76 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



on what was formeily pine laud. It is liigli, elevated land, perhaps 75 to 

 100 feet above the level of the surrounding hardwood country. I have 

 some seedling jjeach trees there that I planted some fourteen j^ears ago, 

 and those trees came into bearing, about four years after setting. We 

 have had more or less peaches every year. This year we had from the 

 old trees a very fine crop of peaches. Many of the old trees have died 

 down and sprouts have come up. The}' have grown right in the sod, 

 no care nor culture whatever. I have a young orchard, however, of 600 

 trees, that I set four years ago this coming spring. The soil is sandy 

 gravel with a clay subsoil. 



Mr. Morrill: Red clay? 



Mr. Brook: It is a kind of reddish clay. There seems to be iron in the 

 clay, or something that gives it that color, and a great deal of small lime- 

 stone from the size of a nickel up to as large as perhaps two or three 

 inches in diameter, and that seems to underlie this gravel and loam on the 

 top. These 600 trees I set four years ago this coming spring. We had a 

 few peaches from them this season, and they were very nice. I have now 

 altogether a thousand trees, and I have a good deal of faith that I am 

 going to raise peaches up there. 



Q: What about grapevines? 



Mr. Pitt: AYell, I have a little block of 64 grapevines. They are set 8 

 feet apart each way. I set stakes about six feet high and trained the 

 canes to them. After a couple of years I set two other stakes to each vine, 

 and then I put a cap on top and had them down so that they would hang 

 over the tops of those stakes, trimmed them back, and we have had for a 

 number of years good crops of Concords and some Agawams. They have 

 done very nicely, stood right up there and endured the winters, and so 

 have my peach trees. 



Q: How far is the lower land from where your peach trees are set? 



Mr. Pitt: It is from a hundred rods to half a mile. 



Q: A large extent, then, of low land? 



Mr. Pitt: Yes, sir; to the north, south, and east of me is all low land. 

 On the west, for a number of miles, it is high pine land. 



Q: Are there other bearing peach orchards west of you on the high 

 land? 



Mr. Pitt: There are not. There are a few orchards that have been set. 



Q: The same success that .you have? 



Mr. Pitt: They have not been set long enough to know what they will 

 do. 



President Morrill: The character of soil you describe is really No. 1 

 for peaches. 



Mr. Morrill : Mr. Mason, what have you to say in regard to this paper, 

 or anything of interest regarding Gratiot county horticulture? 



Mr. Mason: Well, I do not really live in Gratiot county, but as you are 

 asking for an opinion in regard to tree-setting, I will say I have canvassed 

 this county quite extensively, and have sold a good many trees in the last 

 ■six or seven years to be set in Ihis countv, but most of the trees I am 

 selling in this county are plum — not many peach. 



Mr. Morrill: Do jiear trees seem to do well here? 



Mr. Mason: Yes, first-rate, and I would say that I have seen some very 

 nice peach orchards, and I can also cite you to one out here which I think 

 has been set iicrhajis six or seven yoais, started and then added to right 

 along, and had fair success. It is on a high i)iece of land, about fourteen 



