166 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Michigan as a state lias a world-wide reputation as a lumber state. It 

 has justly that reputation. Many of the railways, harbors, and piers 

 were built because of that interest, and all of the transportation com- 

 panies in this state, on the great lakes, in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wiscon- 

 sin, and the other western states, hare been affected, and have drawn a 

 part of their life blood from the lumber interests in this great state. 

 That interest is on the decline, and very soon it will be an industry of 

 the past. 



As a necessity, the railways and boats and transportation companies, 

 not only in this state but in those I have named, will seek to retrieve the 

 loss of the lumber-carrying interest by fostering and encouraging some 

 interest that may seem to be able in part to take its place and be more 

 permanent. It seems to me that they must naturally turn to the products 

 of the soil. If that be done, the fruit interests of Michigan will play a 

 very important part, and the future of peach-growing in Michigan is by 

 far the greater part of that interest. 



If I am correct, as I shall assume that I am, in the very near future 

 more refrigerator cars will be used. They will be prepared specially for 

 the Michigan peach trade, and the roads that will be soliciting for busi- 

 ness will run these cars to the markets where the peaches are wanted, 

 and at a cost that will be fair to the grower and the transporter. It need 

 not be expected that this result will be fully accomplished at once. As 

 the demand comes, the facilities will be provided. It is a matter of 

 policy and compulsion with the carriers. The trade they must have. The 

 quantity of business and competition will regulate the facilities and cost. 



I shall assume that my reasoning is correct, and that transportation, 

 in the future of peach-growing in Michigan, will be provided. With 

 that question settled, we will pass to some of the other questions that 

 may be deemed important. Michigan is a fruit state by nature. When it 

 was made, the Creator had in mind that the lower peninsula of Michigan, 

 and the western part of that peninsula, should be the great store-house 

 from which should be drawn the peaches required to supply a large part 

 of the people who should occupy this country in future generations. 

 That territory is centrally located, in close proximity to large, growing 

 cities, surrounded by a country that can not grow peaches and never 

 will. The contingent territory is among the best in the world, capable 

 of supplying a dense population of thrifty Americans. 



Ultimately, on lake Michigan, will be located perhaps the center of 

 the great manufacturing interests of this continent. The lake on the 

 west will control the future of peach-growing in Michigan, so far as 

 climatic influences are concerned, as it has in the past. It will spread a 

 mantle of protection over the future peach-growers of Michigan, such 

 as can not be vouchsafed to any other element on this continent. 



In the future the prevailing winds will be from the west, as they have 

 been in the past. The extreme cold will bound across the western prairie 

 country as it has in all ages, carrying death and destruction to the peach 

 interests in its path. Lake Michigan will rise in her majesty, as she 

 has always risen before, and say, ''Thus far shalt thou come and no 

 further. I am the guardian and the savior of my Michigan peach-growing 

 people." The lone flower on the yearling tree, as it shall nod to the May 

 breezes, will continue to say, "To her I owe my existence." The monarch 



