FAEMEKS' INSTITUTES. 83 



been extensively planted -within the pa?t ten years, and the quality of the apples 

 produced near Traverse Bay is unsurpassed. 



Peaclies a Specialty. 



Peach-growing, as a specialty, commenced in Berrien county in 1835, and 

 the first exportation of peaches took place in 18-iO, from the harbor of St. 

 Joseph, in that county. 



The enormous prices obtained by Capt. Boughton, the pioneer in this business, 

 for Michigan peaches in Chicago, sometimes as high as 845 a barrel, stimulated 

 peach-growing in the St. Joseph region, and in ten years Capt. Boughton' s ship- 

 ments alone amounted to 10,000 baskets. Although Berrien county has kept 

 the lead in the production of peaches, the counties of Van Buren, Allegan, Otta- 

 wa, Kalamazoo, Kent, Muskegon, and Oceana have planted largely of peaches, 

 and have competed with Berrien for the honor and profit of peach-growing. In 

 small fruits, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, and in all other fruits except apples, 

 Berrien county also takes the lead of all other counties, and may be said to have 

 made fruit-growing the leading interest of the county. 



II. ITS PKESENT STATUS. 



Since the disastrous winter of 1875, which affected the fruit trees not merely 

 of Michigan but of all the jSTorthwestern States, fruit-growing as practiced by 

 horticulturists has received a shock that it will require several seasons to recover 

 from. Previous to that disastrous period, in the winter of 1873, it had also sus- 

 tained severe drawbacks in various parts of the State ; but the cold of one year 

 ago affected even the lake-shore region, owing to the generally accredited fact 

 that Lake Michigan w'as actually covered with ice, and the usual protection 

 afforded by open water was for a time withdrawn, and the lake shore was no 

 better than fifty miles inland, so far as lake protection was concerned. This 

 unusual, and, as we believe, unprecedented occurrence, causing the destruction 

 of a large proportion of peach trees, and of not a few of other fruit trees, nat- 

 urally discouraged and greatly inconvenienced fruit-growers, especially those 

 whose almost sole dependence was on the peach, the pear, and similar exotic 

 fruits. But those fruit-growers who have made small fruits their specialty, or 

 who have had the precaution of adopting mixed husbandry in regard to fruit, 

 have only regarded the calamity as incidental and temporarj', and move along 

 in the even tenor of their way, almost undisturbed. 



TliQ Census Eefurns. 



The census of 18 74, taken by State authority, showed that there were 237,- 

 098 acres of land devoted to orchards; 1,029.G4 acres to vineyards; 947.52 to 

 raspberiy canes ; 1,648.32 to strawberry plants; 387.37 to currants and goose- 

 berries, and 8,421 to melons and garden vegetables, making the total number of 

 acres devoted to horticulture 249,532.85. And this, the w^ork of less than 50 

 years, with a population of, for most of that period, less than one million, on a 

 territory capable of sustaining in comfort at least twenty millions. The pro- 

 ceeds or annual receipts for the produce of this land in 1872, is given as $3,537,- 

 519; and in 1873, the year of disaster next preceding the last, it was not less 

 than 3,386,866. It is not expected that these figures are absolutely correct, as 

 those who have ever tried to collect statistics of this character well know it is 

 impossible to more than approximate the amount. But these figures are suffi- 

 ciently accurate to show that previous to 1875 the fruit interest, notwithstand- 



