120 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



summer temperature of seventy degrees, sufficient to mature the latest corn, 

 potato, or apple; seldom going above ninety degrees, to cause premature ripe- 

 ness, nor rarely below fifty degrees to retard growth ; with an average winter 

 temperature of twenty-five degrees, rarely going above fifty degrees to start the 

 latent sap, nor seldom below zero to kill the tender bud; exempt from late 

 spring and early fall frost; in fact, we have not missed a crop of even tender 

 peaches since they first came in bearing, seventeen years ago. Even with this 

 remarkably cold winter our prospects are good. IJnquestiouably our climate 

 cannot be surpassed for its uniformity of temperature, rarely exceeding twenty 

 degrees' variation in one or two days ; this is of great practical value to fruit 

 culture, in the uniform growth and ripening of wood and fruit. It is a 

 remarkable fact that much of the intrinsic value of frnit lies in its perfect 

 maturity. The peach, pear, and even apple, if subject to extreme cold or hot 

 spells in ripening, is comparatively sour or insipid in flavor. Nor is the light 

 of summer too glaring or obscure to destroy or dim the formation of the beau- 

 tiful rainbow colors divided by the delicate prisms of aerial moisture, deeply 

 imprinted by the active rays of the sun handsomely painting the delicious 

 green pear, the golden yellow peach, and the rich red apple. Nor is the moist- 

 ure deficient to produce inferior size, shrinkage, or wilt, nor in excess for the 

 perfect development of vegetable, grain, or frnit. These good and lasting 

 results are mainly due to the great length, breadth, depth, and position of our 

 lakes, which constantly evaporate, expand, and raise in snmmer, cool, moist 

 vapor to be gently distilled upon us at night, or showered upon us by day in 

 seeming accident, but through great design; even in winter the restless waters 

 rapidly absorb the cold, contract and settle, and are as quickly replaced by the 

 warmer waters from below. Fresh water is easily influenced by slight atmos- 

 pheric changes, one cubic foot of which will afiect in one like degree of tem- 

 perature over three thousand cubic feet of air ; how great then is the influence 

 of Lake Michigan, three hundred and forty by eighty-five miles in extent of 

 surface, and upwards of one thousand feet in depth ? Our prevailing winds 

 are from the west, principally southwest, and come under the equalizing influ- 

 ences of water. Who can estimate the quantity of imperceptible vapor rising 

 from sixty-six thousand square miles of fresh water in extreme warm weather 

 in summer, and those immense cloud-like masses of dark vapor rising from the 

 unfrozen surface in extreme weather in winter, extending its beneficial influ- 

 ence over our beloved State, so that the largest proportion of our vegetables, 

 grain, and fruit, are increased with lavish stores of vegetable and mineral decay 

 amply moistened from the constant evaporation of our lakes, richly sweetened, 

 and beautifully painted "with warm mellow sunlight, a faint retrospective view 

 of the original paradise being brought about by the diligent labor of man. 



We are justly proud of Mr. Dyckman's delicious Barnard peaches over twelve 

 inches in circumference, of the late Mr. Eame's excellent Duchesse pears, nearly 

 thirteen inches in circumference, and Mr. Bailey's fine Northern Spy apples 

 ever thirteen inches in circumference. 



Step back with us twenty years ago, when the numerous tribes of Indians on 

 the lake coast made their yearly visits to South Haven and vicinity in whole 

 fleets of canoes attached to a mainmast and one sail, when the wind was favor- 

 able, using their paddles in a calm, a portion staying all winter in the woods 

 hunting porcupines, wolves, deer, and bears, and in spring making their yearly 

 supply of maple sugar, a part of which they would sew up in birch bark bags 

 with sinews, to bury in the ground for next winters supply, taking the 



