HISTORY OF FRUIT CULTURE IN KAL- 

 AMAZOO COUNTY. 



[This essay, prepared by Moses Kingsley, Esq., was read by James H. Stone, in the 

 absence of its author, at the Kalamazoo meeting, June 26, 1873.] 



Gentlemen": — Pressed into a service for which he feels utterly incompetent, 

 and not only so, but a service to be rendered in the presence of superiors in 

 practical experience and knowledge of the subject to be treated, and of supe- 

 rior talent and ability, the writer approaches his work with many misgivings, 

 supported only by an enthusiasm which dates back to earlier years, and an 

 observation co-extensive with our State governmental existence, and to a time 

 when a bearing orchard was unknown in the county of Kalamazoo. The 

 writer only gives facts from memory, and from careful observation of the pro- 

 gress that has been made to the present date, and which finds its culmination 

 in the interesting exhibition before us, and the enthusiasm developed by the 

 members of this Society on the present occasion. 



THE FRUIT BELT. 



It is but a few years since the discovery was made that Michigan had what is 

 technically called the " Fruit Belt" while the term, as now used, seems as a house- 

 hold word, familiar as the names of our States, and as geographically located. 

 Its limits inland are not so clearly defined perhaps, for the reason that those 

 who originally adopted the name claim a monopoly of its use, and limit it to 

 a narrow strip of the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, where they first success- 

 fully experimented in the cultivation of the tender fruits, which farther inland 

 soil or climate failed of uniform fruitage. Be that as it may, Kalamaeoo 

 county has, with very limited interruption, since the first cultivated fruit was 

 planted, been a successful fruit region, and claims to-day to belong to the 

 "Fruit Belt," notwithstanding the present appearance of our peach orchardSj, 

 a visitation which our more fortunate neighbors have not entirely escaped. 



THE FIRST ORCHARDS. 



The early settlers will remember the spontaneous growth and profusion of 

 wild fruits that satisfied their necessities while waiting for the tardy growth of 

 better substitutes. The wild plum, blackberry, raspberry, gooseberry, and in 

 some localities the cranberry were indigenous to our soil and climate. A few 

 bearing apple trees were found by the first settlers on Grand Prairie, on the 

 farm originally purchased by Seth Taft, supposed to have originated from seed 

 accidently dropped by French traders, on the spot which the early maps of 

 Michigan Territory designated as an Indian village. The earliest efforts at 

 fruit-growing that we have any knowledge of in this county were by Enoch 

 Harris, the first settler on Genesee Prairie, who brought apple seeds with him 



