at its highest perfection of flavor in May and June, when most other apples lose their flavor entirely. In the cultivation of pears, plums, and cherries, the Traverse farmer has decided advantages, while in the production of small fruits he cannot be excelled. Grapes, in well selected locations, are also a sure crop, and when properly chosen, there are evidently sites where peaches can be grown to advantage, although the claim to be regarded as part of the peach belt may not yet be fully established. I believe, however, that such men as Judge Ramsdell and others, whose faith is strong, may yet substantiate the claim. Prof. Winchell visited here in the fall of 1865, and he observed that peach and apple leaves were green as late as November 8. I noticed the same state of things as late as November 13, 1874, so that it cannot be an unusual occurrence. In St. Joseph and other peach regions as far north as Ludington, and even Manistee, the leaves ripen and generally fall before the close of October, while the wood stops growing some time previously. While this verdure, extended far into November, indicates remarkable freedom from killing frosts, it also indicates a lack of ripening power so essential to the perfection of the season's growth of wood and of the fruit buds for the succeeding season. There was no reason known why peach trees did not bear well in this region this year, except what I have just stated. They looked healthy and exceedingly thrifty; they suffered from no severe frosts during the winter of 1873-4; they had a good season's growth in 1873, and yet they bore but a light crop of fruit this season, and many trees bore none, while in all the lake shore regions south, beginning with Manistee, there were peaches in abundance wherever the trees were old enough to bear them. But in a country like this, where the finest of winter apples can be raised in the highest perfection, keeping sound and good as late as June the following season,-apples that will command a ready sale at $10 a barrel in Chicago, as soon as navigation opens in the spring,-where pears can be raised in the highest perfection of beauty and flavor without the appearance of blight; where all the choice varieties of plums grow with all their rich delicacy of bloom and flavor; where grapes grow in ample luxuriance on natural terraces and hillsides; where all the small fruits grow without danger from dronth; where potatoes produce 300 bushels to the acre, and other vegetables in similar proportion; where corn and oats produce ample crops, and white winter wheat yields from 25 to 40 bushels to the acre, there is no necessity for farmers to grow peaches for market. They have a better business in their own specialties TRANSPORTATION AND MARKETS. The location of Traverse Bay is such as to command the markets of the Upper Peninsula via Escanaba or Lake Superior. They have many excellent harbors, and the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad to Traverse City and as far north as Little Traverse Bay on the eastern shore, while every part of the region is permeated with navigable bays and lakes. AS A SUMMER RESORT. As a resort for visitors during the hot summer months, the Traverse region possesses many attractions, and every farmer can have all the boarders he can accommodate during the season. Such sites as Northport, New and Old Misgion, and Sutton's Bay afford excellent openings for summer hotels, while there are thousands of choice romantic sites among hills, lakes and bays that are suitable for summer cottages. It is impossible to do justice by any description of the scenery, or the real substantial health and enjoyment which the pure breezes of the lake and bay afford. A visitor, whom I suspect is Mrs. E. H. Hatch, whose pretty little poem on "Traverse Bay" I have already quoted, has well said: "Sometimes 'tis a shield of silver, bright in the sunshine's glow, Reflecting the white sailed vessels, like a mirror fair below. TWELFTH ARTICLE. THE FRUIT CROP OF 1874.-CONCLUDING REMARKS. I have made an effort to obtain returns from all the places where fruit has been shipped this season, so as to present a reliable statement in regard to the fruit crop of 1874. From some places I have obtained nearly accurate returns. From those places along the Chicago & Michigan Lake Shore Railroad, I have the official returns from the office of the company, compiled by Mr. H. L. Brown, the Acting General Freight Agent. For these stations, except at St. Joseph, Benton Harbor, and Holland, the figures given show the number of packages shipped by the fruit train, specially run by that company from Holland to Chicago. This train employed thirty cars constructed with wove wire ends. so as to allow perfect ventilation, the baskets of fruit being placed on shelves placed close so as to fill every car, and yet avoid crushing the baskets or fruit' The cars were also provided with springs and elastic buffers so as to place the fruit in the market in the best possible shape. The regularity of the fruit train in placing fruit in the market early every morning, made this a favoritemode of transit, and this train conveyed to Chicago, during the season, 184,899 baskets of fruit. The returns from Benton Harbor are nearly correct. From St. Joseph, the returns failed to reach in time, except from the express office, I have, therefore, estimated them. From South Haven, the figures are furnished by Hon. T. T. Lyon, and are undoubtedly correct. From Saugatuck, the shipping clerk, Mr. W. E. Hutchinson, promptly furnished the figures. From Douglas, the returns did not reach, and I was obliged to estimate the amount. The returns from Ganges was made by Mr. Perrottet. I have obtained correct figures whenever possible in the other regions, and when these could not be obtained I have, with what assistance I could obtain from those best acquainted with the