WAYNE COUNTY. 249 



of Livonia, Joseph Daiues, of Kedford, and numerous others. Those of 

 Welch and Griswold were very extensive, having been planted mainly for 

 commercial purposes, in which respect both were eminently successful. It 

 is also true that in nearly all cases provision was made for far more than the 

 needs of the family, the surplus being put up for market. 



Located as the township of Plymouth is, upon the first and almost the 

 only high, rolling land in the county as we pass westward from Detroit river, 

 with strong, well-drained soils, it has proved well adapted to the growth of 

 fruit trees, and has long been noted for the amount and quality of its pomo- 

 logical products. 



Very many, if not, indeed, a majority of the earlier orchards of the county, 

 and of the townships of Livonia, Plymouth and Cantou in particular, were 

 planted with seedling trees, at a time when, nurseries were rare and grafted 

 trees scarce and expensive. On coming into bearing these orchards were, in 

 most cases, grafted with improved varieties — a work which in these towns was 

 largely intrusted to Jabez Warner, a native of Connecticut, but at this time 

 a resident of Plymouth ; and he was, moreover, almost wholly trusted to se- 

 lect the varieties to be inserted. It is but justice to him, as an intelligent 

 and conscientious pomologist of that early period, to state that to him more 

 than to any, if not to all, others is the entire region indebted for the subse- 

 quent high character of its orchard products. 



Almost at the outset of this grafting process some traveling grafters from 

 Ohio grafted a tree in the orchard of John G. Welch, of Livonia, guarantee- 

 ing the grafts to be of Rhode Island Greening. When in bearing, the fruit 

 proved to be a bright red apple, unknown to Mr. Welch, who stored it in his 

 cellar with his other fruit. During the following winter this fruit was shown 

 to a visiting friend from western New York, who identified it as Steele's Red 

 Winter, evidently mistaking it for Baldwin, which at this time was generally 

 known in western New York by this synonym. From this circumstance, and 

 in ignorance of the fact of such previous appropriation of the name, this 

 estray soon became currently and extensively known as Steele's Red Winter ; 

 and proving very valuable as a productive long keeper, it rapidly won an ex- 

 tensive notoriety in the eastern portion of the State, and was extensively 

 employed by Mr. Warner in top-grafting the seedling orchards already spoken 

 of — a position in which its naturally slender habit of growth was, to a con- 

 siderable extent, overcome by the influence of the more vigorous seedling 

 stocks. On account of its beauty and superior keeping and handling quali- 

 ties, it became a highly popular late variety in the city markets of the west, 

 under this pseudonym. The error remained uncorrected till the year 1848, at 

 which time T. T. Lyon introduced this into his orchards of trial varieties, at 

 Plymouth, and at the same time imported trees of Red Canada, the two when 

 in bearing, by careful comparison, and by the sending of specimens of the 

 fruit to the late Charles Downing for examination, proving ideutical. 



The trial orchards of T. T. Lyon, above mentioned, were planted at inter- 

 vals from 1847 to 1854 or '5, although preparations for them had commenced 

 as early as 1843, by procuring a quantity of stocks, root-grafting and plant- 

 ing a small nursery, mainly with reference to the contemplated orchards. 

 Mr. Jabez Warner was at that time engaged in the work of grafting the seed- 

 ling orchards of that region ; and cions for the purpose were largely obtained 

 from him. It was soon discovered that varieties were, in many cases, dupli- 

 cated under different names ; and as a means of avoiding or correcting such 



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