SAUGATUCK AND GANGES. 197 



on the north side of Lake Kalamazoo, of Isabella and Clinton grapes, bearing 

 at the rate of five tons to the acre. Mr. Kleeman made fourteen barrels of 

 wine in 1873, and fifteen barrels in 1874. He retails the wine at his billiard 

 saloon in Saugatuck. His mode of planting vines is to dig holes seven feet 

 deep and fill in with rotten wood, scraps of leather, hair and lime from tannery, 

 and other rubbish. Vines planted in this made soil produce canes twenty to 

 forty feet long, and one inch in diameter, in a season. Mr. K. has layered 

 vines in pails of earth sunk in the ground, and when bearing he removes them 

 for exhibition at Chicago, Crand Eapids and other fairs, where they make an 

 excellent show and readily sell for five dollars each. Mr. Kleeman has an acre 

 block in the village of Saugatuck with 400 vines planted on terraces around 

 the south and east sides of the hill. These vines, he estimates, produced six 

 tons of grapes in 1874. He has 40 peach, 40 apple, 24 pear and VZ plum trees ; 

 also currants and gooseberries. 



PKODUCTIVE THREE-ACRE GARDEK. 



Eev. J. F. Taylor, a careful horticulturist, has a three-acre block in Sauga- 

 tuck village; 25 peach, 12 plum, 12 cherry, 24 pear and 12 apple trees, all in 

 bearing except the last. Peach trees planted in 1869 bearing full. In addition 

 to a good supply of fruit, this garden produced in 1874 400 bushels of onions 

 on less than an acre, 100 bushels of beets and turnips, 24 bushels of early pota- 

 toes. Mr. Taylor also has 65 acres on the lake shore, three miles south of 

 Douglas, on which are 300 peach trees planted in 1864, and 200 planted in 

 1874. Those first planted bore well after the severe winter of 1872, and since 

 yielded 300 baskets in 1874. Two hundred apple trees planted in 1866 and 

 100 in 1874. Although this farm is on the lake shore, a portion of it is rich 

 black loam, and being prepared for market gardening. It produced in 1874,80 

 bushels turnips, 80 bushels beets, and 75 of potatoes. 



SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL ADVANTAGES. 



The advantages for fruit growing most prominent in the Saugatuck and 

 Ganges Fruit Eegion, and which render it desirable for residence, are : 



I. — Its location on the east shore of Lake Michigan, at the widest part of the 

 lake, aflFording greatest protection of the prevailing winds, which are west, 

 southwest and northwest. 



II. — Its exposure to the unobstructed lake breeze, the whole of Ganges and 

 the greater part of Saugatuck townships being open to the lake shore, without 

 the intervention of sandhills or unproductive sand dunes, securing great mild- 

 ness of temperature. 



III. — Rolling and diversified topography, with a large proportion of high 

 land. 



IV. — Unusual diversity of soil, even close to the lake shore, there being few- 

 farms or quarter sections of land that do not afford opportunity for all descrip- 

 tions of farming, including dairy, grain and fruit. 



V. — Those sites more especially adapted to fruit are usually adapted to all the 

 varieties of fruit, from the early strawberry to the latest peach, and winter 

 apple. 



VL — Specially adapted to fruit growers with small capital, because good pay- 

 ing crops of small fruits can be raised while trees are growing, and even the 

 first year after clearing the land. 



Vll. — Land is cheap and abundant, and being owned by persons and com- 

 panies who desire to sell and are able to wait, can be had on reasonable terms. 



