OTTAWA COUNTY. 333 



-vines. Ileliauce was also liad upon an Alden fruit preservatory established 

 and in operation at Spring Lake as a remedy against unusual depression of 

 market prices, or a suri^lus of production. 



The winter of 1872 and '73 gave a rude shock to the ambitious aspirations 

 of the peach growers, especially of this vicinity. Mr. Lyman Hall, of Spring 

 Lake, writes: " Our thermometers indicated — 5° on the morning of January 

 28th, but from 9 o'clock on the evening of the 27th to one o'clock on the 

 morning of the 28th it indicated— 19° ; February 22d,— 5° ; and 23d,— 10°. The 

 first impression was that fruit trees, including the peach, were nearly, if not 

 wholly uninjured — an anticipation that was doomed to disappointment at the 

 opening of spring. This conclusion is strongly confirmed by the report of 

 the examinations of the orchard committee in the summer and fall of 1874, 

 who remark respecting the orchards about Spring Lake: 'The severe winter 

 of 1872 and '73 left its trace in nearly all of them.'" 



Hon. Grosvenor Reed, of Robinson, has a farm on the border of what is 

 known as the ** big marsh," a level wet prairie, nine miles east of Lake Michi- 

 gan, and about seven miles long and three wide. It is partially drained by the 

 ditches along the Chicago and Michigan Lake Shore Railroad and those of 

 the road bed of the unfinished Michigan and Ohio Railroad. 



About 1872 Mr. Reed prepared a patch of this ground, 50 by 100 feet, by 

 draining and cultivating to destroy the grass and weeds, and the next year 

 plowed it with a subsoil plow, throwing a portion of the sand subsoil to the 

 surface. He then selected the best wild cranberry plaints and planted the 

 prepared plat with them. The plants grew well, producing twenty-five 

 bushels of excellent cranberries, at the rate of 217^ bushels per acre. The 

 following is from the notes of Henry S. Clubb, formerly of Grand Haven, 

 from whom also the foregoing facts are derived : — 



Mr. Reed allows the water to stand on his cranberry patch during the 

 winter to protect the plants from frost, but does not flood it in the summer, as it 

 might overflow lands required for other purposes. 



Since the first croj) fire has overrun the marsh, sweeping the cranberries 

 off that year, but this year (1877) the vines show a perfect sheet of white 

 blossoms, showing that the roots of the plants had not been killed. 



Mr. Reed has planted half an acre with cranberries in the same manner, 

 and the plants, although young, are also white with blossoms, showing prom- 

 ise of a good crop, say in all forty bushels. 



He selects plants in the fall from the best natural patches, ties them in 

 bundles and puts them into water, where they remain fresh all winter, and 

 plants them in spring. 



There are thousands of acres of this marsh adapted to the treatment de- 

 scribed, and it is understood that capitalists have recently visited the locality 

 and there is a prospect that the big marsh, instead of remaining a source of 

 malaria, may be made profitable as a producer of fruit and farm crops. 



The Holland Colony Farmers and Fruitgrowers' Association w'hich 

 made its first annual report to the State Horticultural Society in the autumn 

 of 1880, had been in existence two or three years, and may be supposed to 

 have already contributed to develop the already large fruit-growing interest 

 about the city of Holland. It has a list of twenty-five full members. 



The Spiing Lake Horticultural Society was an organized and active body 

 for several years j)rior to 1882, on March 28th of which year it became auxil- 

 iary to the State Horticultural Society. In its annual report for that year it 



