FRUIT CULTURE AT GRAND TRAVERSE. 135 



are informed that apples taken from the vicinity of Northport to Chicago , 

 in spring, have been pronounced superior in quality to any others of the same 

 kinds in that market. 



In regard to grapes, the oldest vines in this section appear to be perfectly 

 healthy. The calcareous matter in which much of the soil abounds, seems to 

 render it well suited to the grape. Judge Fowler, on the peninsula, twelve 

 miles below Traverse City, has vines of the Isabella grape which have not 

 failed to produce large crops of perfectly ripened fruit for the past eight years. 

 His sou, living two miles further down the peninsula, has vines of the same 

 variety, which in a more exposed situation, and with less attention to pruning, 

 have produced well-ripened fruit for several years in succession. On the 

 grounds of Mr. Marshall, near Old Mission, there are fine vines of the Catawba, 

 Isabella, Concord, Delaware, lona, etc. Mr. John Drew, formerly of Detroit 

 (father-in-law of Mr. Marshall), states that the Catawba has not failed to 

 ripen perfectly for the past four years; that he has compared the fruit with 

 the same variety produced at Kelley's Island and points on the shore of Lake 

 Erie, and that no difference can be perceived in the quality. 



At Old Mission, Mr. Parmelee, formerly engaged extensively in fruit culture 

 at St. Joseph, has lately bought a tract of land to be devoted, principally, as 

 stated, to peach and grape culture. Other persons from the place mentioned, 

 and other sections, have lately bought land here to be devoted to similar pur- 

 poses. It is reasonable to suppose that a person of the experience of Mr. 

 Parmelee would not be very likely to make a mistake in the selection of a 

 locality for the business he designs to pursue. 



Another man who has lately bought land here, proposes to establish a cran- 

 berry plantation. At the distance of a mile or so from the shore of the bay 

 there is a small lake, from which there is considerable fall towards the bay. It 

 is proposed to plant the cranberry vines between the lake and the bay, and 

 water them to any extent that may be needed from the lake. 



At North port and New Mission Rev. Geo. N. Smith and Eev. Mr. Dougherty 

 have fully demonstrated the practicability of ripening perfectly any varieties 

 of grapes that are grown in the south part of the State. Indeed, so well estab- 

 lished is the fact that good grapes can readily be grown here, that many persons 

 are setting out vines, and in every instance that came under the writei''s obser- 

 vation vines of proper age which had received suitable care had put forth an 

 abundance of blossoms or young fruit for the present year. 



Plums have done well in many instances in this section. Thus far the fruit 

 has neither been attacked by the curculio, nor the trees by that insidious and 

 destructive fungus, the "■ black wart," from which this species of tree has of late 

 years suffered so greatly at the East. The plum, however, like the pear, gen- 

 erally succeeds best in soils which contain considerable clay, or especially 

 where the subsoil contains considerable of this element ; and if the curculio 

 should reach this section, as it probably will sometime, the looseness which 

 is a common characteristic of the soil here, will favor its propagation. 



It is well known that pear trees thrive best when the roots extend into a soil 

 of at least as much tenacity as would be called a clayey loam. A distinguished 

 cultivator of pears iu the State of New York, and the author of one of our most 

 valuable treatises on fruit-culture, on being asked what kind of soil he preferred 

 for pears, replied : "A soil so tenacious as to require underdraining." Experi- 

 ence and observation prove that with such a soil and proper cultivation pears 

 flourish well. There are tracts of laud of considerable tenacity iu this section 



