SEVENTEENTH DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 803 



peach which measured less than twelve inches in circumference. The wine 

 and raisin grapes here on exhibition are equal in size and quality, while 

 the quantity of fruit per acre is equal to that in the other most favored 

 portions of this State. 



A critical examination of the Bartlett pears here on exhibition leads 

 resistlessly to the conclusion that those grown at the higher altitudes, say 

 at Michigan Bluff and Dutch Flat, are larger, firmer in quality, and fairer 

 in appearance than those grown in the low altitudes bordering on the 

 plains. We also find a like difference in the apples. While the samples 

 on exhibition are all of a high grade of excellence, yet it is apparent even 

 to the casual observer, that those grown at altitudes varying from two thou- 

 sand seven hundred to three thousand two hundred feet, say at Little York, 

 Liberty Hill, and other localities, are finer in appearance, firmer in texture, 

 and are possessed of better keeping and shipping qualities than those grown 

 in the lower valley regions. 



On the next table beyond is a box filled with plums, which grew at an 

 altitude of more than three thousand feet above the sea. Among the lot 

 are many specimens which weigh one fourth of a pound each, while in the 

 whole lot are as fair and luscious as any plums of the same variety from any 

 part of the world. On the same table are samples of prunes of both the 

 German and the French varieties, which in size, flavor, and appearance 

 are equal to any grown in Europe. 



As an example of what can be exhibited from a single orchard of limited 

 extent, we see on a table in the center of the hall thirty varieties of apples, 

 eight varieties of pears, and twelve boxes of dried fruits of as many vari- 

 eties, all gathered from a single orchard. The fruits were dried on the 

 place, in the open air, in the good old fashioned way, without the aid of 

 factory or machinery. Examine them, and decide for yourselves whether 

 it pays to save and to dry your own fruits for your family supplies. In 

 those boxes are many luscious feasts in store for that family, long after the 

 fresh fruits have disappeared from the market. 



Further along are plates of ripe, fresh blackberries and strawberries, 

 from vines that are in continual bearing from the first crop till late in the 

 fall, often as late as the middle of December. 



There are orchards all along those foothill altitudes as high as two thou- 

 sand seven hundred feet above the sea, where one can find to-day black- 

 berry and strawberry vines in bloom, and with fruit in every stage of 

 growth, from the insipid, green berry to the fully matured fruit. 



On the same tables with these fruits of a northern clime we find the fig, 

 olives, persimmons, oranges and lemons, pomegranates, and other fruits of 

 the semi-tropical regions, all grown successfully and profitably in this dis- 

 trict; all requiring a mild temperature, not subject to great or sudden 

 extremes of heat and cold, affording the most convincing evidence of the 

 mildness and salubrity of our climate. The result of the exhibition of 

 such good qualities of these fruits is sure to be beneficial both in encour- 

 aging immigration and in encouraging others to engage more extensively 

 in that line of industry. 



OTHER PRODUCTS. 



But this is not all. We have here numerous examples of vegetable growth 

 which are truly surprising in their size and proportion. Look, for illustra- 

 tion, at those mammoth pumpkins and squashes; those toothsome canta- 

 loupes; those huge watermelons, the latter being gathered from a field in 

 which many of the melons weighed from fifty to seventy pounds each. 

 There are stock beets, nearly as large as a barrel; tomatoes, that weigh 



