FRUIT CULTURE AT GRAND TRAVERSE. 



BY SANFORD HOWARD, LATE SECRETARY OF THE STATE BOARD OF 



AGRICULTURE. 



To illustrate the progress of fruit culture in the Grand Traverse district, the following 

 description of that section is introduced. Mr. Howard visited Grand Traverse in the 

 month of June. 1867, and he published these notes in his report for that year. By com- 

 paring what he here says with the splendid exhibitions of fruit brought by Mr. Parmelee 

 and others from that section, which have been made at the meetings of the Society, it will 

 be seen that Mr. Howard's predictions have been more than verified and fulfilled : 



EXEMPTION FROM SPRING AND AUTUMN FROSTS. 



The exemption of this section from autumnal frosts is, as may be supposed, 

 one of its most striking features, and adds greatly to its value in reference to 

 agricultural and horticultural products. Corn, of the flint varieties, is con- 

 sidered sure to ripen if planted any time before the tentli of June; and varie- 

 ties of grapes, as the Catawba and Isabella, which are very uncertain in regard 

 to ripening in the open air, in the central and southern portions of the State,, 

 have, for several years in succession, ripened perfectly as far north as forty-five 

 degrees. The instances alluded to will be particularly mentioned in another' 

 place. 



But it is not merely in the fall that vegetation is here exempt from injury 

 by frost; it is seldom injured in spring. The snow holds everything in check 

 till warm weather comes in earnest, and then the development is rapid. Fruit- 

 germs, even of tender species, are seldom injured in winter. The greatest 

 degree of cold registered at Traverse City or North port, is 15 degrees below 

 zero, and that but few times within the past eight years. On the peninsula 

 which divides the two branches of Traverse Bay, it has not been so cold. At 

 Old Mission, the lowest point marked within the past four years is nine- 

 degrees below zero, and that only once and for a short time. With this excep- 

 tion, seven degrees below zero is the lowest the mercury has fallen. 



SUCCESS OF PEACHES AND OTHER FRUITS. 



The tesult is that peach buds are seldom injured by the cold, and the peach 

 crop is considered as certain here as at any point on the eastern shore of Laks 

 Michigan. Nearly all the peach trees seen by the writer, in his late excursion 

 through the region, which were old enough to bear, were fairly set to fruit.- 

 Starting later in the Spring, they are of course later in ripening; but persons- 

 who have been acquainted with peaches grown at St. Joseph and various other- 



