DIGEST OF STATE REPORTS. 



397 



mile in width. This is surrounded by one of the best fruit-regions along 

 the lake-shore. Nine miles north of Muskegon is White Lake Harbor. 

 During the season of 1873 there were shipped from this point 0,000 

 baskets of peaches, 200 bushels of strawberries, and 6 tons of grapes. 

 This section is a comparatively new fruit-producing region, jet it is 

 claimed that the finest apples, the choicest plums, and very good peaches 

 and grapes can be grown here. Pentwater is located twenty -seven miles 

 farther north, in Oceana county. The country is comparatively new, but 

 sufficient experiments have been made to demonstrate that a great variety 

 of fruits can be produced in abundance. Pere Marquette Lake is 12 

 miles north of Pentwater. This lake is nine miles long and from one-half 

 mile to one mile broad. On the north side is Ludiugton, the shipping- 

 point for the commerce, of this section. Pears, i)lums, strawberries, 

 apples, &c,, do well in this region, which promises to be as prolific for 

 most of the standard fruits as other parts of the fruit-belt. Manistee, 

 twenty miles north of Ludington, is on Manistee Lake, which is four miles 

 long and from one-half to one mile broad. Around it are to be found 

 some old orchards, and a large number of new ones. The writer says 

 that the fruit-growers in this region were more or less discouraged on 

 the peach question by the severe frost of 1872, but he thinks that frost 

 taught the most observant an important lesson in regard to i)each-grow- 

 ing, viz., that the peach-tree will not bear prolonged cultivation or heavy 

 fertilization ; that its greatest danger is in overgrowth, leaving sappy 

 and unripe wood, which cannot stand the severity of an unusually cold 

 winter. 



A largo section north of Manistee gives promise of soon becoming as 

 great a fruit-region as the country farther south. 



Mr. Clubb gives, near the close of his series of articles, a tabular state- 

 ment showing the number of crates of small fruit and peck-baskets of 

 peaches, pears, plums, summer apples, crabs, cherries, grapes, and 

 tomatoes produced at the places named during the season of 1874. The 

 following is a recapitulation of this table : 



Frait-region. 



Saint Jcsepli . 

 South Haven. 

 Sangatuck . . . 



Holland 



Grand Haven 

 MusliOgon . . . 

 Whiteliall.... 

 Pentwater ... 

 Ludington ... 



Maniatee 



Traverse 



Total.. 



Packages of 

 fruit. 



, 243, 407 

 .146,118 



200, 989 

 C'J, 000 



397, 000 

 !)(), 000 

 :iO, 000 

 '20, 000 

 2.1, 000 

 40, 000 

 44, 000 



2,310,514 



Ko. of 

 farms. 



841 

 200 

 250 

 300 

 350 

 350 

 50 

 145 

 140 

 lo5 

 ItO 



2,721 



He concludes as follows : 



Fruit-growing in tlio specialty of tliese lakc-sbore counties, and while the peach is 

 the leading fruit of Berrien, Van Buren, Allegan, Ottawa, and Muskegon counties, and 

 is grown successfully in Oceana, Mason, Manistee, and in some favored spots in Benzie, 

 Leelenaw, and Grand Traverse counties, these northern counties are taking the lead of 

 the southern in winter applies, pears, and jilums. Grapes appear about equally suc- 

 cessful in all the counties named, where varieties suited to each locality are selected. 

 All those counties north of Allegan are but thinly settled, and the land capable of pro- 

 ducing these choice fruits is probably forty times more extensive th;iu that which is 

 yet used for that purpose; there is, therefore, a wide field opening for those who desire 

 to engage in a pursuit which is not only profitable in its ultimate results, but which ia 

 healthful and ennobling in all its practical details. ♦ 



