^ENEIVrORKBOTANICALGAPl

TRANSACTIONS

Illinois State Horticultural Society

IFOi^ 187S,

I! E 1 N G THE

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

HELD AT

CENTRALIA, DECEMBER ioih, iith, i2th and 13TH.
EDITED BY THE SECRETARY;

ALSO

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING

OF THE

NORTHERN ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

PREPARED BY A "PUBLISHING COMMITTEE" OF THAT SOCIETY ;

— ALSO —

REPORTS FROM LOCAL SOCIETIES, FRUIT LISTV-^fl

New Series— Vol.. VI. ^^\^^ ^ 'vj^

CHICAGO :
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.
READE, BREWSTER & CO., PRINTERS.
1873.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIKTY. lii

LIBRARY
NEW YORK
CONTENTS. BOTANICAL
GARDEN

L Horticultural Districts. iii

IL Introduction iv

in. Officers and Standing Committees vii

IV. List of Members ix

V. Constitution and By-Laws xii

vi. State Laws Relating to Horticulture xiv

VII. Proceedings of Annual Meeting. - i

VIII. l,ists of Fruits • x88

IX. Report of Northern Illinois Horticultural Society - 193

X. Local Horticultural Societies - 299

XL Index... 309

FRUIT, OR HORTICULTURAL DISTRICTS.

I. NORTHERN ILLINOIS.

1. Fox River Distnct. — Boone, Cook, DeKalb. DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kanka-
kee. Kendall, Lake, I-aSalle, McHenry, and Will.— 12.

2. Rock River District. — Bureau, Carroll. Henry, JoDaviess, Lee, Ogle, Putnam,
Rock Island, Stephenson, Whiteside, Winnebago. — 11. Total, 23.

II. CENTRAL ILLINOIS.

3. Illinois River District. — Adams, Brown, Cass, Fulton, Hancock, Henderson.
Knox, McDonough. Marshall, Mason, Mercer, Menard, Morgan, Peoria, Pike, Schuy-
ler, Scott, Stark, Tazewell, Warren, Woodford. — 21.

4. Grand Prairie District. — Champaign, Christian, Coles, DeWitt, Douglas,
Edgar, Ford, Iroquois, Livingston, Logan, McLean, Macon, Moultrie, Piatt, Sanga-
mon, Shelby, Vermillion. — 17. Total, 38.

III. SOUTHERN ILLINOIS.

5. Centralia, or Wabash District. — Clark, Clay, Crawford, Cumberland, Ed-
wards, Effingham, Fayette, Franklin, Hamilton, Jasper, Jefferson, Lawrence, Marion,
Richland, Wabash, Wayne, White. — 17.

6. Alton, or Kaskashia District. — Bond, C.xlhoun, Clinton, Greene, Jersey, Ma-
coupin, Madison, Monroe, Montgomery, Perry, Randolph, St. Clair, Washington. — 13.

7. Grand Chain District. — Alexander, Gallatin, Hardin, Jackson, Johnson, Mas-
sac, Pope, Pulaski, Saline, Union, Williamson. — li. Total, 41. Grand Total, 102.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

INTRODUCTION.

It is due to the Executive Board of this Society, that the member-
ship should be informed of some of the causes which liave operated to
delay the publication of this volume.

In the first i)lace the Society had not sufficient funds in the treas-
ury to publish its annual volume of Transactions, and, as was generally
conceded, the Board must, in consequence, await the action of the
General Assembly in re-organizing the Society, so as to constitute it a
" Corporation of the State," and appropriating funds for its maintain-
ance. It was not until the latter part of February that I learned,
through the State Auditor, that, by " a recent decision of the Supreme
Court," the Society was entitled to its hitherto uniform appropriation of
two thousand dollars — under the provisions of the old constitution.

The contract was then at once made for the publication and de-
livery of the volume by the tenth of May, but during the progress of
the work the publishers — who had lost their all in " the great confla-
gration," and had not yet succeeded in establishing their business upon
a sure financial basis — were compelled to go into bankruptcy. This dis-
aster caused still further delay ; yet through the kind assistance and
perseverance of Mr. C. F. Brewster, a member of the firm, the work
has been pushed to completion much sooner tlian the hindrances
seemed to indicate could be done.

