200 RURAL MICHIGAN 



growing of sugar-beet seed in Michigan is at present 

 confined to tlie southern peninsula, its growth in the 

 Upper Peninsula is advocated, as the heavy snowfall 

 permits the seed-producing beets to be left in the 

 ground during the winter, without lifting and re- 

 planting them in the spring in readiness for the 

 second year's growth in which the seed is obtained. 

 Frost seldom penetrates the snow covering in the 

 northern sections of the State and vegetables are not 

 likely to suffer injury from freezing. There are 

 other problems, however, connected with the growing 

 of sugar-beet seed that have as yet not been solved. 

 The United States Bureau of Markets reports an 

 average yield of sugar-beet seed in Michigan for 

 1919 of only 430 pounds, and in 1920 of 715 pounds. 

 In 1919 Saginaw County produced the largest quan- 

 tity of sugar-beet seed, the reported output being 

 105,000 pounds, followed by Lenawee County Avith 

 43,500 pounds, Montcalm with 35,000, Gratiot with 

 34,000, Isabella with 32,000, Clare with 30,000, 

 Huron with 18,000, Tuscola with 10,000, and Bay 

 County with 9,000 pounds. 



FRUITS 



The profusion of fruit-growing in the vicinity of 

 the Detroit River, which aroused the admiration of 

 Cadillac, also attracted the favorable comment of 

 the Jesuit Father, Nau, who, in a letter descriptive 

 of his field of labor, under date of October 2, 1735, 

 speaks of "this stretch of country" as "the finest in 



