14 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of our country. When some of us were boys, about everybody depended 

 upon the spontaneous productions of nature for their supply of these house- 

 hold luxuries. When the days grew long and the nights short, we would 

 range the field and meadows over, in search of the few small scarlet straw- 

 berries, found here and there among the tall grass and weeds; later, the old 

 tumble-down, moss-grown, worm fence rows, were followed for miles in 

 search of the small seedy black raspberry, the seeds for which the birds had 

 doubtless carried there years before, and planted in those by-places for their 

 own gratification and subsequent supply, and later still, the burnt districts 

 among the timber belts and many old worn-out and abandoned fields, fur- 

 nished us a rich harvest of good ripe blackberries and dewberries. In addi- 

 tion to these, the wild red raspberry, then as now, furnished a good supply, 

 in many sections of the country, while the mountains, the hills, and the 

 marshes yielded, as they still do, our entire supply of that fine little fruit 

 know as the huckleberry. It is a matter of some importance for some en- 

 terprising fruit grower to tame this bush, and make it yield a larger, better, 

 and more abundant supply of fruit than it does in a state of nature and also 

 nearer home. The time required in gathering most of these wild fruits is 

 much greater than that necessary for cultivating them around our respective 

 homesteads. And when we take into consideration the superiority in qual- 

 ity, size, and yield to those cultivated, over the wild types, except perhaps 

 the huckleberry, we need not wonder that the wild types are being neglected 

 and discarded. In the case of the cranberry, the same remarks hold true. 

 The people of any neighborhood are somewhat like a flock of sheep — when 

 the leader goes over the fence, the whole flock follow, except some poor crip- 

 ples who dare not venture. 



I might take up your time in giving the names of some of our pioneer 

 fruit growers, in this section of the state, some of whom have laid down the 

 shovel and the hoe, and long ere this gone to their final resting place. An 

 outline of their work, and their success, has already been given to the public, 

 through the effort, and so far as I know the gratuitious labors, of the pains- 

 taking and lifelong horticultural student. President T. T. Lyon, in the last 

 report of the State society, and who is with us to-day. 



Owing to the peculiar geographical location of Berrien county we have per- 

 haps made greater progress in this line of industry than many other sections 

 of this state. In the early rise and progress of fruit culture, especially the 

 small and tender varieties, it was necessary to have speedy and convenient 

 transportation to market. Our water-ways vTcre then the only means of reach- 

 ing markets any considerable distance from the grower. The harbors and 

 shipping f)oints of the lake supplied the only available outlets; and the fruit 

 centers nestled around these localities. Small fruits in those early times sold 

 high ; the demand was greater than the supply, and the value of real estate 

 about these fruit centers rose correspondingly high. Many launched their 

 boats, as they supposed, on the tide of great prosperity only to sink in the 

 vortex of financial bankruptcy. 



I have known strawberries, of very poor quality, to sell for $12 per bushel, 

 blackberries by the case for 50 cents per quart, and whole crops of blackberries 

 for $>8 per bushel, net. But this was in war times when we had a high tariff 

 and everybody had starapa. Since then, many ups aud downs have occurred 

 in this business, like all others. 



Ilailroads have stretched their long iron arms out into almost every part of 



