History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 32

Author: D.W. Ensign & Co. pub; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D. W. Ensign & Co.
Number of Pages: 821

USA > Michigan > Van Buren County > History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 32
USA > Michigan > Berrien County > History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 32

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

119

THE FRUIT BELT.

by the action of the waves. The effect of this floating ice, and this pile of ice and snow on the shore, is to retard the season.

"The prevailing winds being from the west, southwest, and northwest, the east shore is kept backward by the cool breezes, which prevent that early expansion of the buds, which is so much deplored on the west side of the lake, and which renders the destruction of fruit prospects so common every spring in the Western and Southern States. Not until summer weather is fairly established, and the danger of late frosts over, does the water of Lake Michi- gan become warm so as to melt the ice, and the sun dissolve the ice-wall so as to allow the breeze which passes over the lake to permit the expansion of the fruit-buds on the trees of the eastern shore. It is much less changeable in its temperature than the land-breezes. It warms slowly, but when warmed it retains the heat proportionately with its depth and volume. The effect of this warm condition of the lake-water is to prevent sudden changes on the lee shore. Regularly as the tides of the ocean the summer breezes traverse the land and water along the lake-shore. In the forenoon the breeze is usually towards the lake, and in the afternoon a lake-breeze comes over the land, modifying the temperature and making the hottest days of July and August pleasant and agreeable. This is the true system of ventilation, of atmospheric drainage, and where the sloping hill-sides are favorably formed, almost certain is the exemp- tion from summer frosts.

" As summer proceeds with its work of perfecting fruit, the lake is not only a protecting but a fertilizing influence. The intense heat of the sun is exerted on a large expanse of water, and the atmosphere is laden with the moisture drawn up during the day, and in the dryest season dew comes to the aid of exhausted nature, and, wherever culti- vation of the soil is properly attended to, the cool earth condenses the moisture and absorbs it, producing the best possible condition for growth. In calm summer weather this condition is probably best secured along the lake-shore, as during strong winds the moist air is apt to be carried farther inland before the earth, cooled by cultivation, can condense and absorb the moisture, and immediate proximity to the lake in strong summer winds may be no great ad- vantage; but as summer is the period of calm, and the winds are seldom strong or violent, the moist lake-air is an important element of fertilization. Plunge the hand into the loose sand of our lake-shore during the most severe drought of summer, and you find moisture within a few inches of the surface, while in digging twelve to eighteen inches deep in the plowed field, twenty miles from the lake, you will fail to develop any indications of moisture.

" After serving to enlarge and perfect the fruit by its moistening influence, the lake is still at work. It again assumes the office of protector, but in a different manner. In the spring it protected the fruit by holding it back, by retarding the swelling of the buds by its cold atmosphere ; but in the fall it performs its functions by retaining and ex- erting its acquired heat. The deep water of Lake Michi- gan is as slow to give up its summer heat as it was in the spring to yield its winter cold. It is to Michigan, in the fall and early winter, what the Gulf Stream of the At-

lantic is to Europe. It prolongs summer and fall weather along its eastern shore, through the western counties of the State, far beyond the period of killing frosts in the interior counties, or on the western shore of the lake, in Wisconsin and Illinois. It keeps off early fall frosts even more effect- ually than it warded off those of early summer. The fruits -the latest varieties of the peach, and several varieties of grapes-have ample time to perfect to thorough ripeness be- fore the frosts intercept their work, while the young fruit buds for the succeeding season develop, stop their growth, and the young wood ripens so as to withstand the rigors of succeeding winter storms and cold.

" Long after the small lakes and principal rivers of Michi- gan have become frozen over, Lake Michigan maintains its high temperature and consequent freedom from ice. Its breezes constantly temper the wind to the necessities of the fruit-grower along our western coast. It remains substan- tially open, in fact, during the whole winter, making a dif- ference, during every cold period, of from ten to twenty degrees in favor of the fruit belt.

