193 
former, while in a majority it is given at six to seven months, and at a cost 
varying from 75 cents to $2 50 per head per month. Blue-joint, June grass, 
and white clover, are natural to the uplands, and marsh grasses in the lowlands 
and marshes ; while timothy, orchard grass, red-top, and the varieties of clover, 
are the principal cultivated grasses and which grow successfully. Pastures of 
clover and timothy run to June grass and blue-joint, and fields left uncultivated 
soon grow up in these natural grasses. In ~-Macon, Clinton, Alcona, Bay, and 
other counties, cattle are pastured in the woods or on the commons at compara- 
tively little expense. 
7. Fruit culture has attracted considerable attention in Michigan, and the 
interest appears to be rapidly increasing, and orchards are being planted on 
quite an extensive scale. The influence of the lake waters surrounding the 
State is striking throughout the whole extent of the lower peninsula. Peaches 
are grown to some extent in the central counties, while in the same latitude 
west of Lake Michigan this fruit is seldom, if ever, brought to perfection with- 
out artificial help. This influence is also shown by the almost unfailing crops 
of apples in Michigan, which in this respect is excelled by no State in the 
Union. Peach-growing appears to occupy the attention of the people on the 
lake shore, especially in the St. Joseph district in the southern part of the State, 
considered one of the best fruit regions of the west. The portions lying within 
eight or ten miles of the lake offer better advantages than further inland, but 
the entire valley of the St. Joseph river affords a soil and climate remarkably 
adapted to nearly all the fruits grown in temperate latitudes. When the peach 
crop is destroyed in other regions, both north and south, the St. Joseph country: 
is expected to furnish a crop of scarcely diminished excellence and abundance, 
and the expectation is usually realized. The apple, pear, grape, cherry, and 
the berry fruits are equally successful, and the production is on the increase, 
lands suited to their culture commanding high prices. St. Joseph county sent 
1,500 barrels of apples to market in 1866, averaging $2 per barrel. In Cass 
county grapes have succeeded thus far, but require winter protection. The fruit 
crop of this county was estimated in 1865 to be equal to the wheat crop of the 
same year. The region around Grand Haven is also well adapted to the grape 
and peach, a vineyard of about three-fourths of an acre on the shore of Spring 
lake having yielded in 1865 about $800 worth of fruit, and an equal quantity 
the succeeding year. For the crop of peaches, on an orchard of 30 acres upon 
the same lake, $25,000 was refused in 1866. Most of the popular varieties of 
New York and New England fruits are equally successful in eastern Michigan, 
but this success is restricted to narrow limits. The eastern, northern, and most 
western portions of the State, which may be styled the timbered regions, are 
better adapted to the hardy variety of apples and pears. In the southwestern 
portions not adjacent to the lake, assimilating in character to the adjoining 
States of Indiana and Illinois, only the most hardy varieties can be relied upon. 
Our Gratiot reporter thinks they can produce in his county “as fine apples 
as can be found in America; a neighbor weighed 11 Northern Spy apples 
which aggregated 10 to 11 pounds. Another neighbor had a bed of strawber- 
ries, (Wilson’s Albany,) 18 by 27 feet, which yielded during five days of the 
last picking 68 quarts; and an Isabella grape vine, ten years old, produced, as 
estimated, 10 bushels of grapes.” Our Oakland reporter made $900 from 150 
apple trees in 1866, besides reserving all he needed for home use, but in 1867 
from the same trees he realized less than $100. In Hillsdale 100 apple trees, 
12 years old, occupying one and one-fourth acres, averaged 300 bushels of fruit, 
worth 50 cents per bushel—$120 per acre. A fruit-grower of Coldwater, in 
Branch county, in 1866, sold $800 worth of apples from a two-acre orchard. 
The variety was the Northern Spy, and sold at $1 per bushel. Apples are found 
a very profitable crop in Macomb, some farmers making more from their orchards 
