WASHTENAW COUNTY. 257 



in 1877, have apparently been injured by recent severe winters, or other 

 causes, to such an extent that very many trees have been cut down ; and, 

 owing perhaps to the failing health of the proprietor, the remainder are being 

 neglected. 



Mr. George D. Kies has an extensive young fruit plantation near Manches- 

 ter, including more or less small fruits, together with forty acres of pears, 

 mostly Angonleme, a late autumn variety. Near this village are several 

 other plantations of apples; pears, peaches and other fruits, for commercial 

 purposes, to which the soils and the rolling surface and thorough drainage 

 of this region seem to be well adapted. 



Recently the elevated, rolling lands along the Huron, in the vicinity of 

 Ann Arbor, have been discovered to be well adapted to the growth of fruits ; 

 and they are being extensively devoted to this use for commercial purposes. 



A building especially intended for the purpose of retarding the ripening of 

 fruits has recently been constructed by J. D. Baldwin, of Ann Arbor, in 

 which, without the use of ice, he is enabled to keep even the most perishable 

 fruits, during the warmest weather, at so low and equable a temperature 

 that, when the state of the market renders it desirable, their over maturity 

 may be prevented for several days, while long keepers can be kept at so low 

 a temperature that the process of maturing is mainly suspended during 

 winter and spring, enabling the owner to place them upon the market after 

 others have disappeared, thus commanding highly satisfactory prices. 



In 1875 Jacob Ganzhorn, speaking of fruits in Washtenaw county, remarked: 

 " There are a few orchards here which bore large crops in 1874. These have 

 gone through the cold winter of 1874-5 without injury to the trees, are finely 

 filled with blossom buds this spring, and seem every way thrifty and 

 healthy." 



^.. Of apples he said: "Farmers say that, acre for acre, they realize more from 

 their apples than from their wheat fields." 



Of the pear he stated that Prof. Baur had planted one thousand trees 

 within the past two years, and had been remarkably successful with them. 



He also remarked that the grape had gained a substantial foothold here, 

 that a neighbor would plant one hundred plum trees the following spring, 

 that small quince plantations were springing up here and there, and that plats 

 of small fruits were being largely planted. ^ 



Mr. S. W. Dorr in 1879 stated that there were about two hundred and fifty 

 acres of peach orchards in the immediate vicinity of Ann Arbor, that his own 

 place is high, so high that his well is one hundred and four feet in depth to 

 the water, and that he gets peaches six years out of seven. His place is in 

 Eouthwestern Washtenaw. 



In the spring of 1870, Charles H. Woodruff, of Ann Arbor, planted seeds of 

 Concord grape. From these sprang the grape known as White Ann Arbor, 

 which first fruited in 1873. At the Washtenaw county fair of that year it was 

 awarded a special premium. It is, however, alleged to have defects that stand 

 in the way of its general popularity. 



Woodruff Red is another seedling of the Concord by the same person, orig- 

 inated in 1874, and first fruited in 1877. The fruit was shown at the meeting 

 of the American Pomological Society, at Boston, in 1881, and was offered to 

 the public in 1885. Its alleged hardiness and pr.'ductiveness, together with 

 the clear, bright color of the fruit, and the large size of both berry and bunch, 

 -combine to render it attractive as a grape for general cultivation. 



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