210 GENERAL HISTORY. 



In 1784 a large colony from Detroit settled on the Raisin ; and in time the- 

 river for ten or twelve miles was settled, so that as the farms were narrow and 

 the houses built on its banks, it was a continuous village on both sides. 

 Around each house was a pear and apple orchard. It is interesting, in read- 

 ing over the evidence upon which the United States confirmed the titles to 

 these French settlers, to find the unanimity with which it is testified that a 

 Navarre, a La Salle, a Jerome, or a Robert, settled and occupied their laud 

 and planted an orchard before 1796, the date fixed by the act of Congress 

 from which possessory rights were to constitute title. As in the olden time, 

 he that builded a house must needs plant a vineyard, so here, no homestead 

 was complete without its orchard of apples and pears. Vineyards they need 

 not plant, as grapes were indigenous to the soil. 



I find that there are four distinct and well marked epochs, — we will not 

 call them generations, — of these apple and pear trees. By a careful exami- 

 nation and measurement of them we can almost place the trees in their ap- 

 propriate epochs. As in the old Knickerbocker times spoken of by Washing- 

 ton Irving, the good nature and hospitality of the Dutch " vrows " were 

 somewhat commensurate with the an)plitude of their waists, and the acumen 

 and profundity of the men were somewhat in proportion to their corporeal 

 magnitude; so the importance aiid value of these old trees consist largely in 

 what they may measure. 



The average measure will nearly indicate the epoch in which they were- 

 planted. These epochs were as follows: 



First, The year 1780, when the Navarre trees were planted. 



Second, The period from 1798 to just before the war of 1812. 



Tliird, The period from just after the war, 1816, to 18--30. 



Fourth, From 1830 to 1840. 



Fifth, From about 1844 down to the present time. But as the last are of 

 the modern grafted kinds, they do not come within the scope of the present 

 article. 



THE PIEST EPOCH. 



Subsequently, as I have stated before, the pioneers were the Navarre trees. 

 It is true, some had been brought from Detroit prior to 1800, and planted in 

 other orchards, but they had not succeeded. Among them were the trees on 

 the Labadie claim at " La Plaisane," brought from the Labadie farm adjoin- 

 ing the Navarre homestead at "the straits," but subsequently, as soon as it 

 was found that the Navarre fruit was preferable, sprouts from the latter were 

 substituted. One singular circumstance is that all these trees came from the 

 sprouts, not from seeds. Whether experience had demonstrated that seed 

 plants were a failure or nor, I have not been able to determine. I have 

 learned from Robert F. Navarre that these trees, when young, sent out many 

 sprouts from the roots. 



THE SECOND EPOCH. 



Among the trees that may be classed in the second ejioch, from 1798 to 

 1810, are those planted in 1798 on the Jacques and Isidore Navarre farms. 

 The pear tree now standing in Mr. Swop's yard, on the Isidore Navarre 

 farm, set out in 1798, measures seven feet and ten inches, and is partially 

 dead but bore eleven bushels of pears year before lasL Two trees standing 

 on what was formerly the Jacques Navarre farm, just at the Lake Shore junc- 



