MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 703 



shore of Lake Michigan is irregular and is different from the west shore 

 of the Lake, and there are numerous lakes now formed into harbors on 

 this East shore which increase the water erea. Here is a stretch of 

 land running north and south along the lake shore from twenty to 

 forty miles in width from New Buffalo to Mackinac. As a matter of 

 climate, there is no strip of land in the United States like it. As a matter 

 of cool atmosphere in the summer and fine nights for sleep and warmer 

 winters, there is not a strip of land like it in this country. As a pure 

 drift soil of all kinds, mixed with alkalines, producing a fine growth of 

 vegetation and of tree plant life it cannot be equaled. And yet, farmer 

 after farmer from the interior of the country will travel for miles through 

 this fruit belt region and cannot understand how this drift soil can raise 

 anything. 



There are peach trees in this fruit-belt section that have borne peaches 

 for eighteen to twenty-five years. They are plum orchards as thrifty 

 as those of Oregon or California. They raise prunes the best this side 

 of the Rocky Mountains. It is the natural home of the cherry. The pear 

 does not do as well. With proper cultivation, adapted to this climate and 

 this soil, the apple is a success. It is not a question of quality for berries 

 or grapes, but the limitation is to prevent too large a quantity. The 

 potatoes from this section rank high on the Chicago market, and are a 

 profitable crop. 



As a rule forty acres is enough for one farmer, for with his fruit and 

 his potatoes and his other crops, he has work all the year round, and 

 his farm pays him better than a larger farm East or West growing one 

 predominant crop. He has water and railroads for transportation. 



The area of this fruit-belt is limited. Its wealth is increasing. It 

 may be asked if the enormous planting of orchards in this section will 

 not tend to loss. The fruit tree has its limitations. Consideration must 

 be given to the fact that some trees die young: also that the commercial 

 value of a tree is claimed to be within the first eight years of its fruit 

 life, and after that, it must be replaced or kept up in order that the 

 orchard may be a profit producer. Thus it will be seen that new orch- 

 ards must be planted to take the place of old ones that die out. This 

 rule extends to all tree fruits. 



It may be said that the fruit industry is a progression of crops from 

 the South to the North, and the problem is for the fruit crop of the North 

 to get out of the way of the same crop coming from the South. So the 

 tendency in fruit-growing i sin the direction of the fruit supply of North- 

 ern orchards to come on later, after the Southern ones are out of the 

 way. 



I have seen it above zero in this fruit belt section, when sixty miles 

 inland .it was ten to fifteen degrees below zero in the winter time. I 

 have seen men go from this fruit belt section at Muskegon to Grand 

 Rapids, which is forty miles in the interior, dressed in woolens, complain 

 of the heat at Grand Rapids. I have seen persons thinly clothed, coming 

 from Grand Rapids, shivering in the cool air of this lake belt. In fact, as 

 you leave the interior of Michigan and come towards this East shore, the 

 ehange in the climate is perceptible on the cars as soon as you get within 

 this fruit belt section. 



The farmers within this fruit belt section are learning how to cultivate 

 this soil and to bring these diversified crops of fruits. The great prob- 