" The first effect of a sharp frost on the lake is a matter of peculiar interest. Before ice forms to any extent on the lake, the effect of a frost along the shore is to coat over with ice the beach and everything upon it near enough to be touched by the spray. . .. As winter advances the ice thickens, and snow perhaps mingles with the spray still more abundantly ; every day a new aspect is presented by this new-formed shore. If the cold continues, the bulk of ice and snow increases in thickness, until it assumes the form of an immense but somewhat irregular wall, skirting the lake at the point where the force of the waves is usually expended. This wall forms a natural breakwater, against which the waves dash with a violence increased by the stubbornness of the resistance it presents to the course of the waves up the beach. The greater the resistance the more abundant the spray, and, with the temperature of the air perhaps near to zero, every assault made by the waves increases the height and thickness of the barrier. The lake, as the cold increases, becomes partially covered with ice, which is broken up into pieces by every wind-storm. This broken ice, dashed up with great violence against the ice-formed barrier on the beach, and in violent storms thrown completely over the ice-wall, is piled upon it, and greatly augments its breadth and height. Ice is piled upon ice, and the whole dashed with water and frozen, until a solid mass is formed, firm as a rock, rivaling the lake bluffs and hills in their height and dimensions.

" This mass of ice forms one of the principal agencies of the lake in retarding the expansion of the fruit-buds dur- ing the spring. It is the great refrigerator or reservoir of cold that holds back the buds until the danger of frost has passed. It is the fruit-grower's ice-store, piled up without any labor, and placed just where it is needed for protection from that sudden transition from winter to summer so re- markable in this latitude. Under its cooling influence the fruit-buds ' bide their time,' and do not burst into bloom until danger of blighting frost is over. This accumulation of cold, so to speak, is just as important in the spring as was the store of warmth in the fall. The whole effect is to prevent sudden transition from cold to heat. The lake is

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN AND VAN BUREN COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

the great evener of the temperature at all seasons, counter- acting all extremes of temperature and modifying the effect of all sudden changes.

" Nor is the great ice-wall and its accompanying floe of broken ice in the lake, important as they are, the only pro- vision made by the lake to protect the fruit husbandry of the adjacent country. The operations of the lake-breezes on land, during the terrific snow-storms of winter, are of similar importance. The snow that would, were it not for the wind, fall on the lake, is taken over the coast, on and on, from one to six, and frequently ten miles, where it is drifted to great depth. Were it not for the wind, this snow would cover the ground twelve to twenty inches evenly, and the first few days of warm weather would dis- solve it; but piled in immense drifts, it continues for weeks, giving forth its cooling influences gradually, retarding vege- tation in locations that would otherwise be but little bene- fited by the lake, and thereby carrying lake benefits farther inland than could be secured without. So important is this snow-drift regarded by some fruit men, that I have heard it claimed as marking the true peach belt. But I am in- clined to regard it as a wise provision for widening and in- creasing the security of that belt. This drift does not form in gullies or on low spots alone. It is just as likely to form on high as on low land, wherever some obstruction to the course of the wind renders the location favorable for a drift. A peach-orchard that is so located as to attract the drift, as is often the case within the limit named, secures almost certain protection from winter and spring frosts. In such localities figs could be grown with almost the same certainty as peaches, the snow being a most perfect protection for these exotics."

In reference to this subject of the peculiar climate of the fruit belt, Mr. J. E. Bidwell* says, " Unquestionably, our climate cannot be surpassed for its uniformity of temper- ature, rarely exceeding twenty degrees variation in one or two days ; this is of great practical value to fruit culture, in the uniform growth and ripening of wood and fruit. Nor is the moisture deficient so as to produce inferior size, shrinkage, or wilt ; nor in excess for the perfect develop- ment of vegetable, grain, or fruit. These lasting results are mainly due to the great length, breadth, depth, and position of our lakes, which in summer constantly evaporate, expand, and raise cool, moist vapor, to be gently distilled upon us at night, or showered upon us by day in seeming acci- dent, but through great design. Even in winter the rest- less waters rapidly absorb the cold, contract and settle, and are as quickly replaced by the warmer waters from below. Fresh water is easily influenced by slight atmospheric changes, one cubic foot of which will affect in one like de- gree of temperature over three thousand cubic feet of air ; how great, then, is the influence of Lake Michigan, three hundred and forty by eighty-five miles in extent of surface, and upwards of one thousand feet in depth ! Our prevailing winds are from the west, principally southwest, and so re- ceive the equalizing influences of the water. Who can es- timate the quantity of imperceptible vapor rising from sixty-

* In an address before the South Haven Pomological Society, Feb. 8, 1873.

six thousand square miles of fresh water in extreme warm weather in summer, and those immense, cloud-like masses of dark vapor rising from the unfrozen surface in extreme weather in winter, extending its beneficial influence over our State ?"

