386 GENERAL HISTORY. 



approved March 8th, 1843. It was organized in pursuance of an act 

 approved March 12th, 1875, and which provided for the completion of its 

 organization by the election of the proper officers on the first Monday in 

 April, 1875. 



The county seat is Otsego Lake. 



This county occupies some of the highest lands in the lower peninsula. 

 Its waters at the northwest flow through Pine lake in Lake Michigan. The 

 north and northeast are drained by affluents of the Cheboygan river. The 

 south gives rise to affluents of Au Sable river, and the headwaters of the 

 Manistee rise in the central and western part. 



Its elevation varies from seven hundred feet at the east and south to eleven 

 hundred feet in the central and western portions. 



Mr. A. W. Kush, of Vanderbilt, states, in substance, that the earliest set- 

 tlement within this county was made about the year 1868, by the firm of 

 Smith, Kelly & D wight, for lumbering purposes, upon the site of the present 

 village of Otsego Lake. 



The first actual settlement for agricultural purposes occurred three years 

 later, in the year 1871, at which time several settlers came in and located 

 homesteads, among the first of whom were Dr. N. L. Parmater and Robert 

 Menzies. Dr. Parmater located five miles northwest of the present village 

 of Gaylord, which place had not yet been settled. Eobert Menzies located 

 about five miles still farther north. Each of these men, as soon as they had 

 made small clearings, planted orchards upon their farms, which were the 

 first orchards jjlanted in this region. They are now in a flourishing condi- 

 tion, and the trees mostly in bearing. Other settlers have followed their 

 example, and there are now more than a hundred orchards planted within 

 the county. 



Partly, doubtless, through inexperience, and partly from neglect, there are 

 a good many orchards that are not doing well ; still those that are properly 

 cared for are generally in satisfactory condition, with the prospect that, within 

 ten years, the county will produce its own supply of fruit, with the exception 

 of peaches, which winterkill here. 



Berries of all kinds are successful, including blueberries, blackberries and 

 raspberries, all of which grow spontaneously, as do gooseberries also. Cur- 

 rants and strawberries are largely cultivated, yielding abundant crops. 



There are several large wild plum orchards in the county. Cherries and 

 "tame" plums (pruuus domestica), are successful here, and crab apples of 

 all kinds seem to stand the climate, and to succeed better here than the larger 

 varieties, only the hardier of which can be fully relied on. The deep snows 

 appear to injure the more tender varieties. No nurseries have been yet 

 established in the county, nor are there any old Indian orchards. 



According to the census of 1884 Otsego county had of apple orchards 91 

 acres, 293 bearing trees, yielding in 1883, 36 bushels of fruit. 



Peach orcliards, none. 



The value of orchard products of all kinds sold or consumed in 1883 was 

 $11.00. 



Vineyards, none. 



Nurseries, none. 



Market garden products sold in 1883, $75.00. 



