30G STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



termini of a succession of elevated ridges, running back into the countr}' until 

 they arc lost in the table land of tlie interior. In Benzie. Manistee, Wexford, 

 and tlie soutli lialf of Grand Traverse counties these ridges run nearly east 

 nortlieast. In Leehanau, Antrim, and Charlevoix they run about south-south- 

 east. Where these ridges meet they form elevated table lands, from Avhich the 

 main -water-courses take their rise. Those of Benzie and Leelanau counties 

 meeting in the west of Grand Traverse county, form tlie level jilateau surround- 

 ing Long lake and the Betsic lakes, from which the Piatt and Betsie rivers take 

 their source ; and those of Manistee, Wexford, and Grand Traverse meeting 

 with those from Antrim and Charlevoix, form tlie high plateau of Kalkaska, 

 Crawford, and Otsego, from which rises the Boardmaii, Manistee, and Au 

 Sauble. 



Lateral valleys running down to the lakes, bays, and main water-courses, 

 break the whole country bordering on Lake Michigan, Grand Traverse Bay, 

 Little Traverse Bay, and the lower inland lakes into undulating hills varying 

 from fifty feet to four hundred feet in height, but not so abrupt as to prevent 

 easy and successful cultivation. 



Around Grand Traverse Bay and the inland lakes, from twelve to fifteen feet 

 above the water there are terraces from a few rods to a half mile in width. 

 The first settlers of the country located ujion these and built their buildings 

 and planted their gardens and orchards. I am particular in describing the 

 topography of this region on account of the important part which these ridges, 

 hills, and inland lakes play in modifying the climate and preventing extremes 

 of heat and cold, of which I shall speak under the head of '•'Atmospheric 

 Drainage" as affecting temperature and protecting fruit. 



CLIMATE, 



This I consider the most important to this region of all the subjects under 

 consideration, and the one which, when fully understood, will be found to exert 

 the most favorable inlluence ujion its agricultural and fruit-producing resources. 

 A soil deficient in one or more necessary ingredients may be improved or 

 perfected by artificial applicatio:;. but for agriculture or fruit culture we must 

 take the climate as we find it. True, we may protect our fields and orchards 

 from high and injurious winds, by planting or preserving belts of timber upon 

 the windward side, but otherwise must dci)cnd entirely upon causes beyond our 

 control for the climatic influences which favor vegetable growth. 



The climate of this region is perhaps the least understood, and at the same 

 time the most generally misunderstood, by those who have not "summered and 

 and wintered*' within its limits, of any of the subjects discussed. The general 

 opinion of such is that this is a cold, bleak land, too far north for a successful 

 farming or fruit-growing country. Their whole reasoning and conclusion is 

 based upon the mere naked fact of latitude. People from northern Ohio will 

 tell you that they fail with certain kinds of fruit there on account of frost, and 

 therefore we must fail here, for this is three hundred miles further north. 

 People from New York and southern Michigan will tell you that they cannot 

 raise certain fruits there on account of frost and therefore they cannot be grown 

 here, for this is two hundred miles further north. The same objections are 

 made and the same reasons urged by visitors from the older prairie states. 



Of the hundreds of persons who visit me every season to make inquiries 

 concerning this country, nearly all come prepossessed with the opinion tliat this 

 is too far north for a successful fi'uit-growing or even farming region, and are 



