80 PEACH CULWRE. 



it is, it could all be consumed within the limits of 

 the State and a few neighboring cities. In addition to 

 the borer and yellows, the planter has to contend with 

 the curculio, which is much more injurious and trouble- 

 some. 



In no part of the world, perhaps, is the ameliorating 

 influence of large bodies of water on temperature more 

 distinctly marked than in Michigan. This State, with the 

 exception of a narrow strip on her southern border, not 

 exceeding twenty miles wide, lies north of forty-two 

 north latitude. The northern limits of Ohio and Indiana 

 bound her on the south. She is north of Omaha, Des 

 Moiues, Toledo, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, and 

 New York; and a parallel line, extended from her center, 

 eastward, would cut through Canada, New York, Ver- 

 mont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Nova Scotia; and 

 westward, through Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, Idaho, 

 and Oregon. Yet, notwithstanding all this, she stands in 

 the front rank of fruit growing States, and competes with 

 Ohio and California in the production of peaches! Her 

 success in the cultivation of this fruit is wonderful, and, 

 it is believed, altogether unprecedented in the same high 

 latitude. But a satisfactory explanation is found in her 

 happy geographical position, which is as unique as her 

 productions are remarkable. She is almost surrounded 

 by water ! The great lake whose name she bears covers 

 her on the west and north-west as with a blanket, and 

 softens the dry piercing winds of those regions until they 

 become moist and almost balmy. Lake Huron performs 

 the same kind office for her on the north and north-east; 

 while Erie supplements the good work on the south-east. 

 These lakes are immense bodies of water, hundreds of 

 miles long, and about a hundred wide, and from a hundred 

 and fifty to a thousand feet deep, and the climatic influ- 

 ence they exert is wonderful and highly beneficial. Hence 

 it is that Michigan, lying between 42 and 45, ranks 



