46 An American Fruit-Farm 



as French Creek. But it was not until Perry's 

 victory in 1813, 



"On the tenth of September, 

 The day we remember/' 



that the western country became indisputably 

 American soil, and New France — the hope of the 

 great La Salle — ^became at last America. For more 

 than half a century the Valley has been traversed 

 by one of the principal railroads of the coimtry, 

 giving swift transportation to the markets of the 

 world. To-day it is teeming with population and 

 every rood of ground supports its man. There 

 are many fertile farming regions in America; this 

 is but one of them. Here fruit land sells for a 

 thousand dollars an acre and some of it produces 

 five hundred dollars an acre. If the net return 

 be capitalized at five per cent., the land would be 

 worth from seven to ten thousand dollars an acre. 

 The explanation lies wholly in the climate. Nature 

 has made the Valley a fruit garden. She has made 

 other regions a fruit valley, a grain field, or a 

 truck-garden. We are wise if we take her as she 

 is, get on her side and use climate to supply our 

 wants. We can do no more, and most of us do less. 

 In selecting the site for a farm the purchaser 

 rarely gives a thought to the geology of the region. 

 He will discover, however, if he pursues the matter, 

 that every fruitful farming region owes its fruit- 

 fulness, as does the Lake Shore Valley, to climate 

 and soil, — and that is as much as saying, to its 