The disastrous effect of the unprecedented cold of last winter has
cast a gloom over almost the entire peach-growing region of the State ;
but this calamity is not so truly discouraging as the fact that at the
time, above all others in the liistory of this Society, when persistent
research and experiments are imperatively demanded, to ascertain and
prevent the causes of disasters to trees and fruits, our representatives
in Springfield should refuse to place our Society in a position to enable
it to continue its good work and to aid it, by a small appropriation, in
publishing, for the benefit of the whole State, the results of its labors.

yi TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

The bill for an act to re-organizc this Society passed one branch of
the General Assembly almost unanimously, but was defeated in the
other House by a small majority; so small, indeed, that it is within the
power of the horticulturists of the State to secure its triumphant pass-
age at the next session. If every member of this Society shall hold a
personal interview with the representatives of his district, in both houses
of the General Assembly, and explain to them the nature and impor-
tance of our work, he will be almost certain to secure pledges from them
to sustain the society by proper legislation.

Let us all increase our diligence and zeal in our chosen work as
we find new obstacles to be overcome, that our Society may sustain its
position among the horticultural institutions of the land, and that its
usefulness may continue unimpaired. The Secretary.

Morris, Grundy Co., III., May 8, 1873.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. vii

OFFICERS FOR 1873.

PRESIDENT:
M. L. DUN LAP, Champaign, Champaign County.

VICE PRESIDENTS :
1st District — W. T. Nelson Wilmington, Will County.

2d

3d

4th

5th

6th

7th

Samuel Edwards LaMoille, Bureau County.

A. G. Humphrey.. Galesburg, Knox County.

L.C.Francis Spiingfield, Sangamon County.

J. C. Cooper Centralia, Marion County.

Isaac Snedecker.. Jerseyville, Jersey County.

Parker Earle South Pass, Union County

SECRETARY ;
O. B. Galusha Morris, Grundy County.

A SSIS TANT SE CRE TA R V :

■».

H. J. Dunlap Champaign, Champaign County.

TREASURER :
Jonathan Huggins Woodbum, Macoupin County.

EXECUTIVE BOARD :

M. L. Dunlap, James E. Starr. Arthur Bryant, Senr., W. C. Flagg, and

O. B. Galusha.

viii

TRANSACTIONS OF IHE ILLINOIS

STANDING COMMITTEES FOR 1873.

Gentlemen on these Committees are expected to act independently, and each is
requested to report upon his topic with reference to his particular district — Northern,
Southern, or Central, as the case may be. It is believed that additional facts and
principles may be discovered, relating to the conditions to which fruit culture in Illi-
nois must conform, by a careful study of atmospheric phenomena, our soils, insects, and
birds, in connection with vegetable physiology and the hygiene of plants.

NORTHERN.

CENTRAL.

SOUTHERN.

Prof. J. Wernli,

Galena.

METEOROLOGY:

J. B. Turner,

Jacksonville.

Prof. John H. Tice,

St. Louis, Mo.

Capt. E. N. Beebe,
Geneva.

GEOLOGY AND SOILS:

Tylev McWhorter,
Aledo.

H. C. Freeman,

So. Pass.

BOTANY AND VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY:

H. H. McAfee,

Freeport.

Dr. Wm. LeBaron,

Geneva.

Dr. E. S. Hull,

Alton.

ENTOMOLOGY :

J. R. Muhlemann,

Woodburn.

T. A. E. Holcomb,

So. Pass.

Prof. C. V. Riley,

St. Louis, Mo.

Robert Douglass,

Waukegan.

ORNITHOLOGY:

J. E. Starr.

Elsa.

A. M. Brown,

Villa Ridge.

ORNAMENTAL AND TIMBER TREES:

A. Bryant, Jr.,

Princeton.

H. J. Dunlap,

Champaign.

W. C. Flagg.

Moro.

J. P. Bryant,

Princeton.

ORNAMENTAL AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING:

P. R. Wright,

G. W. Minier,

Minier.

So. Pass.

J. Periam,

Chicago.

VEGETABLE GARDENING .

A. L. Hay,

Jacksonville.

G. H. Baker,

So. Pass.

Dr. L. .8. Pennington,

Sterling.

E. C. Hatheway,

Ottawa.

ORCHA RD CUL TURE :

J. W. Robinson,

Tremont.

VINE YA RD CUL TURE :

G. B. Worthen,

Warsaw.

Parker Earle,

So. Pass.

E. J. Ayers,

Villa Ridge.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIKTY.

IX

LIST OF MEMBERS FOR 1873.

NAMH.

COSTOFFICE.

COUNTY.

NAMES.

