STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



TJiursday — Moryiing Session. 



Joint committees were announced by President Lyon as follows: 

 Resolutions— K. C. Glidden, J. N. Stearns, L. D, Watkins. 

 Fruit and Flowers — Wm. Corner, Alex. Hamilton, A. Morrill, 



W. A. Brown, of Benton Ilarbor, read the subjoined paper upon 



COMMERCIAL FRUIT GROWING IN WESTERN MICHIGAN. 



In a "Catalogue of Fruit Growers and Shippers," compiled by L. J. Mer- 

 chant in 1872, many interesting facts regarding the early development of 

 fruit growing in the St. Joseph region are preserved. In 1834 a Mr. Brodiss, 

 living up the St. Joseph river, near Niles, supplied the commercial town of 

 St. Joseph with peaches, which were run down the river in a canoe. As the 

 country around Lake Michigan became settled, comparisons of the tempera- 

 ture were manifested by the survival of the semi-tropical fruits on the western 

 shore, and the influence of the lake in the reduction of the temperature in 

 winter, and the retarding of vegetable growth in spring, was proven by Pro- 

 fessor Winchell and others; and about 1855 the fruit belt of western Michi- 

 gan was clearly outlined. Previous to this time several pioneer peach growers 

 had foreseen the important future of the business, and peach orchards of the 

 improved varieties had been planted by B. C. Hoyt, Hon. il. C. Morton, 

 George Parmelee, L. L. Johnson, Captain Curtiss Boughton, and a few 

 others. During this period Chicago began to develop and St. Joe peachet 

 found a ready market. Captain Boughton was the first in the trade, buying 

 and packing in barrels and dry goods boxes. He shipped in his little vessel, 

 selling in Chicago at a large advance. In 1850 he shipped about 1,000 three- 

 peck baskets, very few of which were of improved varieties. The first barrel 

 of good peaches came from an accidental seedling tree grown on the Conger 

 (afterward Stern Brunson) place, now Benton Harbor. They were sold by 

 the captain at auction, in Chicago, and brought $8. The captain planted 

 budded trees at St. Joseph in 1849. Mr. George Parmelee planted his first 

 orchard in 1848, which was subsequently enlarged until it covered 90 acres, 

 when it was sold for $43,000. In 1860 a number of intelligent persons had 

 been attracted to this region and large orchards of peaches and apples began 

 to be planted, and the first berries for market purposes were planted the same 

 year. The growth of the business soon assumed commercial proportions, 

 until, in 1869, 9,314 acres of the various fruits were reported in bearing, in 

 the region tributary to St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. 



^ RISE AND PROGRESS OF PEACH GROAVING. 



A report made in the St. Joseph Traveler, in 1865, gave the number of 

 peach trees in bearing as 201,603. In 1869 the Hon. John Whittlesey re- 

 ported the number increased to 335,530. A canvass of six townships made 

 by L. J. Merchant, in 1872, gave the total peach plant as 594,467 acres. 

 The alarming increase of yellows subst'quontly reduced the number of peach 

 trees rapidly, until in 1878 the beautiful peach orchards of Berrien county were 

 almost entirely obliterated. The virulence of the disease and the magni- 

 tude of the loss paralyzed our fruit growers, who refrained from planting 



