A PAGE OF MICHIGAN HORTICULTURAL 



HISTORY. 



A PIONEER HORTICULTURIST. 



BY S. H. COMIKGS, ST. JOSEPH. 



In the spring of 1834 Timothy W. Dunham, of Orleans county, New York, 

 came to Michigan for the purpose of establishing himself in the nursery busi- 

 ness. He brought -with him a chest of drawers or shallow boxes filled with 

 apple tree root grafts, about 3,000 in number. He stopped first at Sandstone, 

 Jackson connty, and planted his roots on the land of Judge Valentine. The 

 season was a very dry one and the little trees made a small growth. In the 

 autumn he went back to New York and brought back some more grafts, cions 

 and about one and one-half pecks of apple seed, part of which he sold to Hon. 

 T. E. Gidley, together Avith tlie young trees that had grown on the farm of 

 Judge Valentine. This seed and these young trees were the first step towards 

 his extensive orchards mentioned bv your correspondent, Mr. Shoemaker, in the 

 report of 1880. 



Mr. Dunham came on west to Kalamazoo with his remaining stock of 

 apple seed, to make an effort to begin a permanent home, and hoping to 

 establish a nursery and orchard farm somewhat on the plan of the prosperous 

 nurseries about Rochester, N. Y., with which lie was familiar. Kalamazoo had 

 then but a handful of inhabitants, and no efforts are known to have been made 

 at raising fruit trees, except a few apple seeds had been planted by Enoch 

 French, hoping to raise a few apples for his own use. 



Mr. Dunham purchased 40 acres of oak opening land in what is still known 

 as the " Indian Fields," four miles south of the village. To save time he hired 

 half an acre of flowed land and in the spring planted his apple seeds. The 

 young trees were carefully tended and their growth watched with eager inter- 

 est. The fine growth made was taken as an encouraging indication that the 

 soil and climate of the then territory of Michigan were as favorable as that of 

 western New York, which was then becoming noted as the "fruit belt" of the 

 east. Each fall for the three following years Mr. Dunham, made the tedious 

 trip back to New York to obtain seeds, roots, cions or trees. Some of his 

 first cions were grafted upon the Avild crabs found in the forests to keep them 

 alive and growing till his seedlings were large enough to graft. The growth 

 upon the crab was found to be very slow, and after the third year most of 

 them died, but they had served the purpose of keeping alive the costly cions 

 brought so far. On his second trip he brought back a few small peach trees, 

 but could only bring few for the cost of transportation was enough to 

 stagger the faith and exhaust the pocket of any but a retired nurseryman. Ou 