Facts gained from actual observation are given below, showing the superior advantages in climate enjoyed by the eastern over the western shore of Lake Michigan and other regions. They refer to South Haven especially, but of course apply approximately to other portions of Van Buren, as well as to Berrien County.

Facts presented by A. S. Dyckman to the South Haven Pomological Society in 1871 :

" The coldest point ever touched by the thermometer at our place, within the recollection of civilized man, was in the winter of 1856-57, nine degrees below zero; since which time the coldest point was seven degrees below zero, Jan. 1, 1864. The summer following each of these winters brought abundance of fruit on all bearing trees. In ordinary winters the thermometer does not reach zero.

"As a remarkable instance of our lake protection, it is said that when the thermometer was at seven degrees below zero here, in Jan- uary, 1864, it was as low as twelve degrees below at Corinth, Miss., and twenty-seven degrees below at Milwaukee, Wis."

Facts stated by I. S. Linderman before the South Haven Pomological Society, Jan. 7, 1878 :

" I believe that we are favored with a climate unexcelled, if not unequaled, in this latitude, between the Atlantic and the Rocky Mountains. As a basis of the correctness of my belief, I offer the following synopsis of the extremes of cold for the last eight years, taken from my record of extremes :

"December, 1868, to April, 1869, not below zero.

1869,

1870, 1º below zero once.

1870,

1871, as low as zero once.

66 1871, 1872, coldest 5°; below zero only twice.

1872, 1873, coldest winter on record to that date; below zero on nine different days.

1873,

1874, coldest day January 31st; 5º above zero.

1874, 1875, coldest day February 9th ; 16° below zero for a few moments only ; during the winter it was below zero seven times.

1875, " 1876, coldest 5° above zero.

" For the last eight years we have had two winters five degrees above zero the coldest, two winters just zero, and four winters below that point, from one to nine days each. The aggregate number of days below zero for the eight years is nineteen. This subject of the superiority of our climate is of the greatest importance to the whole people of the North west, and especially to those engaged or proposing to engage in the business of fruit-growing.

" Beloit, Wis., is directly west of us, about sixty-six miles from the west shore of Lake Michigan. Every winter, for the past eight years, it has been from sixteen to twenty-four degrees colder there than it has been here. I refer to that place particularly, because I receive a daily record of the weather and temperature once a week. I will now revert to the winter of 1872-73, the coldest to that date, but which was duplicated two years later. For convenient comparison, I will place the record of the two winters, also the names of places east and west of us, in juxtaposition.

"WINTER OF 1872-73.

" DECEMBER 24TH.

South Haven

14° below.

Beloit, Wis. 40°

Janesville, Wis 40°

Grand Rapids, Mich 40°

Lansing, Mich. 33º

Self-registering thermometer at Lansing.

45º

Tiffin, Ohio

31°

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THE FRUIT BELT.

St. Louis, Mo .. 16° below.

Centralia, Ill .... 22 to 27° 20°

Chicago, Ill.

"In Minnesota it was believed that over one hundred persons froze to death.

"WINTER OF 1874-75.

" FEBRUARY 9TH.

South Haven (for a few moments, clear and very still). 16° below. Grand Rapids, Mich 40°

Kalamazoo, Mich. 340

Battle Creek, Mich 34º

48º Sparta, Wis

" FEBRUARY 18TH.

Beloit, Wis.

40° Janesville, Wis.

40°

"The above shows a remarkable uniformity not only in the two winters but in the degrees of cold east and west of the lake, away from its influence. The degrees, however, do not express the whole of the difference in effect. A very sudden change has a much greater effect on man, beast, or trees than a gradual change of the same numn- ber of degrees. West of the lake the changes are much more sudden than they are here. I will introduce one example : Monday night, Feb. 12, 1872, at Beloit, Wis., it was 38° above zero. Tuesday morn- ing, the 13th, 6° below was the score,-a change of forty-four degrees in half a dozen hours .- Beloit Free Press. My record for the same time stands : Feb. 12th, 6 P.M., 36 degrees above; Tuesday morning, 13th, 34°, with high west wind, getting cold very fast,-forty degrees warmer than Beloit. Noon, 22º above; 6 P.M., 10°; being a change of 26° in twelve hours against 44 degrees at Beloit in a night,-a dif- ference in our favor of 18 degrees. At St. Joseph, Mo., on the same night, there was a change from 52º above to 2º above zero the next morning,-a change of 50° to Beloit 44° and our 26°.

