EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 



235 



Mr. Lyon owned ten acres of land within the limits of the city of South Haven 

 and within a few hundred feet of the shore of -Lake Michigan. In the spring 

 of 1889, arrangements were made' with him for a report upon the varieties under 

 test upon his grounds, but as it was thought best to place it upon a more perma- 

 nent basis, a lease was obtained the following spring of the land belonging to 

 Mr. Lyon, and through his efforts and those of the Hon. C. J. Monroe, the 

 five-acre trar-t ad.ioining the Lyon land on the south was purchased by some of 

 the public spirited fruit growers of the section and presented to the State Board 

 of Agriculture to be used as an experiment station. The following year Mr. Lyon 

 erected a dwelling for his own use upon his land and also put up a convenient 

 stable, packing-house and office building. The land was thoroughly under-drained 

 and surrounded by a wire fence and a hedge of .Japan quince. The soil is a 

 light sandy loam underlaid at the depth of one or two feet with stiff clay. 



Fig. 2. — Lawn and Shrubbery. South Haven Sub-Station. 



Aside from a small area about the buildings which was planted with shrubbery, 

 the entire tract was devoted to fruit. Nearly two hundred varieties of peaches 

 and grapes and from one hundred to one hundred and fifty kinds of apples, 

 pears, plums and cherries have been planted besides quinces, apricots, nectarines 

 and nut trees of various kinds. Plantings were also made of the standard and 

 new vfirieties of currants, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. 



In addition to careful notes upon the different varieties of fruits as they 

 maiured, a large amount of experimental work has been done in other lines, 

 amon.g which may be mentioned, first, spraying experiments which embraced 

 the testing of various insecticides and fungicides, including the strength that 

 should be used, the number of applications and the date they should be applied. 

 Various spiayjng ap])aratus has been secured and tested and reports have been 

 issued from time to time. 



Second, tests of different fertilizing materials for orchards and small fruit 

 plantations. While the requirements for different soils vary, it is evident from 



