons, and 

 about the year 1876. They have shipped peaches and other fruit quite 

 largely each year since, but owing to the fact that there are over three 

 thousand men, many of them transient, employed about the mills and in the 

 woods in the Manistee region, Manistee is the best home market in the world 

 for all kinds of fruit and vegetables. 