"I might continue these comparisons indefinitely, but it is un- necessary. I have this to say, however : these comparative differences are not exceptions, but the rule, being nearly as great every winter. Fortunately for us, we are not confined to the record of the thermom- eter to prove the correctness of our claims to superiority of climate. We have other proof that is conclusive on that point. Notwithstand- ing the extreme cold of 1872-73 we had a good peach crop the follow- ing summer, amounting to about fifty thousand baskets, while the combined production of all other localities in the Northwest was far below that amount. This is conclusive proof of the correctness of our record, and cannot be successfully controverted."

There is great diversity of opinion among fruit-growers, apparently equally well informed, as to what width of ter- ritory is properly to be regarded as lying within the great fruit belt. Some, whose locations are near the lake, be- lieve that a strip of not more than two miles in breadth is all that can be regarded as within the belt; while others, respectively, place its eastern limit at three, five, ten, and fif- teen miles back from the great lake. "Some claim that it extends only a few miles back from the waters of the lake, and that only in the immediate neighborhood of river out- lets, the location of future cities; some, along the whole pen- insula, as far as the snow line ;"* while others place it far to the eastward, in the interior of the State. " As I under- stand this matter," says Mr. B. Hathaway,} of Little Prairie Ronde, " there is a peach belt and a fruit belt in Michigan that are not identical in their limits, or rather I should say the latter includes the former, but is much more extensive. I believe the limits are not easily defined, but they are to include such territory as can be used for raising peaches, where they are reasonably sure every season ;

and this region in Michigan is confined to the western shore, and a narrow belt at that."

Mr. J. P. Thompson, of Detroit, defines its extentt as follows : "The special fruit belt is composed more strictly of the counties bordering on Lake Michigan, which are Berrien (including the St. Joseph section), Van Buren, Allegan, Ottawa, and Muskegon Counties, where fruit- growing is most a specialty." On the whole, notwithstand- ing the variety of opinions as to the extent of the fruit belt, it seems proper to regard the counties of Berrien and Van Buren-or at least a very large portion of their territory- as being embraced within it.

There can be no doubt that the first orchard in all this region was the one situated on the left bank of the St. Joseph River, nearly two miles, by the course of . the stream, above its mouth, on the farm of the late Capt. Samuel G. Langley. This old orchard, originally com- posed of about sixty apple-trees, has been known since the coming of the first settlers as the " Burnett orchard," be- cause, as tradition says, it was planted by Mr. William Burnett, who opened his Indian trading-house on the St. Joseph about 1785. About the year 1836, at a time when the river rose to an unprecedented height, the flood destroyed a part of the trees, some of which exceeded ten inches in diameter. A part of them, however, still re- main, and as late as 1876 apples produced by them were exhibited at the fair of the State Society of Michigan, by A. O. Winchester, Esq., of St. Joseph, with the remark by him that they were gathered from trees a century old.

Next in point of date must have been the orchard of the Carey Mission, in the present township of Niles. The Rev. Isaac McCoy, the founder of that mission, says,§ " We early planted peach-seed, and now (1826) had an orchard of two or three hundred trees. By searching in the brush about deserted Indian villages and trading-houses we found here and there a few young apple-trees, which, perhaps, had grown from seed accidentally cast. These we transplanted, and ultimately had nearly one hundred trees growing." Elsewhere he intimates that, as he had from the first foreseen that the Indians would ere long be crowded from their lands by the whites, and that the mis- sion would then be vacated, and the land on which it was located would become the property of the United States, -in which event the board of missions would probably re- ceive from government the value of their improvements,-it had been his policy to make these improvements as valua- ble as possible ; and the raising of this orchard was one of the means used to that end.

