SUMMER MEETING, 18S2. 01 



pels good arraugemcnts. As you have more shipping to do unite together in 

 your local society and decide upon what will be good, fair treatment, and you 

 will get it. 



On motion the following committee was appointed to take in hand the trans- 

 portation question and report before the close of tiie meeting; U. II. Ilolt, 

 Muskegon; J. 11. Sammons, Oceana; Wm. A. Brown, Berrien. 



Mr. J. il. vSammons, of Sammons' Landing, read a short paper upon 



TUE INFLUENCE OF WATER ON OUR CLIMATE. 



For the past thirteen years I have watched the influence of Lake Michigan 

 on our climate. My orchard is at tlie extreme point of Little Point Au Sable, 

 and running down to within three hundred feet of the water. Its elevation is 

 about sixty feet above the level of the lake. In the past thirteen years the 

 cold has not injured my fruit. 



Tlirough the summer months the mercury ramrcs between 70° and 85°, 

 ■while in the winter it seldom goes below zero. The winter of 1875 was an 

 extremely cold one; the cold wave swept down over nearly all the western 

 States; the peach buds were nearly all killed, and the wood of that season's 

 growth as well. At my place the thermometer indicated 14° below zero, while 

 farther east, or back from the lake ten miles, the mercury went as low as 

 20°, and in some places 30" below zero. During the season of 1875 my trees 

 that were old enough bore very heavily. From thirteen Hale's Early I sold 

 one hundred and nineteen dollars worth, and fifty dollars worth from four 

 trees of Early Crawford. 



In thirteen years the mercury has only dropped below zero as follows: in 

 1873, 10° below; in 1875, 14° below. The balance of the time the mercury 

 has kept near zero ; seldom below during the coldest weather. 



My correspondence with persons residing in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has kept 

 me posted as to the extreme cold weather there, and my observation has been 

 that often when the mercurv is at zero with us, it is 20° below at Kenosha. 

 Kenosha is about 70 miles south and 60 miles west of us, therefore the influ- 

 ence of the water on our climate is easily seen, when w^e take into considera- 

 tion that the prevailing winds are from the west and southwest, giving to the 

 land along the east shore a warmer climate and a more equable temperature 

 than that farther inland, while on the other side of the lake the wind is from 

 off the land, so that the water does not affect tlie temperature to any great 

 extent. 



I find when the water is frozen over a distance of tivo or three miles from 

 the shore, that it affects the temperature to the extent of several degrees, 

 causing it to lower. This is caused by the wind blowing over the ice, but the 

 water seldom freezes over to any extent from the shore. 



Oceana County is boundQ,d on the west and northwest by Lake Michigan, 

 and the dry, piercing winds from these directions come to us moist and almost 

 balmy. This lake is au immense body of water, hundreds of miles long, and 

 about a hundred miles wide, and from a hundred and fifty to a thousand feet 

 deep, and the influence of its waters is wonderful and highly beneficial, hence 

 it is that Oceana County, laying between 43° and 44° north latitude, ranks as 

 a first-class fruit-producing county. The sandy lands of the western shore of 

 our State are found to be best adapted to peach culture, and both land and 

 water are here combined to produce in rare excellence this delicious fruit. 

 The close proximity of Kenosha, Eacine, Milwaukee, Sheboygan, and Man- 



