LAKE MICHIGAN. 18* 



EFFECT ON ADJACENT LANDS. 



The efiect of this floating ice, and this pile of ice and snow on the shore, is 

 to retard the season. The prevailing winds being from the west, southwest 

 and northwest, the east shore is kept backward by the cool breezes, which per- 

 meate the fruit trees and prevent that early expansion of the peach-buds so 

 much deplored on the west side of the lake, and which renders the destruction 

 of peach prospects so common every spring in the western and southern States. 

 Not until summer weather is fairly established and danger of lake frosts over, 

 does the water of Lake Michigan become warm so as to melt the ice and the 

 sun dissolve the ice wall so as to allow the breeze which passes over the lake 

 to permit the expansion of the fruit buds on the peach trees of the eastern 

 shore. 



GKADUAL ADVANCE OF SUMMER. 



As the season advances the water of the lake, which has hitherto been so 

 much cooler than the atmosphere received from south and west, gradually 

 warms by the influence of the sun's rays and the land breezes. It is much less 

 changeable in its temperature than the land breezes. It warms slowly, but 

 when warmed it retains the heat proportionately with its depth and volume. 



CONSERVATIVE TENDENCY. 



The effect of this warm condition of the lake water is to prevent sudden 

 changes on the lee shore. Regularly as the tides of the ocean the summer 

 breezes traverse the land and water along the lake shore. In the forenoon the 

 breeze is usually towards the lake, and in the afternoon a lake breeze comes 

 over the land, modifying the temperature and making the hottest days of July 

 and August pleasant and agreeable, healthful alike to animal and vegetable 

 life. This is the true system of ventilation, of atmospheric drainage, and where 

 the sloping hillsides are favorably formed, almost certain is the exemption from 

 summer frosts. 



ATMOSPHERIC MOISTURE. 



As summer proceeds with its work of perfecting fruit, the lake has not only 

 a protecting but a fertilizing influence. The intense heat of the sun is exerted 

 on a large expanse of water, and the atmosphere is laden with the moisture 

 drawn up during the day, and in the dryest season dew comes to the aid of ex- 

 hausted nature, and, wherever cultivation of the soil is properly attended to, 

 the cooled earth condenses the moisture and absorbs it, producing the best 

 possible condition for growth. In calm, summer weather, this condition is 

 probably best secured along the lake shore, as during strong winds the moist 

 air is apt to be carried further inland before the earth, cooled by cultivation, 

 can condense and absorb the moisture, and immediate proximity to the lake in 

 strong summer winds may be no great advantage, but as summer is the period 

 of calm and the winds are seldom strong or violent, the moist lake air is an 

 important element of fertilization. It is a fact, well-established in my observa- 

 tion of Ottawa county, that land within six to ten miles of the lake is less 

 liable to suffer during a long period of dry weather than land further east. 



SOIL RETAINING MOISTURE NEAR THE LAKE. 



Plunge the hand into the loose sand of our lake shore during the most severe 

 drouth of summer, and you find moisture within a few inches of the surface, 



