FRUIT GROWING AT SOUTH HAVEN. 119 



ADDRESS OF J. E. BIDWELL, DELIVERED BEFORE THE SOUTH HAVEN 

 POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 8, 1873. 



Soutli Haven i.s beautifully situated ou the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, 

 fifty feet above its level, with a rising undulating surface backward, so that 

 from many places you can see a thriving eight-year old village at your feet, 

 and the broad lake specked with numerous vessels spread out in the dim 

 distance. Should chance find you there at early dawn you might see long 

 shadows running down to the lake shore and lost in the water, or tracing out 

 the course of the river you can see it running out between two piers with 

 extending arms to welcome the returning vessels. The sunsets at South Haven 

 are very beautiful, with the ever changing rainbow colors on the horizon. If 

 you love grandeur, here contemplate the great breadths and depths of Lake 

 Michigan, with its ever restless waters ; or, admiring and contemplating the 

 glorious, consider the departing day with its expected return on the morrow. 



Commercially, South Haven is favorably located at the mouth of Black river, 

 —whose dark waters are stained with the dissolution of mineral deposits, and the 

 decay of original forests and their annual foliage, replaced with thriftier trees 

 in great variety, — from which many vessels are now annually laden with rich 

 cargoes of choice lumber, wood, and timber, consisting principally of beech, 

 whitewood, walnut, cherry, oak, maple, pine, and bass wood, and conveyed 

 across the lake to Chicago and other lake cities, to finish and warm their 

 beautiful cottages and splendid mansions, their palatial stores and other com- 

 mercial buildings ; their numerous lines of railway and vessel, all assisting the. 

 growth and prosperity of our great Northwest. South Haven is also the ter- 

 minus of the Kalamazoo and South Haven Eailroad, connecting a few miles 

 out at Grand Junction with the Michigan Lake Shore Railroad, and at Kala- 

 mazoo, forty miles distant, with the Michigan Central and other important 

 lines of railway, pointing in every direction. South Haven is also connected 

 by steamer and vessel with Chicago, sixty-eight miles distant, S. W., and 

 Milwaukee, ninety miles across the lake, N. W., connecting with steamer for 

 Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo eastward. 



The country adjoining the village of South Haven is favored by nature, 

 with the greatest conceivable variety of soil and exposure, including light sand 

 and heavy cla}', or rich sand, gravel and clay loam, separate, or mixed in every 

 conceivable proportion, or all combined in the most desirable compound, 

 including all necessary vegetable or mineral properties required by the particu- 

 lar appetite of certain plants, for their peculiarly constructed organization, or 

 by those exacting a portion of all covering deep slopes, undulating tracts, dry 

 level prairie, or moist bottom lands, which the winds and waters of past ages 

 have separated, or mingled in different proportions, so that no kind of soil or 

 situation could be desired without finding it readily and at a reasonable price. 

 In fact, all departments of agriculture, from the least even to the greatest, can 

 be successfully carried on here, from flourishing vegetable gardens, prosperous 

 wheat fields, verdant meadows, to permanent orchards. True, there is necessar- 

 ily some poor land, but the proportion of good is tenfold greater, and the very 

 good even tenfold greater than the good. 



The climate of South Haven, with its due proportion of heat, light, and 

 moisture, is providentially well nigh perfect for the complete development of 

 all vegetables, grains, and fruits, grown in the temperate zone, with an average 



