404 REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



State had 444 miles of railroad ; in 1864, 898 miles ; in 1874, 3,253 miles. 

 Ten years ago ^STorthern Michigan had not to exceed 15 miles of rail- 

 way ; it now has 590 miles. 



During the past decade Michigan has advanced to the front rank of 

 fruit-producing States. Its soil and climate seem to be specially adapted 

 to the greatest production of many of the more valuable varieties, and 

 hence every year shows a largely increased interest in the cultivation of 

 such fruits as have proved most profitable. In a paper on the effects of 

 Lake Michigan on fi^uit-culture, Mr. Henry S. Clubb says : 



The Bpring season finds Lake Michigan a mass of ■water nearly coyered with floating 

 ice. The storms of March and the rains of April having broken np the ice in the rivers, 

 large quantities of it finds its way to the lake, where it is driven hither and thither at 

 the mercy of the winds and waves. Sometimes there are drifts and gorges of this ice 

 on the west side, but more frequently it hugs the east shore, and is so extensive that 

 the blue, open water beyond is scarcely distinguishable from a dark tloud on the hori- 

 zon, as oue stands on the east shore. None but the most daring navigators, with the 

 stoutest-built propellers, will venture through this terribly seething mass. Milwaukee 

 and Grand Haven are, at present, the only harbors kept open throughout the ice season. 

 The shore is usually protected by a pile of ice from 20 to 50 feet in height, thrown up 

 during the winter by the action of the waves. 



The effect of this floating ice, and the ice and snow piled on the shore, is to retard the 

 season. The prevailing winds begin from the west, southwest, and northwest ; the 

 east shore is kept backward by the cool breezes, which permeate the fruit-trees and 

 prevent that early expansion of the peach-buds, so much deplored on the west side of 

 the lake, and which renders the destruction' of peach prospects so common every spring 

 in the Western and Southern States. Not until summer weather is fairly established 

 and danger of late frosts over, doe& the water of Lake Michigan become warm so as to 

 melt the ice, and the sun dissolve the ice-wall so as to allow the breeze which passes 

 over the lake to permit the expansion of the fruit-buds on the peach-trees of the eastern 

 shore. 



As the season advances the water of the lake, which has hitherto been so much cooler 

 than the atmosphere received from the south and west, gradually warms under the in- 

 fluence of the sun's rays and the land breezes. It is much less changeable in its tem- 

 Eerature than the land breezes. It warms slowly, but when warmed it retains the 

 eat proportionately with its depth and volume. The effect of this»warm condition of 

 the lake water is to prevent sudden changes on the Ice shore. Regularly as the tides 

 of the ocean, the summer breezes traverse the land and water along the lake shore. In 

 the forenoon the breeze is usually toward the lake, and in the afternoon a lake breeze 

 comes over the land, modifying the temperature and making the hottest days of July 

 and August pleasant and agreeable, healthful alike to animal and vegetable life. This 

 is the true system of ventilation, of atmospheric drainage, and, where the sloping hill- 

 sides are favorably formed, almost certain is the exemption from summer frosts. 



As summer proceeds with its work of perfecting fruit, the lake has not only a pro- 

 tecting but a fertilizing influence. The intense heat of the sun is exerted on a large 

 expanse of water, and the atmosphere is laden with the moisture drawn up during the 

 day, and in the dryest season dew comes to the aid of exhausted nature, and, wherever 

 cultivation of the soil is properly attended to, the cooled earth condenses the moisture 

 and absorbs it, producing the best possible condition for growth. In calm, summer 

 weather, this condition is probably best secured along the lake-shore, as during strong 

 winds the moist air is apt to be carried farther inland before the earth, cooled by culti- 

 vation, can condense and absorb the moisture, and immediate proximity to the lake 

 during strong summer winds may be no great advantage ; but as summer is tho period 

 of calm and the winds are seldom strong or violent, the moist lake air is an important 

 element of fertilization. It is a fact, well established in my observation of Ottowa 

 County, that land within six to ten miles of the lake is less liable to suffer during a 

 long period of dry weather than land farther east. 



Mr. Clubb states that the gradual flow of water from the southern 

 extremity or head of Lake Michigan to its northern exit at the Straits 

 of Mackinac, has the effect of reversing the usual experience in north- 

 ern latitudes. Instead of cold and frost setting in earlier in Northern 

 than in Southern Michigan, the very opposite is experienced, and sev- 

 eral weeks after peach-trees have been denuded of their foliage at Saint 

 Joseph and other regions south, they are in full leaf at Northport, in 

 Leelenaw county, and other places around Grand Traverse Bay. The 



