TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING. 69 



crops upon the surrounding hills. The production of celery is a new 

 enterprise here, having been first undertaken in a small way last year. These 

 twenty acres were devoted to this crop by Professor Steere and the pro- 

 duct was remarkably fine, commanding a ready sale, some of it being 

 marketed as far east as Boston. There is hardly a doubt that celery- 

 growing will now become an established industry on lands adapted to that 

 crop in this vicinity. 



In conclusion, I see no reason why horticulture should not continue to 

 be profitable in this locality. The pioneer work is done. We have learned 

 something of the business and of the best varieties for this locality. We 

 now have satisfactory arrangements for marketing, with daily fruit cars 

 when needed, to convenient markets. If low prices prevail, some of our 

 growers have cold storage houses in which to hold their fruit, while a well- 

 conducted evaporating factory stands ready to take any surplus which may 



exist. A. A. CROZIER. 



BENTON HARBOR AND VICINITY. 



Mr. Morrill: The spring opened with great promise of a big crop — 

 too promisingly, for it betokened a large product and a lean pocket-book. 

 But rain came in May and continued almost daily until the 8th of July. 

 Our locality is almost purely a horticultural one, and such reverses are 

 severely felt. There was fine bloom of the strawberry, but the rain caused 

 the Crescent to fail and the Warfield also where there were not enough of 

 the fertilizing varieties with it. Rain at time of ripening caused still 

 more loss, yet shipments were from 5,000 to 8,000 cases daily. The rasp- 

 berry crop was fair, the daily shipment being from 4,000 to 6,000 cases; 

 and that of blackberries was good, being 6,000 to 8,000 cases daily. The 

 melons weire of good quality, the crop large, and prices low. Tomatoes 

 yielded largely and prices were high — $500 per acre in some cases. Apple 

 and pear trees are in bad condition, because of the attacks of fungi, save 

 Astrachan, Hubbardston, Oldenburg, and Spy. I fear the young fruit, if 

 any sets, will drop next season. Peaches were good on our best lands (the 

 high ones) and sold well, bringing $2 or more per bushel in most cases. 

 Many peach orchards on low lands are dead, but others are looking very 

 well. Many of our people became discouraged early, and so their planta- 

 tions are now in very bad shape. Through the banks, in 1891, fruit to the 

 amount of $800,000 was paid for in Benton Harbor last season, while the 

 payments by factories and those of other sorts made a total of one million 

 dollars or more. The total for 1892 was large, but somewhat under these 

 figures because of the failure of apples and pears. 



IN " THE THUMB " AND EAST COART. 



Our secretary desired me to write about the status of fruitgrowing 

 ■along the Huron shore and in northern Michigan in general. This would 

 embrace a region which, within a very few years, has been the richest 

 lumbering country for yellow pine in the world. Much of the wealth of 

 Detroit and the lake cities of Erie was drawn from these forests. Less 

 than forty years ago the only farming that was attempted was such as 

 would contribute to the lumbering interests, even about Port Huron, 

 while further north most of the land was owned by the government. The 

 soil varied from a light sand (a cold, wet sand with quicksand bottom), 



