82 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



almost any where to bury Mount Holyoke beneath its surface. With its 3,400 

 cubic miles of water in one basin, it maintains a very even temperature through- 

 out the ytar; and this with the fact that about sixty-five per cent of our winter 

 winds are vv'esterly, gives the key to our peculiar success in horticulture. We 

 grow peaches successfully along the 45th parallel which bounds Vermont on 

 the north, and raise figs iu the open air in latitude 42-i°, about on a line with 

 Boston, Massachusetts. It is true that this lake influence is not felt so largely 

 in the interior as along the shore, still, in a large measure, the whole southern 

 peninsula is modified in extremes of weather by this great equalizer. The fact 

 that the western shore from St. Joseph northward to Grand Traverse is especi- 

 ally favored with immunity from frost has given rise to the term 



MICHIGA]!f FEUIT BELT. 



This is a strip of territory with a shadowy interior boundary in which peach- 

 es are grown with a smaller percentage of failures than elsewhere in the State. 

 Within this belt there is great choice of location for purposes of peach culture, 

 still the purchaser is not compelled to give the same relative importance to 

 altitude that he would farther in the interior. 



A very large percentage of the peaches grown in Michigan for shipment 

 abroad, have been, until very recently, raised within the fruit belt; but from 

 the high grounds in Kent, Kalamazoo, Hillsdale, Washtenaw, Lenawee, and 

 other interior counties, large quantities have been shipped late years. 



RAILROADS, WATER LINES, MARKETS. 



Michigan is now threaded with lines of railroads; several trunk lines extend 

 across the State from east to west, while others reach into the undeveloped but 

 rapidly growing regions of the north. Thus the fruit-grower who wishes to 

 reach the great markets, can readily do so; or if he desires to supply the pio- 

 neers and the lumbermen who are, as yet, without the luxury of good fruit, 

 ample facilities are at hand. Not only this, but a great lake on either side gives 

 abundant means, with easy carriage, of reaching great markets independent of 

 the railroad systems. Immense quantities of fruit are shipped daily from the 

 ports along Lake Michigan from St. Joseph to Traverse City, furnishing the 

 great distributing market of Chicago with fresh fruit only twelve hours picked, 

 each morning during the entire fruit season. It must be remembered also that 

 as one traverses this shore for the 200 miles of the belt, he will find, in all the 

 perishable fruits, there is no danger of disastrous competition in the markets, 

 because of the variation in date of ripening; while the purchaser of these fruits 

 in the markets reaps the benefit of an extended season for each variety. 



SOILS. 



In the whole of Michigan one can certainly find the exact character of soil 

 he seeks, for every shade of variation seems to be represented. Mistaken no- 

 tions have obtained, at diiferent times, concerning the soil upon which Michi- 

 gan peaches are grown; in truth the remark has often been made that "up in 

 Michigan you grow peaches on your sandy land that will grow nothing else." 

 We can assure people at the outset that good peaches are only grown upon good 

 land. The fruit belt is not uniformly sandy, and is by no means poor land. 

 Upon the blowing sands where dunes are formed, it is common to find the most 



