FRUIT CULTURE IN KALAMAZOO COUNTY. 385 



more from thoughtlessness and habit, than from principles of economy or 

 hygienic science. In the early settlement of the country, in the absence of 

 fruit, we became habituated to heavy diet to supply the bodily waste of exces- 

 sive labor, and when fruit was counted as among the luxuries, only to be 

 indulged in occasionally. That state of things is already passed, and fruit can 

 now be enjoyed to the full gratification of the appetite, and should be classed 

 with the necessaries, rather than with the luxuries — and with hopes of better 

 health. 



SMALL FKUITS. 



Eeturniug from this digression, we refer to the small fruits as a branch of 

 fruit culture yet in its infancy, but promising large future developments. In 

 the early days of our village organization every householder had his strawberry- 

 patch, and border of currants and raspberries, supplying their domestic wants; 

 and it is only within a score of years that the small fruits have met with a 

 demand that invited their extensive cultivation as a distinct branch of busi- 

 ness. It is estimated from the best available data, that the annual sales of 

 what are technically termed the "small fruits" in the Kalamazoo market 

 alone are from $8,000 to $10,000 ; and this does not include the supplies which 

 find a satisfactory market from South Haven and its vicinity. 



THE GEAPE. 



The cultivation of the grape, under the stimulus of past success, must neces- 

 sarily be greatly increased. Its fruit as an hygienic diet is being increasingly 

 appreciated, and the place it has occuped as one of our luxuries, must give 

 place to that of the necessaries. The bluiFs about Kalamazoo are admirably 

 adapted to their growth. Those engaged in its culture are constantly experi- 

 menting in new varieties, testing their habits, their endurance, their adapta- 

 tion to our location, their value in a commercial point of view, aud their rank 

 ■will soon be established. To the present time the supply has only been suffi- 

 cient to meet the increasing local demand for domestic use, — while an unlim- 

 ited field is open for preserving fruit by the newly invented " Williams' Fruit 

 Preserver," a South Haven invention. If we cannot compete in the markets 

 of the world with the vineyards of the old country, or the dry, rainless cli- 

 mate of California, or of our Southern States, we have succeeded in raising 

 fruit of first quality in open air, — and such fruit commands remunerating 

 prices. The manufacture of wine, by its increased value, will endure the cost of 

 transportation, and give the business to California, where the grape is raised 

 far cheaper than here. But why may we not make valuable use of the " Wil- 

 liams Fruit Preserver," in converting the grape into the raisin ? The high price " 

 we pay for this fruit as compared with the quotations of forty years ago, evmce 

 a demand, limited only by the price which the purchaser can meet; and those 

 who know anything of the modus operayidi of the conversion from the ripened 

 grape to the raisin of commerce, the slow, tedious process of sun evaporation 

 of clusters, spread upon the ground, depending upon successive cloudless skies, 

 the watching, turning, assorting, long exposed to dust and sand, will inquire 

 " Has not Yankee ingenuity invented a process by which the work can be done 

 in hours instead of days, and with a degree of cleanliness that will be appreci- 

 ated by the housewife, whose duties so often require the separation of the 

 fruit from all foreign substances ?" And what may be a success with the raisin 

 may be equally so with the fig, which Bidwell and other amateur fruitists of 

 South Haven, are now domesticating to our climate. 



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