KENT COUNTY. • 319 



Mr. Page and John Almy, his nearest neighbor, started gardens upon the 

 bank of the river, and planted in them such things as they brought from the 

 east and could get througli the mails from friends, in the form of seeds and 

 slips. They also made some selections from the woods. It was in iMr. Page's 

 river garden that the first tomatoes were raised in the Grand river valley. 

 They were a great curiosity, and grown as ornamental plants and called 

 " love apples." There was but one person in the country that would eat 

 them, and that was the school teacher. This was a matter of astonishment 

 to the i^eople, and at first dire consequences were expected as a result. 



For a good many of the first things planted in the gardens of the settlers 

 they were indebted to the kindness of uncle Louis Campeau, who grew nothing 

 to sell, but gave many things away. 



In 1838 Mr. Page moved up on Bridge street hill and planted another 

 garden with a sort of nursery attachment, the whole occupying perhaps three 

 acres. This was the year of the great flood in the river, which occurred in 

 February. It was in this second garden that Mr. Page grew Morns Multicau- 

 lis and raised silkworms, dealing in the cocoons. It was about this time the 

 Eohan potato had such a great run. Mr. Page raised specimens that would 

 weigh two pounds, and sold them for seed at the rate of from $16 to 120 per 

 bushel. The fruit in this garden was grown largely from plants found in the 

 woods. Mr. Page and his sons gathered gooseberries, currants, raspberries, 

 and blackberries, as well as plums, from the valley of Grand river, and by 

 careful selection succeeded in growing very fine, smooth gooseberries, of large 

 size ; black caps were grown that rivaled the cultivated sorts in size and 

 quality; white blackberries were found and propagated, and plums were 

 found, large and delicious, that ripened as early as August. All these, added 

 to slips of cultivated fruits and ornamental shrubs, made the nucleus of the 

 future nursery. 



The first apple seeds planted were from fruit gathered from the old French 

 trees about Detroit, and shipped to Grand Haven around the lakes, and from 

 thence up the river in Mackinaw boats. The apples were eaten with the 

 understanding that the seeds should be saved, and no guest was treated to 

 any of the fruit without this proviso. A quart of seed thus obtained were 

 sown. At the same time a bushel of peach pits were planted, producing 

 trees that were readily sold, without budding, at good prices. 



Mr. Page grew the wild cranberry here, and his garden was a resort for 

 people who wished a feast of fruit. He also raised about the first melons 

 grown in the country. 



Keally the nursery business proper in Kent county was started by Abel Page 

 and sons, in the year 1845. It was planted north of Coldbrook, and the first 

 ten thousand root grafts were purchased at Monroe, of one Hartwell, a 

 nurseryman there. Two-thirds of these were apples, the remainder divided 

 between pears, cherries, plums, etc. To these more were added rapidly, 

 until in two or three years the number of trees in the nursery reached two 

 hundred and fifty thousand, and for nearly twenty years about this amount 

 of stock was carried. 



In 1850 the first mammoth pie-plant root was brought into this county by 

 the father of John B. Colton, in a pot swung under his wagon. From this 

 Mr. Page secured a slip for one dollar, and the next year sold five dollars' 

 worth of plants from it, and two years thereafter sold Judge Withey enough 

 pie-plant for Independence day's dinner for $2.00. 



