TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING. 73 



It would be of but little use to plant any but the earliest varieties of 

 grape except in that locality near Sebewaing, mentioned heretofore. 



I should plant any good variety of small fruit and expect success from 

 it. I should expect best returns from those shipped by steamer to Detroit 

 and Cleveland, as there would be no other fruit of that kind in the market 

 so late in the season. 



While this region may not equal the west shore, I think that all of the 

 fruits named may be set, with good prospect for profit, in all of the towns 

 of Tuscola and Huron, north of the Cass river and east of the Black river, 

 down the Huron shore at least to the center of Sanilac county. 



On the west side of Saginaw bay we are on the main part of the lower 

 peninsula, so famous for its pine plains. These occupy the higher grounds 

 along the line of the Michigan Central railway, and seem to be almost as 

 worthless as the sands of Sahara. I know of nothing that can be made to 

 grow on these lands, except blueberries or whortleberries as they are 

 sometimes called. Between this ridge and the bay, for the first thirty 

 miles, a large part of the land is said to be too low and wet. At Tawas we 

 find hardwood lands interspersed with the plains, where all of the hardy 

 fruits are reported as doing well. These ridges are found all the way 

 along the shore between Tawas and Alpena, and back nearly to the line of 

 the Michigan Central railway. There were good apples and plums 

 through this region this year. 



Back and to the north of Alpena are some good orchards of apples, 

 pears, and plums. Fine fruit of these kinds was brought into the Alpena 

 market. I have not been able to ascertain the varieties grown, but the 

 samples of fruit were said to be fine and the flavor unexcelled. Small 

 fruits, so far as I could learn, have been cultivated but little, owing to the 

 abundance of the wild; but so far as they have been cultivated it has been 

 with good success. At all of the ports from Tawas north, whortleberries 

 are sold in great abundance, the ruling price being $1.25 per bushel. Wild 

 cranberries are found in limited quantities, but I am informed that condi- 

 tions favorable to their cultivation exist in many places through this 

 region. That is. low ground with facilities for drainage and water that 

 can be controlled for flooding. The future prospect may include this as 

 one of the important industries of this section. 



Follow with the coast line to the northwest of Alpena, seventy miles, 

 and we pass through the north part of Alpena county, through Presque 

 Isle county to Cheboygan. Much of the way we get occasional glimpses 

 of the blue waters of lake Huron. All the way along we find places 

 where young orchards have been planted and seem to be doing well; and 

 about Cheboygan many fine apples and plums were grown this year. 

 Among the fruits named I find Spy, Greenings, Baldwins, Pippins, and 

 many others. At the Cheboygan county fair, this fall, the show of fruits 

 of all kinds was said to have been very fine, and that of vegetables better 

 than is usually seen at our fairs further south. Corn was excellent, pump- 

 kins enormous; one squash weighed 300 pounds. 



Cheboygan county is so near the point of the lower peninsula that it 

 may partake of the mollifying influence of lake Michigan. Mr. John M. 

 Cline lives in Cheboygan, owns an orchard over toward Traverse City, from 

 which he took over 900 bushels of apples last fall. Wild fruits are plenti- 

 ful in this county, especially whortleberries. Thousands of bushels of 

 them find a market in Cheboygan, whence they are shipped to all points 

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