TPIE OLD MISSION ORCHARDS. 



[At the meeting or the State Pomological Society in October, at Traverse City, a delega- 

 tion visited the Old Mission Orchards. This delegation appointed "\Vm. H. C. Lyon to 

 report the trip, and the following is the report :] 



An invitation having been extended to citizens from abroad to visit the frnit 

 farms of Peninsula township, Grand Traverse county, the following gentlemen 

 availed themselves of the proffered offer, to wit : Hon. Henry Holt, of Cascade 

 Springs; Hon. S. S. Bailey, G. W. Dickinson, and John Suttle of Grand 

 Eapids ; and Wm. H. C. Lyon, of Flint. On the morning of the lOtli inst. we 

 repaired to the dock of Hannah, Lay & Co., at 6 A. M., where we found the 

 little steamer ^//« Burroius in waiting. The day was delightful, as fine as an 

 excursionist could desire. The waters of Grand Traverse Bay are clear and 

 pure, and in some places 800 feet deep. As we were all residents of interior 

 towns, it was refreshing to inhale such pure air and view such fine scenery as 

 is here presented, — no dark, turbid waters, nor decaying saw-dust, such as is 

 found in many of the inland streams of our State, which carry fever and ague 

 in its train sufficient to supply a whole colony. Breakfast was announced by 

 one of the fifteenth amendments of the boat, a young darkey of about sixteen 

 summers and as many winters. As our appetites had been keenly sharpened, 

 as many as could get to the first table did ample justice to the same; as for 

 those of us who came to the second table we fared rather slim. Soon the boat 

 whistle sounded our arrival at the dock at Old Mission, some 18 miles distant 

 from Traverse City, where we found carriages in waiting. We were accom- 

 panied by Geo. Parmelee and W. W. Tracy, Esqs., who conducted us to the 

 different farms on the Peninsula. The first farm visited was that of the former 

 gentleman, consisting of some 500 acres, at an altitude, I should judge, of from 

 140 to IGO feet above the waters of the Bay. The land is heavily timbered 

 Avith sugar maple, beech, basswood, rock elm, white ash, and some few other 

 varieties of timber; is gently undulating as a rule, but in some places there are 

 knolls or peaks that attain an eminence of 150 feet above the bay. The soil is 

 dark sandy loam with gravel, highly impregnated with lime pebbles, from the 

 size of a pea to that of a good sized boulder (the larger of which is, in many 

 instances, gathered and burned to lime). The description given for one farm 

 will answer, in the main, for all of the farms visited by us during the day, with 

 the exception that a large portion of the farms of this section have an under- 

 laying strata of clay, which in many instances crops out near the surface, and 

 is susceptible of being mixed with the upper strata by deep plowing. As some 

 of us had a "young" breakfast, Mr. Parmelee invited us to lunch, which we 

 moistened with some wine six years old, made by him from the Diana grape. 

 We did not find it (the wine) hard to take. We commenced a survey of the 



