WINTER MEETING, 1S79. 63 



indications, however, seem to have passed bnt for little with the earlier immi- 

 grants to the territory, as, although the orchard and garden formed a con- 

 stituent part of most farms in southern Michigan from the first, little account 

 was made of them, except for a supply of the home demand. 



With tlie organization of a national pomological society, about the year 1848, 

 and the sending abroad of a few small collections of Michigan grown fruits, 

 for public exhibition, we may date the first faint dawning of the knowledge, 

 even among our own people, that Michigan possessed special advantages in this 

 particular. 



Up to about this time little account seems to have been made of fruit as a 

 marketable commodity anywhere in America, excepting possibly the immediate 

 vicinity of a few of our larger eastern cities. Still, even during this early 

 period in our history, there were not lacking persons with an active interest in 

 this subject, and societies were from time to time organized for the purpose of 

 disseminating information and encouraging more effective practice among 

 those interested ; but it was not till public attention had been strongly drawn 

 to the capacities of the St. Joseph fruit region, at first by many supposed to be 

 the limit of our '* fruit belt;" nor yet, till with the rapid development of the 

 northwest, and the growth of its cities, our near markets began to call impera- 

 tively for supplies of fruits, that an adequate consciousness of the importance 

 of this interest, and of the necessity of concerted action came to be felt. 



With the extension of commercial fruit planting northward, along the east- 

 ern shore of Lake Michigan, this interest continued to gather both numbers 

 and strength, till the necessities arising out of its breadth and the magitude of 

 its operations began to call imperatively for such means of associated action as 

 a parent society alone could supply. Out of these necessities has arisen this 

 society, its organization dating from February 6th, 1871. It seems to have 

 been foreseen from the beginning, that a corporate organization, sustained by 

 legal sanction, would prove essential, and steps were at once taken to secure the 

 enactment of a law under which it assumed the dignity of a body corporate on 

 the 5th of July of the same year. 



Early in the history of the settlement of our state, and before the farmer 

 and lumberman had settled down effectively to the work of sweeping away our 

 forests, and opening up the country, nothing was heard of the winter-killing 

 of fruit trees ; and the peach — now confined to the crowns of our highest hills, 

 or driven under the lee of Lake Michigan — was successful ahvays and every- 

 where. The unfortunate changes of climate to arise from the loss of forest 

 protection were unthought of, and hence all precautionary provisions were 

 omitted. 



The State Agricultural Society early reached a position enabling it to do 

 much in aid of the fruit growing interest; and so far as the offering of liberal 

 premiums for exhibits of fruits at its annual fair could aid, its work has been 

 ■well done. Still, many of the most essential needs of fruit culture, or perhaps 

 we should say, of pomology, are so strictly peculiar to itself, that it was, and 

 is, doubtless, too much to hope or expect, that a body of men, such as are 

 managers of our State Agricultural Society, with so varied a class of interests 

 especially in charge, would be able to fully appreciate and provide for their 

 special needs; the proper understanding of which must require more or less 

 acquaintance with the whole science of fruits and their culture, together with 

 its practical application. 



As illustrating the importance of this particular, and the ditHculty growing 

 out of it, we remark that there is usually little difficulty in selecting commit- 



