240 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



this stock and later graftings a large proportion of Van Buren county was set 

 to orchards. 



About this time Lyman S. Hall settled in what is now the corporate limits 

 of the village of Paw Paw, and started a small nursery. 



EARLY PEACH ORCHARDS. 



In the spring of 1857 the Braggs shipped here 300 budded peach trees they 

 had grown in in New York, and sold them to N. H. Biteley. Mr. B's neigh- 

 bors deemed him almost a lunatic. On every farm peaches could be had for 

 the asking. They grew in the fence corners and everywhere — all naturals, it 

 is true, but peaches nevertheless — and they told him he could never sell his 

 peaches. He set them all out on the highest point of his farm, to work out an 

 idea he had long entertained. How he came by that idea is best told in his 

 own words : "The idea of setting them upon an elevation I got originally 

 from an intelligent farmer and orchardist in New York as early as 1844, while 

 engaged in teaching school and boarding around. I had, when a boy at my 

 home in Saratoga, tried to raise peach trees, but the winter froze them back. 

 Relating my poor success to my old friend above referred to one evening, he 

 told me if there was a high hill on the farm, and I would plant peach trees on 

 the top, or, better yet, well over on its northern slope, he thought I would suc- 

 ceed in raising peaches, and gave some of the reasons, which we now under- 

 stand, for selecting such a location. I never had an opportunity to put the 

 suggestion in practice until I came to Michigan, and the orchard set in 1859 

 was my first experiment and a success. The first crop I do not know the value 

 of, as I kept no account of sales ; but I recollect a subsequent crop, perhaps in 

 1867, a very fine one, with a good market, and that crop I estimated to be 

 equivalent to twenty-five wheat crops on the same land, and I do not think I 

 overestimated it. I had three fine crops about this date in three successive 

 'years, that paid more than double what could have been obtained from wheat 

 from the same ground in a life time. The orchard is still bearing, though 

 nearly done. Perhaps it will pay to leave another year. I think, however, had 

 it not been for those two extremely hard winters which we have had since the 

 orchard has been in bearing, the trees would have been in fair condition now. 

 1 have since set many trees, and my neighbors have set largely upon the hills, 

 and every year confirms the fact that the only really safe location for a peach 

 orchard is upon an elevation ; and may I not add that while we plume ourselves 

 somewhat on this modern discovery, my old friend Wood knew it more than 

 forty years ago?" 



It is a surprising fact that Mr. Bitely should have been raising peaches as 

 successfully as any lake shore locality, and yet his is the only orchard on that 

 whole range of hills ; and it is not until within the last five years that any 

 large plantings have been made. 



Mr. Engle planted his first peach trees on the hill in 1860, and his first ship- 

 ments were made in 1864. The orchard has borne regularly, with the excep- 

 tions of two or three seasons following extreme winters. No exact figures 

 have been kept of any season's product heretofore, but Mr. Engle furnishes 

 the following facts, the result of 375 Early Alexander trees set in the spring of 

 1877: This is the third year from the setting and the first fruiting. From 

 the 375 trees were sold 1,227 ^--bushel boxes. Net proceeds from the sale of 

 same, $607.41. They were set 16x20 feet apart, and occupied a little less than 

 three acres. 