facts, made a careful estimate. In none of the shipping offices do they make any distinction between a crate of berries or a basket of peaches or grapes, plums, pears, summer apples, crabs, or tomatoes. Taking, therefore, into account that a crate of berries contains 16 quarts, and realizes at least $2, and that peaches sell at from 50 cents to $1 25 a basket, according to the season, I think I do not exaggerate to set down the average proceeds of the entire crop at $1 a package, or $2,310,514. Inasmuch as the Benton Harbor Palladium claims that $2,000,000 have been paid fruit men this year by the banks at St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, out of which has to come the cost of picking and packing, crates, baskets, and hauling, I think this estimate for the entire fruit region is under rather than over the amount. It must be remembered that these figures do not include winter apples, which were being shipped during November at St. Joseph, South Haven, Saugatuck, and Grand Haven in very large quantities. But as many of these come from interior counties of the State, it would not be correct to credit the lake shore regions with more than a small proportion of them. Grand Traverse will probably ship and consume 10,000 barrels of apples in the spring, worth $50,000. The apples shipped at the other places named will probably exceed 150,000 barrels. The full returns of winter apples cannot be obtained at the time of making this report, as the shipment continues all through December at Grand Haven, the harbor there remaining open during winter. The following is a statement, then, as nearly as it can be ascertained, of the number of crates of small fruit and peck baskets of peaches, pears, plums, summer apples, crabs, cherries, grapes, and tomatoes that were produced at the places named during the season of 1874: When it is remembered that many of the farms, perhaps two-thirds, are yet young and not in full bearing, and that every succeeding year increases the area of fruit growing, some estimate may be formed of the importance which this interest is assuming. Fruit growing is the specialty of these lake shore counties, and while the peach is the leading fruit of Berrien, Van Buren, Allegan, Ottawa, and Muskegon counties, and is grown successfully in Oceana, Mason, Manistee, and in some favored spots in Benzie, Leelanaw, and Grand Traverse counties, these northern counties are taking the lead of the southern in winter apples, pears, and plums. Grapes appear about equally successful in all the counties named, where varieties suited to each locality are selected. All those counties north of Allegan are but thinly settled, and the land capable of producing these choice fruits is probably forty times more extensive than that which is yet used for that purpose; there is, therefore, a wide field opening for those who desire to engage in a pursuit which is not only profitable in its ultimate results, but which is healthful and ennobling in all its practical details. It should not, however, be engaged in by those who expect immediate profits with little or no labor. Those who have succeeded best are those who have shown the greatest perseverance and practiced the wisest economy in capital and labor. THE ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY OF THE REGION OF CHEBOYGAN AND OLD MACKINAC, IN THE COUNTIES OF PRESQUE ISLE, CHEBOYGAN, AND EMMET, STATE OF MICHIGAN. BY N. H. WINCHELL, STATE GEOLOGIST OF MINNESOTA. The geological examination of this interesting region by the Michigan Geological Survey has not been completed, and what is herein stated is the result mainly of a reconnoissance made in the summer of 1869. The survey of 1860 threw much light on the nature, age, and natural grouping of the rocks of the region, but the observations made during the years 1869-70, in the counties of Alpena and Emmet, combined with discoveries made in the southern part of the State in the same or in nearly related formations, have thrown the geological foundation of the whole district into some doubt. Those rocks which in northern Ohio have been denominated the Waterlime Group, have not, till within the last year, been identified in Michigan. They belong to the lower part of the Lower Helderberg, and constitute the base of Mackinac Island. Its elevated portions belond to the Upper Helderberg. These formations are separated by an "agatiferous conglomerate" supposed to be the equivalent of the Oriskany Sandstone, which at Crawford's Quarry appears near the bottom of the outcrop as a "brown calcareous sandstone," and in Southern Michigan and Northern Ohio as a "white saccharoidal sandstone." It has been heretofore supposed that the Corniferous Limestone occupied a considerable tract in the Lower Peninsula, embracing the regions of Cheboygan and Old Mackinac, but it is now believed that the rocks occupying that tract belong to the Lower Helderberg, and that the Corniferous and Hamilton formations are in outcrop further south. The lithological character of that formation ist known to prevail in some parts of Emmet county near the Mackinac straits,. and its great outcropping ridge which runs in a direction N. E. and S. W., through Alpena and Presque Isle counties, is believed to abut on lake Michigan in the form of Waugoshance point; thence verging towards the S. W., as indicated by the rocky reefs intervening, it probably underlies the group of the Beaver Islands. The Salina, immediately below the Lower Helderberg, consists for the greater part, of a vast bed of blue shales, 250 feet thick. When the great erosions of the glacial epoch came on this shale was so much excavated that the overlying Lower Hilderberg and Corniferous were almost totally denuded along with it, throughout the whole extent of their contiguity to the great lakes, their greatest preservation being where the continental glacier was |
