2186 NORTH AMERICAN STATES 



NORTH AMERICAN STATES 



orchard-sites, a better choice of varieties, and with 

 up-to-date methods in caring for and spraying the trees, 

 and in picking, grading and packing the fruit, a new 

 era in Michigan fruit-culture seems at hand. 



While the development in fruit-culture in Michigan 

 has been rapid, even greater progress has been made in 

 the cultivation of flowers and vegetables under glass. 

 For the most part the larger commercial greenhouses 

 are located near Detroit or Grand Rapids, but every 

 city and many of the villages have greenhouses used 

 for commercial purposes. The houses of today are twice 

 as large in each of their dimensions as thirty years ago. 

 Michigan also has the first full-sized, portable, com- 

 mercial greenhouse ever constructed, at Redford, near 

 Detroit. 



Equal progress has also been made in the size of the 

 flowers, and many of the varieties of roses, carnations 

 and chrysanthemums developed by Michigan special- 

 ists have also doubled. There is a large wholesale trade 

 in all of the above as well as in violets and sweet peas. 

 The florists' plant business is also rapidly increasing. 

 In addition to the local demand, the reputation of the 

 Michigan growers brings orders for chrysanthemum, 

 carnation, rose and geranium plants from all parts of 

 the country. Several gladiolus, dahlia and canna 

 specialists also do a large plant business. 



The attention given to the growing of greenhouse 

 vegetables has also increased. At Grand Rapids alone, 

 1,500,000 square feet of glass are used for this purpose, 

 the business giving employment to 600 men. The loose- 

 leaf, curled variety of lettuce, known as Grand Rapids 

 Forcing, is the only kind used. Three crops are grown 

 each year, the last crop being followed by tomatoes, 

 cucumbers or parsley. The heads are packed in paper- 

 lined barrels and shipped in refrigerator cars to points 

 as far distant as Buffalo, Cincinnati and Louisville. 



Many years ago Kalama/oo became known for the 

 fine celery grown there, but there are hundreds of 

 points where an equally fine article is produced today. 

 Many thousand tons are shipped in carload lots and 

 by express all over the country. The soil generally 

 used for this crop is muckland which has been drained, 

 but where the water stands within 2 feet of the surface, 

 thus affording sub-irrigation for the crop. Nearly 

 every city and large town has celery gardens to supply 

 the local demand and many of them do a large shipping 

 business. 



There are also many crops commonly classed as 

 garden vegetables which are grown upon such extensive 

 plans as almost to become field-crops. Among them are 

 cabbages, onions, watermelons and muskmelons, gar- 

 den peas, beans, asparagus, and potatoes. For cabbages 

 and onions, as well as for the growing of celery, the clear- 

 ing of thousands of acres of swampland has furnished 

 almost ideal conditions, and hundreds of carloads are 

 shipped out of the state after supplying the local de- 

 mand. There are several "kraut" factories in the state, 

 each of which uses several hundred tons of cabbages. 



Michigan also leads all other states in the acreage of 

 garden peas and beans, there being an enormous amount 

 used by the canning factories, besides what are required 

 for local consumption and for shipping in the fresh 

 state. In field beans the crop equals the combined 

 yield of all of the other states, and the yield of potatoes 

 is excelled by few, if any, states. 



In addition to the area used for the growing of the 

 above-mentioned crops for food purposes, large tracts 

 are devoted to the production of seeds, the quality of 

 Michigan-grown seed being generally recognized by 

 seedsmen who send there for their supply. It is esti- 

 mated that not less than 15,000 acres are used for grow- 

 ing seed of garden varieties of peas, 10,000 acres for 

 garden beans, 2,000 acres for sweet corn, with 1,000 

 acres of cucumbers, 1,000 acres of melons, 500 acres of 

 tomatoes, besides large areas devoted to onion, radish, 

 cabbage and other vegetable seeds. 



Reference has been made to the use of peas and 

 beans by canning factories, but they also require im- 

 mense quantities of other vegetables, such as asparagus, 

 rhubarb, sweet corn, pumpkins, squashes, and tomatoes, 

 to say nothing of the cucumbers, onions, and peppers 

 used for pickling. The length and breadth of the state 

 is dotted with salting and pickling stations, the number 

 being little if any less than one thousand. The canning 

 factories also use hundreds of thousands of bushels 

 of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, 

 cherries, plums, peaches, pears and apples. 



To furnish trees for the orchardists in this and other 

 states, there are more than 100 nurseries, from which 

 trees, shrubs and fruit-plants are sold. Several of the 

 larger nurseries are located at Monroe, in the south- 

 east corner of the state, where the soil seems to be 

 especially adapted for the growing of trees. There are 

 also nearly fifty firms which make a specialty of grow- 

 ing and selling small-fruit plants. 



Although one generally thinks and speaks especially 

 of the lower peninsula as the horticulturist's paradise, 

 there is an immense area between Lake Michigan and 

 Lake Superior which presents strong claims for recog- 

 nition. While the climate is severe for the more tender 

 species and varieties, the hardier kinds of apples, 

 cherries and plums, as well as the small-fruits, do re- 

 markably well. The fruit excels in color and flavor, and 

 this section has a promising future horticulturally. 



To mention the men who have done most to promote 

 the horticultural interest of Michigan one would have 

 to write a history of horticulture in nearly every county. 

 B. Hathaway, of Little Prairie Ronde, C. Engle, of 

 Paw Paw, and Geo. Hosford, of Ionia, have been especi- 

 ally successful in developing new varieties of fruit; 

 I. E. Ilgenfritz, of Monroe, L. G. Bragg, of Kalamazoo, 

 and N. P. Husted, of Lowell, were for many years the 

 proprietors of the largest nurseries in the state; R. M. 

 Kellogg, of Three Rivers, worked for years to develop 

 improved strains of strawberries and for better methods 

 of culture; C. D. and G. W. Lawton were pioneers in 

 the grape industry at Lawton; J. G. Ramsdell and 

 George Parmalee did much to develop an interest in 

 fruit-culture in the Grand Traverse region, and L. H. 

 Bailey was for years the leading apple-grower at South 

 Haven. More than anyone else, T. T. Lyon fostered 

 the interests of horticulture in Michigan (see Volume 

 III, page 1585). 



Public-service agencies for horticulture. 



The Land-Grant College of Michigan is located at 

 East Lansing, and was established in 1855. There are 

 six members of the horticultural staff. 



The Experiment Station is also situated at East 

 Lansing and the horticultural force consists of six 

 members. Four or five bulletins on horticultural sub- 

 jects are published each year. Branch stations, at 

 which considerable attention is given to horticulture, 

 and to fruit-growing in particular, are maintained at 

 South Haven and at Chatham in the upper peninsula. 



Extension work is conducted in horticulture, by 

 means of farmers' institutes, extension schools and the 

 like. There are also three men connected with the 

 extension service of the College who give especial 

 attention to horticulture. They are specialists in fruit- 

 growing, the control of insects and diseases, and 

 potato-growing and truck-gardening. 



Horticulture forms a part of the curriculum at the 

 state normal schools at Kalamazoo and Mt. Pleasant 

 and at the Menominee and Chippewa county agricul- 

 tural schools, and is given considerable attention at 

 fifty high-schools which have an agricultural depart- 

 ment. 



The work of the State Horticultural Society in fur- 

 thering the horticultural interests should not be over- 

 looked. Established in 1870 as the State Pomological 

 Society, its field of work gradually broadened until 1880 