POST OFFICE.

COUNTY.

Butterworth, 1".

Quincy,

."^dams.

Douglas, R.

Waukegan,

Lake.

Stewart, Jolin

Fowler,

do

Baldwin, F.lmer

Farm Ridge,

La Salle.

Limbert, John

Cairo,

Alexander.

Hathaway, E. C.

t)tta*'a.

do

Brjant, Arth. Sr.,

Princeton,

Bureau.

Hansen, W. H.

Franklin Grove,

Lee.

Bryant, Arth. Jr.,

do

do

Whitney. A. R.

do

do

Brj'ant, L.
Edwards, San\iicl

do
La Moille,

do
do

Beach, J. A.
BeH. R. M.

Woodburn.
Brighton,

Macoupin,
do

Gotta, J. V.

Lanark,

Carroll.

Blodgett, Daniel
Clark, H.

do
do

do
do

Burrill, T. J.
Dunlap, .•\lbert
Dunlap, -M. L.
Gregor>', J. M.
Hammersmith C 1
Phinney, J. B.
Vickroy, H. K.

Urbana,
Champaign,

do

do

do

do

do

Champaign,
do
do
do
do
do
do

Compton, George
Corwin, L. B.
Cummings, J. F.
Eldred, K. B.

Woodburn,
Carlinville,
Bunker Hill,
Carlinville,

do
do

do
do

Eklred, Moses
Flanagan, John
Gore, David
HiUiard, A. A.

do
Bunker Hill,
Carlinville,
Brighton,

do
do
do
do

Blower, R. L.

Pana,

Christian.

Holli^ter, K.
Howell, J. C.

Woodburn,
Carlinville,

do
do

Currans, J. B.

Mattoon,

Coles.

Huggins, Jona.
Huggins, J. C.

Woodburn,
do

do
do

Atkins, Charles
Bonham, Jeriah
Cochran, J. W.
Kmery, H. I).
Periam, John.
Schuyler, W. H.

Chicago,

do
Blue Island,
Chicago,

do

do

Cook,
do
do
do
do
do

Huggins, P. C.
Hunter, George
Ingersoll, G. B.
Loomis, H. J.
McConnell, J. T.
Miles, Jona.
Olnistead, Martin

Bunker Hill,
Carlinville,
Shipnian,
Carlinville,

do
Miles Station,
Shipman,

do
do
do
do
do
do
do

Graves, H. C.

Sandwich,

De Kalb.

Pettingill, John
Seamen, M. W.

Brighton,
Shipman,

do
do

Daggy, E.

Tuscola,

Douglas.

Simmons, J. L.
Summerville, Th.

Piasa,
Bunker Hill,

do

do

Ellsworth, L.
Richmond, C. W.

Naperville,
do

Du Page,
do

Williams, E. S.
Wood,R. O.
Young, J. T.

do

Woodburn,

do

do
do
do

Curtis, B. O.

Paris,

Edgar.

Barler, O. L.

Upper Alton,

Madison.

Flagg, W. C.

Moro,

do

Irish, E. W.

Farina,

Fayette.

Gillham, D. B.

Alton,

do

,

Hollister, E.

do

do

Overman, N.

Canton,

Fulton.

Hyde. H.J.
Johnson, S. B.

do

do

do

do

Clapp, Henry

Morris,

Grundy.

Long, 15. F.

do

do

Galusha, O. K.

do

do

Pearson, J. M.

do

do

San ford, E.

do

do

Smith, W. E.

do

do

Hammond, A. C.

Warsaw

Hancock.

Eldridge, Lewis

Centralia,

Marion.

Hoppe, C. C.

do

do

Hallam, J. L.
Hooton, Rl. M.

do

do

Whitaker, B.

do

do

do

do

Perrine, Charles

do

do

Ridenoiir, J. 1!.

Woodhull,

Henry.

Phillips, C. B.

do

do

Phillips, C. W.

do

do

Snedecker, Isaac

Jerseyville,

Jersey.

Pope, R. F.

Kinmundy,

do

Starr, J. E.

Elsa,

do

i Pullen, B.

Centralia,

do

Taylor, J. S.
Webster. Jabez

do

do ■
do

Cobb, Emory

Kankakee,

Kankakee.

do

McKinstry, B. N

. Yellow Head,

do

! Wier, I). 1'..

L.icon,

Marshall.

Minkler, S. G.

Oswego,

Kendall.

