10 



then fruit-growing has received a wonderful impetus, and there 

 are now several times that number of trees and vines under culti- 

 vation. 



SOIL AND TIMBER. 



The soil at Fruitport and vicinity, is a rich, warm, sandy loam, 

 exactly adapted to fruit-growing. It is far richer and heavier 

 than the soil at Spring Lake and near the Lake Michigan shore. 

 Prof. Winchell's statement of this fact has been cited before. 

 Every acre offered for sale by the " Fruitport Orchard and Vine- 

 yard Company" is dry, elevated and undulating, without hills, 

 rocks, stones, or a foot of waste land. Until fruit trees and vines 

 bear, immense crops of potatoes can be produced, so that the land 

 pays from the very first year. Some tracts are covered by a heavy 

 growth of valuable timber, principally hemlock, maple, beech, 

 white ash and cherry. The timber is magnificent — many noble 

 monarchs of the forest, of immense proportions, run up, like a 

 mast, 50 or 60 feet, without a branch. There are single trees on 

 nearly every acre, which will more than pay for the acre, at the 

 prices at which these lands are now offered. The beech can be 

 cut into cordwood for lil.OO per cord, and will sell for about $3.50 

 per cord at the vessel. Hemlock tan bark can be cut for $1.50 

 per cord, and sells from $5.00 to $8.00 per cord. The logs can 

 then be sold, or sawed in lumber. The white ash and cherry can 

 be sawed and shipped to Chicago, where it is worth from $25 to 

 $40 per 1000. There are a great many small hemlock trees which 

 run up straight, from 30 to 50 feet, and which will make from three 

 to five railroad ties each. The price for cutting ties is eight cents 

 each, and they sell at the creek for about 25 cents each, and at Chi- 

 cago for about 40 cents. The ties alone, will pay for the land on 

 many tracts. 1 hese prices will be much enhanced as shipping facili- 

 ties are increased, and the rates of freight become more reason- 

 able, but above all, by the fact that every year the consumption of 

 all these articles increases enormously, while the supply is rapidly 

 diminishing. A Chicago hardwood lumber merchant recently 

 informed the writer that there was far more difficulty in obtain- 

 ing hardwood lumber than in selling it. Ash, cherry and maple 

 are constantly applied to new uses, and are rapidly increasing in 

 value. The labor of preparing the land for cultivation is not very 

 gi'eat, for there is no underbrush and no grubbing or digging up 

 of saplings. The custom is, to plow with the stumps in, and to 

 set out the fruit trees or vines, and plant potatoes, without at- 

 tempting to take out the stumps. They are not so close together 

 but that the ground can be well cultivated, and they soon decay 

 so that they can be removed. The ground pays a large profit 

 from the beginning, by crops of potatoes and vegetables. Peach 

 trees bear to some extent the third year after planting, but there 

 3s not a full crop till the fourth year. At Fruitport one of " Hales 



