276 GENERAL HISTORY. 



Indians, to locate upon the Huron (now Clinton) river, for which purpose 

 they were furnished with a vessel and provisions, together with many other 

 needful articles, including two milch cows and some horses. They reached 

 their chosen location, not far from the present Mt. Clemens, on July 22d, 

 1782, and were soon followed by others. They named the place in memory 

 of their former location in Ohio, New Guadenhutten. Upon the close of the 

 war complications arose, and the mission was abandoned by all except Mr. 

 Connor and family, who became permanent residents. 



Several other persons who had been held as prisoners by the Indians, dur- 

 ing the war, upon their release als > became settlers in the county. 



The first fruit tree planting was done by the Moravians, at New Guaden- 

 hutten. These first trees, says Mr. J. E. Day, of Armada, some of which 

 are still standing, show indications of great age, are of very large size, and 

 of varieties unknown to the orchardists of the present day. 



Prior to the war of 1812 few fruits were planted, but when, after its close, 

 settlers came in, apple and pear seeds were planted, and the young seedlings 

 were set in orchards about the dwellings. From 1822 to 1825 orchards were 

 planted in the southwestern portion of the county by Mr. Squires and Mr. 

 Arnold, also by Lazarus Green, of Washington, who became noted as a fruit 

 grower, and had for a long time the largest orchard in the county, and at an 

 early day did much grafting for others. 



In the northern portion of the county the earliest planters were Asahel 

 Bailey, Deacon Eogers, Gad Chamberlain, Mr. Gates and others. In 1880 the 

 largest orchard was that of Mr. Canby, covering twenty acres, and contain- 

 ing one thousand two hundred trees of select varieties. 



One of the most thrifty aud profitable orchards in the county, as stated by 

 Mr. Day in 1880, was that of Charles Perkins, near the village of Richmond,, 

 situated on a dry, sandy ridge. 



At an early day Thomas Blackett planted an apple orchard of seven hun- 

 dred trees, upon his farm near Koseville, in the southeastern portion of the 

 county, including over one hundred varieties — quite too many for profit. In 

 1875 this orchard produced over three thousand bushels of apples, and over 

 $1,000 worth of fruit was sold, together with a large amount of cider. 



There are, about the residence, several very large evergreen trees, among 

 them an Austrian pine, six feet four inches in circumference, forty-four feet 

 in height, with branches twenty feet in length, also several very large pear 

 trees. 



Peaches and the smaller fruits are not extensively cultivated, although most 

 farmers aim to pr ivide themselves a succession throughout the season. Mr. 

 Loren Andrews, of Washington, however, had, in 1880, a peach orchard of 

 one thousand two hundred trees, which bore about three hundred bushels. 



In 1879 the Secretary of State -reports, in this county, 5,458 acres of apples 

 and 700 acres of peaches. 



A son of Lazarus Green, writing to Mr. Day, says: '' My father was some- 

 thing of a fruit fancier in his day, kept a nursery some fifteen or twenty years, 

 from which hundreds of orchards in Macomb, Oakland and Lapeer counties 

 were supplied." 



The soil of the county is mostly sand and clay loam. Mr. J. E, Day, in 

 "A Brief of Horticulture," estimates that an acre planted to the best sorts, 

 should produce, in this section, five hundred bushels of apples annually. 

 There is no danger of overdoing the apple business. The bulk of the crop 



