|
MICHIGAN CHAPTER 15 The Old French Habitants and their Ways
The kitchen was at the back of the house and here and under the side windows flourished bachelor buttons, pinks, hollyhocks and other more or less gaudy flowers. Everything which drew its sustenance from the earth grew vigorously. The day of the destructive bug and worm had not yet arrived. The grasshopper was on hand, but the mosquito was about the only really pestiferous insect, and it distributed malaria with the greatest impartiality. The orchards were behind the houses. They furnished a great variety of delicious fruits. Apples, pears, plums, quinces, grapes were among the best grown anywhere. Young trees or cuttings must have been brought over from France, for here are found varieties not known elsewhere in the country. Some of the apples still maintain themselves as favorites, in spite of all competition. Of course, none of the original apple trees remain, but the varieties have been perpetuated. Quite a number of the pear trees, however, are still bearing fruit after a century and a half. The expansion of the city has destroyed the trees, with very few exceptions, on the American side of the river. But on the other side, especially in the vicinity of Sandwich, many of the pear trees still flourish. They have grown to enormous size and the annual crops which they shower down upon the heads of the present generation are proportionate to their size. The fruit is not large, but in flavor and quality it is not surpassed by any known variety.
The French settled at Detroit were, for the most part, of a different class from those found at Quebec and Montreal.
MICHIGAN
Page 2
|
|
Please consider making a donation to help offset expenses to keep this site online.
Thank you
|
