HISTORY OF MICHIGAN HORTICULTURE. 239 



grown in the county. They were natural seed, and none but seedlings were 

 known for years. Some of these chance seedlings were of very excellent 

 quality, and one, the Snow's Orange, has attained some distinction. 



Elder Samuel Gilman removed from Ogden, Monroe county, N. Y., to Paw 

 Paw in 1838. Mrs. Gilman brought with her seeds of various kinds, among 

 them plum pits. These she planted, and in that early day raised yearly crops 

 of Damson, Gage, and Yellow Egg plums. Barren trees of these seedlings are 

 now seen on several of the old settled farms. 



It will be seen that these early settlers came mostly from western New York, 

 where fruit growing was a success, and they desired as nearly as possible to 

 reproduce the homes they had left. 



Wild plums, huckleberries, and blackberries were the only fruit known to 

 these early settlers before their trees were large enough to bear. 



Dr. J. Andrews of Paw Paw built his house in 1856, and that fall stocked 

 his cellar with three barrels of Greenings, bought in Plymouth and brought 

 here by teams. This was the first large shipment of apples to this place. A 

 few years before James Lee bought a bushel of red apples in Detroit, and 

 brought them in his wagon to his place, three miles southwest of Paw Paw. 

 The Indian Chief Pepeau and his household lived near, and they were elated 

 with the red apples. They would pay almost any price for them, pass them 

 from one to another, and call them musheemens, muzheemens. 



Robert Morrison, when a young man, teamed flour from Paw Paw to St. 

 Joseph. Once while at the latter place he found a few barrels of apples for 

 sale. They had come around the lakes from Buffalo. He bought a half 

 bushel at a fabulous price, brought them home and invited the young people 

 for miles around to a party, and entertained them sumptuously on the half 

 bushel of apples — a greater rarity then than tropical fruits would be now. 



NEW VARIETIES. 



The Rubicon apple and Snow's Orange peach both originated from seedlings 

 in Paw Paw. For a full description of each and the history of their propaga- 

 tion, see Pomological Report for 1873, pp. 320 and 321. 



NURSERIES. 



Ira C. and A. A. Olds came to Hartford in the spring of 1844 from western 

 New York, and brought with them apple seeds which they sowed, and from 

 the roots they grafted in the winter of 1845, 50,000 root grafts with cions 

 brought from Elwanger & Barry's nursery at Rochester. The next year they 

 grafted 30,000 more, and from this stock a large portion of the old trees in the 

 western portion of the county came. The first 50,000 grafts were set three 

 and one-half miles southwest of Hartford, and the 30,000 grafted the second 

 year were set on the Watervliet road, west of the town a mile or so. 



The first trees were sold in the spriug of 1847, 100 trees to Austin Beaman, 

 who carried them two miles on his back, and set them on land now owned by 

 O. Putney. 



In the spring of 1857 P. I. and L. G. Bragg, brothers, came to Paw Paw 

 from Orleans county, N. Y., looking for a location to start a nursery. They 

 purchased 80 acres two miles east of Paw Paw, on the territorial road. They 

 went back east, and P. I. Bragg returned in a few weeks with 100,000 apple 

 grafts, and set them. In the fall L. G. came on, and in the following winter 

 C. Curtiss, a merchant of Paw Paw, purchased one-third interest in the land 

 and stock, and they formed the partnership of Bragg, Curtiss & Co. From 