1 Hagemaii, Andrew Bushnell,

McDonough

Carpenter, A. N.
Childs. E.

Galesburg,

Knox.

1

Oneida,

do

j Rodgers, J.S.

Marengo,

McHenry.

Humphrey, A. G

Galesburg,

do

1 Woodard,L.

do

do

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

LIST OF MEMBERS FOR 1873— Continued.

NAME.

POST OFFICE.

COUNTY.

NAME.

POST OFFICE.

COUNTY.

Phoenix, F. K.

Bloomington,

McLean.

Hartman, Jacob

Freeport,

Stephenson

Prestelle. W. H.

do

do

Hineline, C. M.

do

do

Smith. W. H.

Normal,

do

Scofield, L. K.

do

do

Bassett, J. R

Aledo,

Mercer.

Minier, G. W.

Minier,

Tazewell.

Lee, Graham

do

do

Robinson. J. W.

Tremont,

do

McWhorter, T.
Pepper, John
Vernon, Marion

do
do
New Boston,

do
do
do

Baker, G. H.
Earle, Parker
Essex, Isaac B.

South Pass,

do
Dongola,

Union,
do
do

Barker, C. A.

Camel, H. F.
Clayton, W. W.

Jacksonville,
do
do

Morgan,
do
do

Freeman, H. C.
Holcomb,T. A.E.
Wright, P. R.

#

South Pass,
do
do

do
do
do

Gillette,?. S.

do

do

Clark, L. G.

Channahon,

Will.

Gilman, H. A.

do

do

Fuller, J. C.

Joliet,

do

Hay, A. L.

do

do .

Minard, D. G. W.

Crete,

do

Miller, E. S.

do

do

Nelson, W. T.

Wilmington,

do

Milligan, H. W.

do

do

Westgate, C. A.

Peotone,

do

Neal, E. C.

do

do

Turner, J. B.

do

do

NAME.

POSTOFFICE.

STATE.

Wilbur, C. T.

do

do

Bower, R. F.

Keokuk.

Iowa.

Brown, A. M.

Villa Ridge,

Pulaski.

Matthews, B. A.

Knoxville,

do

Miller, Mark

Des Moines,

do

Shepherd, Smiley

Hennepin,

Putnam.

Willet, R. S.

Malcolm,

do

Dailey, M. A.

Owatonna,

Minnesota.

Francis, L. C.

Springfield,

Sangamon.

Wells, H.

Trotwood,

Ohio.

Garland, A. M.

do

do

Cooper, J. C.

Topeka,

Kansas.

Raymond,W.H.V

do

do

Stickney, James

Wauwatosa,

Wisconsin.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. xi

DELEGATES FROM OTHER SOCIETIES.

Warsaw Horticultural Society,
A. C. HAMMOND, EZEKIEL McCUNE, DR. A. C. WARNER.

JONHSBORO Horticultural Society,
ISAAC B. ESSEX.

Galesburg Horticultural Society,
DR. A. G. HUMPHREY, OTIS JONES, MISS S. E. PUTNAM.

xii TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

CONSTITUTION AND BY-LA W^S,

AS AMENDED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, 1872.

CONSTITUTION.

I. This Association shall be known as the Illinois State Horticultural
Society.

II. Its objects shall be the advancement of the science of Pomology and of the
art of Horticulture.

III. Its members shall consist of Annual members, paying an annual fee of
one dollar ; of Life members, paying a fee of twenty dollars at one time ; and of
Honorary members, who shall only be persons of distinguished merit in Horticulture
or kindred sciences, who may, by vote, be invited to participate in the privileges of the
Society. The wives of members shall be members without fee.

IV. Its officers shall consist of a President, one Vice-President from each Fruit
District in the State, a Secretary, an Assistant Secretary, a Treasurer, and an Execu-
tive Board, which shall consist of the President, the last three Ex-Presidents, and the
Secretary' ; all of whom shall be elected at the annual meeting, and serve from the
first of January until the thirty-first of December, and until their successors are
elected.

V. It shall hold an annual meeting and other meetings, and an annual fair, as
the Society or the Executive Board may direct.

VI. This Constitution' may be amended at any regular meeting, by a two-thirds
vote of the members present.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. xiii

BY-LAWS.

I. The President shall preside at all meetings of the Society ; call meetings of
the Executive Board, and, under its directions, have a general superintendency of the
affairs of the Society and direction of the expenditure of money ; he shall deliver an
annual atldress upon some subject connected with Horticulture, and shall appoint all
committees, unless otherwise ordered.

