700 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



humidity is not so great as in Oregon we do not find here rapid growth of 

 orchard'wood, resulting in bursting of bark and a short life to the fruit 

 trees. Then wherever a heavy timber growth is found in the United 

 States it is in a humid section, and it is a fair indication that a heavy 

 orchard growth may come thereafter. 



Owing to the fact that the soil in this fruit belt country is drift, there 

 is a scarcity of gravel, so that the highways that the farmers ought to 

 have composed of gravel and clay are lacking; and many a land-looker 

 has been prevented from settling in this region owing to these sandy 

 roads, being ignorant of the fact that a drift soil will produce results in 

 a humid atmosphere — other elements being equal — that will raise greater- 

 crops than where he comes from. 



Another singular thing is that the taste and quality of fruits are not 

 the same in these different zones of the United States. For instance. 

 I have seen Northern Spies in perfection as to looks in the orchards of 

 New Mexico, that did not resemble in taste the Michigan Spies. They 

 are more like the Ben Davis apple of Missouri — fine lookers, but not 

 the same as to taste as when planted farther north. The Missouri 

 peach has a bright, fine color: the sun paints it. As a rule the peach in 

 this fruit belt section of Michigan does not have as many fine sunny days 

 as the Missouri peach, and it has a dull color. But when we come to 

 flavor, it excels the Southern peach, and is juicy, while the Southern 

 peach is a more musk-melon type of flesh. 



Although I may be criticized for making this statement, the Mich- 

 igan peach of the fruit belt section is the best canning peach in the 

 United States. It has a fine acid flavor that will hold out in a can, and 

 it does not come onto the table from the can. insipid. Although it may 

 not equal the California, the Missouri, the Georgia, or the Maryland 

 peach as to looks. It will therefore be seen why climatic reasons change 

 the type and character of fruit, and why this fruit belt region has par- 

 ticular advantages not to be found in other fruit belt sections of the 

 United States. 



It may be stated as a rule as to agricultural wealth, that where a 

 country or section has diversified crops, has money coming in, even in 

 small quantities, for a large portion of the year, in time, that section 

 will get richer than the county where they have but one paramount crop. 

 I know of one county in this fruit belt section of Michigan that has now 

 but seventeen thousand people, and it is a fair estimate that its annual 

 export trade of potatoes, fruit, lumber, and all kinds of crops that it 

 ships out of the county is equal to $300,000 a year poured into this 

 County from outside buyers. This, coupled with the fact, that in this 

 fruit belt region the farms have to be small in acreage, owing to lack of 

 help, the tendency being to acquire forty acre farms, shows that the pop- 

 ulation is getting a more equal distribution of wealth than countries 

 where there are large farms. It therefore follows that a county of 

 small farms is far better for the average man to settle in than one where 

 large farms are the rule. 



The State of Michigan is promoting the holding of Horticultural meet- 

 ings, and sending trained experts to these meetings to answer the ques- 

 tions of interested persons and to deliver addresses on subjects relating 

 to fruit-growing, The effect of these meetings is a lifting up of the 

 fruit-growers to a better idea of climatic situations and what is neces- 



