SUMMER MEETING, 18S2. 7l 



Occasionally southern ]\[ichigan would hear from us through some land- 

 hunter, who would tel-l wonderful stories of our wild fruit products, coupled 

 Avith a prophesy that this would some day develop into a great fruit-producing 

 country ; but the reports were passed as idle stories or visionary speculations 

 of sand bank speculators, as the soil was considered too poor and the climate 

 too cold. But when in 1865 Professor Winchell, after close study and careful 

 comparisons with reference to a narrow strip extending along the east shore of 

 Lake Michigan, announced that it "possessed an exceptional climate to the 

 great advantage of agricultural and horticulture capabilities," more credence 

 was given to the lumbermen's stories and a few venturesome persons had the 

 hardihood to experiment with our clitnate and soil by planting trees which 

 they neglected to care for; and yet, notwithstanding the adverse criticisms on 

 our climate and soil and the neglect of those who planted them, those trees 

 soon commenced to advertise us by their wonderful products, which an Oceana 

 man by the euphonious name of Shirts had gathered from the four quarters 

 of our county and exhibited at the State fairs and pomological exhibitions in 

 competition with the fruit of heavy lands and more southern clime, and cap- 

 tured many first premiums, — for many years nearly all the premiums on 

 plums. 



Following some of the earlv results of the fruit culture referred to came 

 other encouraging announcements by Professor Winchell concerning the 

 formation of our soils, and the climate of the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, 

 indicating that success in fruit culture, even in this latitude, was possible, and 

 inasmuch as his statements corresponded with the experience of our oldest 

 inhabitants, preparations for fruit culture on a larger scale were begun, and 

 occasionally a man would set out from one to two hundred trees, and when it 

 was fully settled that the fruit district of Michigan was a belt extending the 

 entire length of the lower peninsula on the east shore of Lake Michigan, 

 known as the Michigan fruit belt, and that Oceana, with her neighbor Mason 

 county, occupied the most favored position in tiiat belt, by reason of their 

 projection into the lake, fruit culture commenced in earnest, and to-day 

 orchards varying in size from one hundred to twenty thousand trees, laden 

 with fruit promises, are truthful witnesses of the adaptibility of our county to 

 fruit-raising. 



Each year has surprised not only our southern neighbors but ourselves with 

 capabilities of our county, its elevation, water protection, and prevailing west- 

 erly winds enabling us to run the gauntlet of winter freezes and spring frosts 

 safely, while our variety of soil, including all kinds from light sand to heavy 

 clay, and the different loams, enables us to raise not only small fruits and 

 peaches, but plum, pear, and grape in great perfection; and we have none of 

 the diseases incident to the old fruit sections. 



To those who have come here with the expectation of seeing a country 

 cleared up and improved, with large orchards of old bearing trees, and the 

 best known system of orchard labor employed, we expect our county will be a 

 disappointment. But to those who are inquiring as to our fruit capabilities 

 we feel confident that what we have already accomplished will furnish ample 

 proof of Oceana's claim to position in the great fruit bolt of Michigan. 



THE VALUE OF FIXITY IN RURAL LIFE 



Was the next topic discussed, and Senator Ambler made a very happy address 

 in opening up the subject, filled with pleasant hits and good natured badi- 



