Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-10-01
A FAMOUS FRUIT-GRowlNo REGION IN
THE WEST.
D,->-r,N~- II nr.,, Nf;ol Co.. ~ 1000

strip of land, famous as fruit-growins
region. 1t extends a hundred miles nortl
from this place and thirty or thirty-tiv,
south to New Buffalo at the southern eX
tremity of the lake. This belt is from
six to ten miles in width. The soil is ;
mixture of black muck and sand, sof
and yielding to the foot, never muddy
even after hard shower. There are two
towns right here-St. Joseph at the
mouth of the river of the same name, ant
Benton Harbor half mile up the stream
on the opposite bank. Each has pop
ulation of about five thousand, although
the former is much the older and hand
somer place, situated on the lake bluff
Benton Harbor is only about twenty
years old and is still rapidly gaining or
its rival. There are Congregational
Baptist Methodist, Episcopal and Cath.
Ollie churches in both places, and, as
everywhere else, we found warm Chris
tan hearts. Then. too, one would search
far and wide before finding a more intel
than these fruit-growers.
One of the sights we have seen is the
man alone makes from a thousand to
twelve hundred peach baskets per day.
OF course the material is all prepared for
him, but he puts it together, driving
twelve nails in each basket Ten thous-
and peach baskets are turned out every
day from this factory, besides grape bas-
kets and boxes for canned tomatoes.
Another wonderful place was the can
ming factory, where were seventy or sew
enty-tive girls and women peeling toma-
toes. They stood in rows each side of
long troughs, at the end of which the
fruit was crammed into cans, which were
at once covered and sodered with the
exception of a small vent in the top.
Three dozen were then placed together
on frame, showed into a boiler and
steamed for five minutes to drive out the
air. Then the vents were stopped with a
into another boiler for cooking. After
this the cans were piled in a warehouse
to cool and wait for shipment. While
here the piles are closely watched to de-
tect any change of level which indicates
that some can has sweled from the pres
sure of green fruit or want of sufficient
cooking. The pile in such cases is pulled
down till the refractory can is reached
and the offending member is put through
the cooking process again and kept sep
arate from the perfect cans. These re-
processed goods are the cheap ten-cent
cans for sale in our stores. One of the
told us that the day we were
there they would put up twenty-siX thou
sand cans, though often not more than
seventeen thousand were dispatched in
the same length of time. The yard and
street were full of teams waiting to I'M
load their fruit. OuI host, Mr.. f. b.
Jewett, told us that the growers make
money, though selling the tomatoes for
forty cents per hundred weight. This
sum seems small when compared with
the prices obtained for grapes, berries,
apples, pears. melons and peaches raised
here.
One great advantage is the good mar
ket afforded by the city of Chicago. sixty |
miles away across the end of the lake. y
large steamer. the Lora. loads every ev
ening the product of the days harvest
and reaches the city in time for the fruit |
to appear in the stalls for the morning |
trade. Freight rates are low-tifteen
cents per barrel, five cents for crate of
berries and five cents per basket for
peaches; and yet the boat has many
times this season cleared thousand dol |
lars on one trip. One night she took
forty thousand half-bushel crates of
strawberries. besides other freight.
hardly dare tell the stories we have
heard regarding the money made by
fruit-growers, but we are credibly in
that pears have this year givenia net pro-
fit of from six to eight dollars barrel,
while one man in this neighborhood
cleared one hundred and twenty-siX dol
lars from one-tenth of an acre of straw
berries.
We have seen acres upon acres of rasp-
berry bushes and grape vines, the princi-
pal varieties of the latter being the Con
cord, the Delaware and new kind called
the Worden, similar to the Concord in
appearance, but far sweeter. This is
just the height of the season for grapes
and the full handsome clusters are very
asked one of the neighbors
how many grapes her husband has this
year and her reply was ''Only few,
four or five TONS"
Sunday afternoon, with Mr.. and Mrs.
Jewett, we went out on the lake bluff,
few rods from the house and there a