IXAUGURATICX OF "THE MICHIGAN 



PEACH BELT." 



BY A2^ OLD SETTLER OF BERRLE>' COOTTT. 



The "Peach Brk" was inanguxaii I :r. 1S4T. izi Tzis :; :'"e history of my 

 part in it: 



A: that time fanners here and the: zz St. Joseph, as in other of the 



then settled parts of the State, had .. . i :rces of seedling sons, generally 



in fence-comer rows, rarely in "~: . A llr. Pike of Boyalton, 11. 



Morton of Benton, and John i. -- -: _—i.: ridge had what other people 

 thought a very profmse supply, and were the trsi to sell anything like a wagon 

 load. The improved Tarieties of that day in thar part of the Sste were 

 "Pike's Sec^ilings," i't^t-^?.--? t:/: ! - ScJo'sep a Yellow Eareripe," and Byers* 

 "Bed Eareripe." /- . • .• '~.:i '.irr. L, L. Johnson, lixing near what is 



called the Gap, .. : - . '- ;. . . : _■ t i :. r : .7 . : - ; 1 .ing peaches. A fe ~ years before, 

 Kr. B. C. Hoyt 01 St. Jo^ph started a :. : -rry and had fmiied apples, pears, 

 peaches, plums, and c' - ^ -' ^" : :: ; : >:.:'" Trees was quite limited, run- 



ning heavies: on apple .._-. :--.. ^ --."T ;: _ T.:h orchard set from that 

 nursery. About this time (1S4T), pits of :lr \ ,._ £-^7^t. as Hill's Chili, 

 Stanley, and other names, were planted by iLr. ilcKeyes of Bainbrifge. 



At thar time I owned an eighiy-acre lot of rich soil in the same :own, and 

 had planted on it that spring a small orchard of budded peach trees, which I 

 had bought of CoL Hodgre's " BnfEalo Xurserv."^ Becoming satisf ed thai mv 

 place would prove too frosty for fruit purposes, I began to canvass for a better 

 place. From friends living west of Lake Micb'r :.l ?.i i from occasional news- 

 paper reports of the *^cold snaps,'' I became =u: :;i 1 :hat peaches would not 

 be raised west of the lake, I knew 3Ir. Hoyt L:.! ^epi a thermometer for 

 several years, and so far as I knew, his was the only one in St. Jo^ph. To 

 him I went to learn what the winter extremes had been. He made the sweep- 

 ing assertion that it had never gone below zero. I could hardlv believe it, but 

 he was positive. That supposed fact, for which the reason was very apparent 

 in the unfrozen waters of Lake Michigan, decided me, and before I had walked 

 home the nine miles I had decided to go on to the lake shore. The next day 

 saw written notices of my farm for sale, and in a few days a man appeared who 

 paid my price in gold. I immediately proctired a chart from, the Land Office 

 at Kalamazoo of aJl the lake shore from St. Joseph to the Indiana line, which 



