A GRAND TRAVERSE FRUIT FARM. 217 



the main sloj>e near the dwelling, while another plat of this fruit was located 

 higher up the slope. The partial loss during this season of the lower plat, 



while the higher one has escaped, affords a highly valuable elucidation of the 

 benefit of mere elevation in securing exemption from the extremes of cold. 

 From careful examination during the past winter, it was determined that dur- 

 ing the coldest weather, with no wind blowing, a perpendicular elevation of 

 about thirty feet was attended with two degrees rise of the thermometer. 



Although we had, at sundry times, been favored with specimens of grapes 

 grown here, we were by no means prepared to expect the eminent desrree of 

 vigor and productiveness that seemed to characterize this fruit here. We are 

 not sure that Concord and Hartford Prolific, and possibly one or two others of 

 the more common varieties, even fully maintain their usual vigor here, 

 although evidently in full health : but we feel it safe to say that the Rogers 

 Hybrids (more particularly Agawam and Wilder), and in a still more especial 

 degree the Delaware, as seen upon the trellises here, are the most satisfact^Dry 

 specimens of vigorous health and well distributed productiveness that we 

 remember to have seen the present season. 



Israella does not seem to be quite as satisfactory here as in some other local- 

 ities, while lona seems to need the full season to ripen fully. It (lona) starts 

 slowly in the spring, but to a good degree redeems itself during the latter part 

 of the season. It likewise commences to ripen in tolerable season, and is very 

 palatable when but partially mature ; but it is slow in acquiring its highest 

 quality and full maturity. It will take the highest rank here both as a dessert 

 and wine grape, if it shall be found to ripen with certainty. 



Adirondac, although less vigorous and productive than most others of the 

 same season, seems quite as successful here as elsewhere, and not specially 

 liable to the mildew of the foliage, to which it has been found to be so gen- 

 erally subject. 



The vines in these vineyards are grown with a horizontal cane, from which 

 uprights are trained for the production of the fruit ; the amount of which is in 

 a great degree determined by the amount of wood left at the fall pruning, 

 although the size of the berries may to some extent be influenced by the stop- 

 ping of laterals, usually found necessary during the summer to keep the vine 

 within proper limits. 



We observed here several low branched trees of the sweet cherries which had 

 passed unharmed through the past winter, while, near by, two or three others 

 of the same class, with tranks pruned from four to six feet high, had been so 

 seriously injured by the past winter as to insure their death at no distant 

 period. 



It is a commonly received opinion that pear trees are unsuccessful, except 

 in soils containing a strong admixture of clay ; hence we were hardly prepared 

 to see, as is the case here, a plat of pear trees growing in the soil we have 

 described, apparently in fine health and vigor. The same may be said of a 

 considerable plantation of plums, standing in the same soil, which show the 

 abundant, rich, dark-green foliage always indicative of robust health. These 

 circumstances, together with the character of the native growth of timber 

 upon the soil, seem to indicate that it must contain compensating elements, 

 (possibly in the subsoil) as a substitute for the clayey admixture usually so 

 indispensable to the highest success of the two last named fruits. 



A very considerable plantation of apples has also been made upon some of 

 the higher portions of the slope heretofore described, embracing a considerable 



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