CLIMATE OF MICHIGAN. 11 



apples may remain upon the ground unfrozen, and the depth of snow is 

 usually such that grapevines, and small fruit plants generally, are buried out 

 of harm's way. In spring, vegetation, from the absence of frost in the soil, 

 not unfrequently pushes through the snow before it entirely disappears, thus 

 endeavoring to make amends, to some extent, for the shortness of the grow- 

 ing season, by treading upon the heels of winter. 



The portion of the Lower Peninsula from Grand Traverse Bay northward, 

 enjoys a very flattering prominence as a romantic and health-giving summer 

 resort, a prominence very largely, if not even primarily, due to the same 

 peculiarities that render it so desirable as a fruit-growing region, to which, 

 doubtless, was largely due its early settlement by an energetic and thrifty 

 population. The region embraces a large proportion of excellent lands for 

 fruit-growing purposes, as well as a climate mellowed by the influence of the 

 adjacent waters, in this respect comparing favorably with localities several 

 hundred miles farther south. 



The three or four more southern tiers of counties have been so long occu- 

 pied by a mainly agricultural population, and the timber has generally been 

 so mercilessly destroyed to open the lands for cropping purposes, that long 

 stretches of country have, very generally, become exposed to the nearly 

 unchecked influence of the winds, resulting in more or less perceptible, and 

 clearly unfavorable changes of climate, so far as its influence upon agricult- 

 ure, and especially fruit culture, is concerned, the result being that stronger 

 winds, in more immediate contact with the soil, dissipate the surface 

 moisture much more rapidly, and, with it, the warmth of the soil, increasing 

 the liability to both drought and frost during the growing season, and, in 

 winter, increasing the severity of the storms, and of the paroxysms of cold 

 which, from time to time, sweep over the country. That much of this waste 

 of timber has been thoughtlessly and unwisely done, and that it would be 

 the dictate of the highest wisdom to at once apply the obvious remedy by 

 replanting where needful, and by taking measures for the proper conserva- 

 tion of the requisite portions of such as yet remains, will, we imagine, hardly 

 be questioned by thoughtful and observing persons, since the practice of the 

 past strongly tends to remand the Peninsula State to the condition of her 

 more western sisters, save only the then uncertain benefits of an insular 

 position. 



The facts and figures above employed are largely drawn from Prof. A. 

 Winchell's climatological charts of Michigan, and the same are re-affirmed 

 and amplified in a paper read by him before the State Horticultural Society 

 during its annual meeting held at Ann Arbor on December 6th, 7th and 8th, 

 1880. See the Society's transactions for that year, pages 155 to 163 inclusive. 



In the Grand Traverse region, killing frosts do not occur later in spring 

 than at St. Joseph, and autumn frosts around Grand Traverse bay generally 

 hold off till November. There is no section north of 40 degrees where they 

 have a longer season than about Grand Traverse bay, in latitude 45 degrees. 



In the storm of 1856, the temperature was the same at Old Mission, at 

 Grand Haven, and at St. Joseph. In that of 1864, there was no difference 

 between thermometers at Northport, Manitou Islands, Glen Arbor, Pent- 

 water, White Lake, Muskegon and St. Joseph. They ranged from 10 degrees 

 or 12 degrees to 14 degrees. These observations were taken on low lands. 

 At a high point at St. Joseph the thermometer showed only 5 degrees. 



In 1867, Sanford Howard says: "Accurate records which have been kept 



