186 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



while digging twelve to eighteen inches deep in the ploughed field twenty 

 miles from the lake will fail to develop any indications of moisture. 



THE FALL SEASON. 



After serving to enlarge and perfect the fruit by its moistening influence, 

 the lake is still at work. It again assumes the office of protector, but in a dif- 

 ferent manner : in the spring it protected the fruit by holding it back, by re- 

 tarding the swelling of the buds, by its cold atmosphere; but in the fall it 

 performs its functions by retaining and exerting its acquired heat. The deep 

 water of Lake Michigan is as slow to give up its summer heat as it was in the 

 spring to yield its winter cold. It is to Michigan in the fall and early winter 

 what the Gulf stream of the Atlantic is to Europe. It prolongs summer and 

 fall weather along its eastern shore, along the westei'n counties of the State, far 

 beyond the period of killing frosts in the interior counties or on the western 

 shore of the lake in Wisconsin and Illinois. It keeps off early fall frosts even 

 more effectually than it avoided or warded off those of early summer. The 

 fruit upon the latest varieties of the peach and several varieties of grapes have 

 ample time to perfect to thorough ripeness before the frosts intercept their 

 work, while the young fruit buds, for the succeeding season, develop, stop 

 their growth, and the young wood ripens so as to withstand the rigors of suc- 

 ceeding vrinter storms and cold. 



FALL SEASON PEOLOXGED IN THE NORTH. 



It seems that the gradual flow of water from the southern extremity or head 

 of Lake Michigan to its northern exit at the Straits of Mackinac, has the effect 

 of reversing the usual experience m northern latitudes. Instead of cold and 

 frost setting in earlier in northern than in southern Michigan, the very op- 

 posite is experienced, and several weeks after peach trees have been denuded 

 of their foliage at St. Joseph and other regions south, they are in full leaf at 

 Northport, in Leelanaw county, and other places around Grand Traverse Bay. 

 The influence of the lake stream is here as marked as is that of the gulf stream 

 in England and other portions of northern Europe where the temperate season 

 is prolonged, along the sea-coast many weeks longer than in the same latitude 

 on the western shore of the Atlantic, or even in the interior of Europe. 



THE LAKE IN WINTER. 



Long after the small lakes and principal rivers of Michigan have become 

 frozen over, Lake Michigan maintains its high temperature and consequent 

 freedom from ice. Its breezes constantly temper the wind to the necessities of 

 the fruit grower along our western coast. It remains substantially open, in 

 fact, during the whole winter, making a difference during every cold period of 

 from ten to twenty degrees in favor of the peach belt. 



FIRST EFFECT OF COLD ON THE BEACH. 



The first effect of a sharp frost on the lake shore is a matter of peculiar in- 

 terest. Before ice forms to any extent on the lake, the effect of a frost on the 

 lake shore is to coat over with ice the beach and every article upon it near 

 enough to be touched by the spray. Walking along on the beach of the lake 

 when the temperature is down to 20° or IS'^, everything is not only glazed over 

 with ice, but is frozen fast to its place on the sand. You see a beautiful peb- 

 ble glistening in the sunlight, you naturally stoop to pick it up to examine the 

 dazzling object, but to your disappointment the stone is fast, and your effort is 



