234 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In the central part of Allegan county Daniel Foster planted a small nur- 

 sery of apple and peach trees soon after 1844. At this time most of the set- 

 tlers in that part of Allegan had small peach orchards, grown from pits of 

 their own planting. In 1849 an orchard of budded fruit was planted at 

 Monterey and continued to be profitable for many years. 



In Ottawa county many orchards were planted between 1836 and 1855, 

 some of which contained peaches. In 1839 Allen Stoddard, of Ottawa 

 county, sold peaches in Grand Rapids, from trees planted by his wife in 1836, 

 around stumps in the clearings. And as early as 1858, according to Frank 

 Hall, George Lovell, of Ottawa county, planted a large peach orchard for 

 commercial purpose?. 



In 1839, at Saint Joseph, in the garden of B. C. Hoyt. grew the first 

 peaches ever sent from Michigan to the Chicago market. These were seed- 

 lings. The next year Capt. Ourtiss Boughton, of Saint Joseph, "bought 

 peaches by the barrel and dry-goods box ;" took them to Chicago on his ves- 

 sel, and sold them at an enormous profit. This transaction induced many to 

 plant peach trees. 



In 1842 Mr. Hoyt procured buds of improved varieties from William 



Prince, of Long Island, and started a peach nursery ; but no improved fruit 



was shipped from' Saint Joseph until 1844, when he sent over a few baskets 



of Crawfords. 



After 1845 the shipment of choice fruit began to increase, beginning with a few hun- 

 dred baskets of three pecks each, and reaching several thousand in 1855, when a great 

 many Crawfords were shipped. 



In 1848 George Parmelee. of Benton Harbor, who afterward became a cel- 

 ebrated fruit grower, set his first peach orchard. This contained between 

 two and thjee acres of budded trees. He continued planting peach orchards 

 as rapidly as possible, until he had nearly 90 acres. In 1850 he set his first 

 Crawfords. In 1873, the original orchard of 1848 was yet standing and con- 

 tained " some of the largest and finest peach trees in the country." 



In 1849, Captain Boughton set out 130 budded trees in St. Joseph township, south of 

 St. Joseph river. In 1850 he shipped 250 barrels of seedlings and 150 barrels of im- 

 proved Tarieties twice a week. The shipments for the year were by his vessel alone 

 not less than 10,000 baskets. 



In 1857, the "Cincinnati" peach orchard, containing 65 acres, was set in 

 Berrien county. "From this time the fruit interest commenced to grow 

 rapidly, as one after another settled here and went into the business." 



At South Haven, Van Buren county, "during or soon after the year 1852, 

 S. B. .Morehouse and Randolph Densmore planted [peach] orchards north of 

 the river. * * * Within the next few years Mr. James L. Reed planted 

 an orchard * * * soutli of the village." In 1857 a peach nursery was 

 established. In 1859, Aaron Eames planted from this nursery four acres of 

 peach trees. Soon after 1861 John Williams planted a peach orchard. 

 Others planted orchards about this time. 



In 1861 C. Engle, of Paw Paw, Van Buren county, planted 700 trees of 

 Crawford's Early and Snow's Orange on an elevated ridge, he having noticed 

 as early as 1850 that peach trees on high land in his vicinity endured the 

 winters better. 



Peach growing for commercial purposes may be said to have begifti in 

 Michigan in 1848, but owing to lack of shipping facilities it did not assume 

 proportions at all comparable to eastern interests until more than a decade 

 later. Of this early period A. S. Dyckman of South Haven writes: 



