16 STATE HORTICULTURAL. SOCIETY. 



Wednesday Afternoon Session. 



President Lyon announced the following committees: 



On Exhibits — Messrs. R. Morrill, A. G. Gulley, W. H. Payne. 



On Resolutions — Messrs. C. W. Garfield, C. A. Sessions, and 

 Ilgenfritz. 



Mr. Smith Hawley of Summit township, Mason county, read the fol- 

 lowing paper uiDon 



FRUITGROWING IN MASON COUNTY. 



Fruitgrowing in this county may truthfully be called an "infant 

 industry," for, although there are a few quite old apple orchards scattered 

 over the county, here and there, yet the business of general fruit culture 

 is just beginning to be developed. That the business will prove very 

 remunerative is shown by the fine fruit grown, the prices that have ruled, 

 and the success of those who have engaged in it. 



In considering the present state and future prospects of this favored 

 locality, for the production of fruit, we must first take into consideration 

 the soil and climate ; and secondly, the location as regards markets. 

 Although there are plenty of heavy lands in this county, well adapted to 

 general farming, the soil in what is known as the fruit region ranges from 

 a light sandy loam to a heavy clay loam, with plenty of gravel and lime- 

 stone mixed through it, affording every variety of soil for the production 

 of every variety of fruit. The face of the country is rolling (hilly in 

 places), giving the most perfect air drainage as well as water drainage; 

 and as to the climate, people living further south will often wonder that a 

 fruit so delicate as the peach can be successfully grown so far north and 

 be a failure the same year much further south. The cause is very largely 

 due to old Lake Michigan, which stores up the summer's heat and holds it 

 for our benefit, so that when, further inland, the mercury slides down to 

 the bottom of the tube and there congeals, and peach buds are killed. Near 

 the shore the heat stored up by the great lake is felt to such an extent 

 that the mercury has never gone down more than 8° below zero, at my 

 place, in 14 years, so that the peach buds are safe. This climate and soil 

 are also specially adapted to the successful culture of small fruits, the 

 success 6i some of our growers bordering upon the marvelous, and yet we 

 have seen only the beginning. Apples, pears, plums and cherries can be 

 successfully grown throughout almost the entire county; and when it is 

 stated that over fifty thousand fruit trees were planted in this county in 

 the spring of 1889, some idea can be formed of the great interest that is 

 taken in fruit culture, and the coming spring will witness a still larger 

 setting. Nature has placed here soil that is adapted to fruit, and the gi-eat 

 lake to assist in raising and protecting it. 



There are thousands of acres yet that are the best of fruit lands, that 

 need only enterprise, intelligence and energy to make them yield bountiful 

 harvests of the finest fruit, and hundreds of acres are yet in a state of 

 nature^ covered by the primeval forests, and only waiting the hand of man 

 to bring them into subjection. 



Already the business of shipping apples, pears, plums, peaches, and 

 cherries and all sorts of small fruits from Ludington has assumed large 

 proportions, and when the fact is taken into consideration that less than 

 ten per cent, of the trees now growing are yet bearing fruit, to say nothing 



