290 GENERAL HISTORY. 



BARRY COUNTY. 



This county was set off by act of the Legislative Council of the Territory, 

 approved October 29th, 1829, and was organized by an act of the State Legis- 

 lature which took effect upon its approval on March 15th, 1839. 



It was named in honor of William T. Barry, postmaster general under the 

 administration of Andrew Jackson. The county seat is at Hastings. 



Slocum Bunker was the first white man that entered Barry county as a set- 

 tler (Pio. Col. A^ol. 1st, page 112.) 



George K. Beamer, in History of Michigan Horticulture, says : '' In 1835 Cal- 

 Tin Gr. Hill settled on what is now the crossing of the two main streets of Mid- 

 dleville, and Henry Leonard about one mile north, on the Thornapple river, 

 and the next year, 183G, planted the first apple and cherry trees. About 1837 

 William Bassett and William Lewis set small orchards in Yankee Springs 

 township ; William Bassett sowed some apple seed in 1837, which was the 

 first nursery, as far as I am able to learn, in Barry county. 



" To condense matters — the first orchard set in Barry county was at*Middle- 

 ville in 183G, Yankee Springs in 1837, Johnstown 1837, Woodland 1841, Has- 

 tings 1840, Prairieville 1839. The first nursery was planted in Yankee 

 Springs by sowing apple seed in 1837, and in Prairieville in 1839. A second 

 nursery planted in Prairieville in 1841 contained the first root-grafted trees 

 grown in the county. These grafts came from Monroe, Michigan. The va- 

 rieties were Kusset, Baldwin, Spitzenburg, Swaar, Early Harvest, and Seek- 

 nofurther. 



''Old trees in this county are healthy on the high lands and on clay soil, but 

 on low lands and river bottoms they are not healthy, which is mostly charge- 

 able to severe winters a few years since, followed by a series of dry summers. 



"As to later work, Elisha Kellogg planted two nurseries in the township of 

 Irving in 1844 and sold largely from them for several years. These nurseries 

 contained choice varieties of grafted fruit, but are now sold out, and there 

 are now no nurseries of importance in this county. 



''The first fruit exported from this county was in 1859, by Jeptha Parish, 

 from Yankee Springs — a very fine quantity and quality of Baldwin apples." 



At the winter meeting of the State Pomological Society, in Lansing, in 

 February, 1879, A. C. Town, of Mile, said: "As regards our fruit prospects, 

 I would say the indications now are that there will be a good crop of apples, 

 peaches, pears and the smaller fruits in this county. As the most of the 

 county is high table land, lying between the Kalamazoo and Thornapple 

 rivers, and interspersed with numerous inland lakes fed by springs, the ther- 

 mometer does not as yet appear to get below zero, as it does in the valleys on 

 either side of us. In this respect we are highly favored, seldom having a 

 failure of fruit." 



The Barry County Agricultural Society was organized in 1856. In its re- 

 port for the year 1867 it states that the soil of the county ranges from heavy 

 clay and loamy timbered land to light, sandy, scrub oak plains. Timbered 

 lands about one-third, and timbered openings more than one-half. 



In 1868 there was a severe drought and but few apples. 



In 1869 apples were plenty, but many were injured by early and severe 

 cold. Peaches were very abundant. 