The fact stated by Mr. McCoy that he found young apple-trees growing around deserted Indian villages is no- ticeable as showing that the Pottawattamies were not un- acquainted with that fruit; and though the missionary makes no mention of having seen any apple-trees of size in their country, it is certain that they did bring some of them to a bearing state, for such trees were found by the early settlers, scattered about in several places. It is not unlikely that the apple was first brought into the Indian

* State Pomological Society Report, 1872, page 124. It does not seem entirely clear what is the location of the " snow line" here men- tioned.

t See pp. 11, 12, State Pomological Society Report for 1878.

¿ In an address before the State Pomological Society at Allegan, in February, 1878.

¿ History of Baptist Missions, p. 263.

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN AND VAN BUREN COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

country by the Jesuits, and there is nothing improbable in the supposition that these priests planted apple-trees on the banks of the St. Joseph when they established their mission here, in about the year 1700, as it is certain that the holy fathers had done thirty years before, at the mission of St. Ignace, of Michillimackinac. Orchards of both apple- and pear-trees were commenced at Montreal by the French founders of the place immediately after its first settlement, and the same practice appears to have been usual with the people of that nation in their settlements around the more remote posts and missions. It was certainly done at De- troit at or immediately after the time of its founding by Cadillac, and one, at least, of the old pear-trees at that place, known to have been planted within the palisades of Fort Pontchartrain as early as 1705, remained standing there until its destruction became necessary to make room for the improvements of the city in modern time.

The statement has been made, and published with the proceedings of the State Society, that peach-trees planted by the Indians were found in the neighborhood of the St. Joseph River, and that they were bearing fruit to some extent about 1837, but the authenticity of that part which credits the planting of them to the Indians is doubtful. The early settlers, upon their arrival in this region, found a few peach-trees growing in the Burnett orchard, but evidently much younger than the old apple-trees found there, and they were without doubt planted by Mr. Bur- nett. It was stated by Mr. Simeon Wilson, a pioneer of St. Joseph, that when he settled there in 1831 there were some seedling peach-trees in a bearing state on the Burnett orchard ; and Benjamin C. Hoyt, Esq., who came there in 1829, said that at that time there were a few peach-trees growing on what was afterwards the village plat. Capt. Curtis Boughton also says that when he canie to Western Michigan, in 1834, there were peach-trees, which he thinks must have been planted by Indians, standing on the east bank of Hickory Creek, on section 2 of the present town of Lincoln, Berrien Co. But the fact of the trees being found there is no proof that they had been planted by Indians, for they were standing on land which had been occupied for a number of years by a Frenchman, and in the immediate vicinity Mr. Timothy S. Smith had been located as early as 1827.

The immigrants who made the early settlements in Ber- rien and Van Buren Counties were not unmindful of the advantage to be derived from fruit culture, and, though there was at that time no little doubt expressed as to the adaptability of the climate of this new region for the pur- poses of fruit-growing, and though none of the settlers could have had the faintest idea of the importance which this industry was to assume in later years, a large number of them planted fruit-trees, and many brought trees from the East and set them out on their new lands here; but in most instances only in sufficient numbers to secure family orchards, and apparently without much, if any, idea of future fruit production as a source of any considerable pe- cuniary profit, though it is said that some had this object in view from the first. In regard to the early planting of orchards, Berrien can claim very little priority over Van Buren County, for in the latter, particularly in its eastern

part, a large number of both apple- and peach-trees were planted as early at least as 1835, and from these originated some of the earliest orchards in the western part of the State. This marked the beginning in Van Buren of the orcharding industry, in which the county now takes a high rank.

In view of the early doubts which existed in regard to the adaptability of the climate and soil for successful fruit production, it is not strange that a very large proportion of the orchards planted were the apple instead of the tenderer and more precarious peach. Still, there were a consider- able number of peach-trees planted by the early settlers, and the success which, from the outset, attended the culti- vation of this fruit, caused its extension,-slowly at first, but afterwards with great rapidity,-until at last it ab- sorbed most of the attention of those who had already en- gaged in fruit culture in this region, and caused hundreds of others, who were neither orchardists nor farmers, to seize the earliest opportunity to embark in the business, and to bend all their energies to the production of peaches for the market.

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History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 32

Author: D.W. Ensign & Co. pub; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Johnson, Crisfield Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, D. W. Ensign & Co. Number of Pages: 821

Author: D.W. Ensign & Co. pub; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D. W. Ensign & Co.
Number of Pages: 821