II. The Vice-Presidents, in the order of their Districts, shall act in case of ab-
sence or disability of the President ; and shall, by correspondence and personal inter-
course with the horticulturists of the various counties of their respective districts, en-
deavor to organize local societies, obtain accurate information of the condition and
progress of Horticulture therein, and report annually, in writing, to the Society.

III. The Secretary shall conduct the correspondence of the Society; have charge
of its papers, books, and reports, and ]irepare its reports for publication ; and shall re-
ceive, for so doing, his necessary expenses for postage, stationery, printing, expressage,
and office rent, and the »um of three hundred dollars per annum ; he shall render an
annual account in detail of such necessary expenses, which shall be referred, with the
Treasurer's report, to a special auditing committee.

IV. The Assistant Secretary, in the case of the absence or disability of the Sec-
retary, shall perform his duties, and shall aid him, at the annual meeting in making his
report.

V. The Treasurer shall receive, and keep an accurate account of all moneys be-
longing to the Society, and disburse the same upon the written orders of the Presi-
dent, which he shall retain and file as vouchers ; he shall make an annual report to
the Society of the receipts and disbursements, which, with the vouchers, shall be re-
ferred to a special auditing committee appointed at the annual meeting. Before en-
tering upon his duties, he shall give bond to the Society in the sum of five thousand
dollars, for the faitliful performance of his duties ; such bond to be approved by the
Executive Board.

VI. The Executive Board shall, subject to the direction of the Society, manage
all its affairs.

VII. There shall be chosen annually, by the Executive Board, a Standing Com-
mittee, to consist of one or more members from each of the three divisions — Northern,
Central, and Southern — of the .State, on the following subjects:

1. Meteorology in its relation to Horticulture.

2. (jeology and Soils.

3. Botany and Vegetable Physiology.

4. Entomology.

5. Ornithology.

6. Ornamental and Useful Trees.

7. Ornamental and Landscape Gardening.

8. V'egeiable Gardening.

9. Orchard Culture.
10. Vineyard Culture.

VIII. These By-Laws may be altered at any meeting by a majority vote.

xiv TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

LAWS AFFECTING HORTICULTURE.

An Act to Incorporate the Illinois State Horticultural Society.

Section i. Be it enacted by the people of the State of lUinois, represented in the
General Assembly, That Smiley Shepherd, O. B. Galusha, S. G. Minkler, W. C. Flagg,
J. T. Little, W. H. Van Epps, Lewis Ellsworth, Jason C. Ayres, W. A. Pennell, J. W.
Fell, W. Uurley, Samuel Edwards, their associates and successors, members of the
Illinois State Horticultural Society, be and are hereby declared to be a body politic
and corporate, known by the name and style of " The Illinois State Horticultural
Society."

Sec. 2. The object of the Society being to promote the science of Pomology and
the art of Horticulture, they shall be allowed, for those purposes only, to take and hold
real and personal estate to the amount of fifty thousand dollars.

Sec. 3. This Society shall have the right to contract and be contracted with, to
sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, to answer and be answered unto, in all
the courts of law and equity of this State, and shall further enjoy all the privileges in-
cident to incorporations of said character, and not inconsistent with the laws of this
State.

Sec. 4. It shall and may be lawful for said corporation to have and use a com-
mon seal, and the same at their pleasure to change, alter, and make anew, and in
general have and exercise all such rights, privileges, and immunities as by law are in-
cident to or necessary to the society herein constituted.

Sec. 5. The Society shall have power to alter or amend their present constitu-
tion, to make, alter, or repeal such by-laws as may be deemed necessary for carrying
out the objects of the Society.

Sec. 6. This act shall be in force from and after its passage.

Approved February 16, 1865.

[NoTK.- -The .Society wa^Jirst incorporated Feb. iith,Ji857 — two months after its organization. —
Ed.]

An Act for the Protection of Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Shrubbery,

and Vegetable Products.

Section i. Be it enacted l>y the people of the State of Illinois, represented iit the
General Assembly, That if any person or persons, in this State shall willfully, malic-
iously, and without lawful authority, cut down, root up, sever, injure, peel, or destroy
any fruit or ornamental tree, cultivated root or plant, fruit, or other vegetable produc-
tion, grape, strawberry, or cranberry vines, currants, gooseberry, raspberry or cultivated
blackberry bushes, standing or growing on or being attached to the land of another, or
shall willfully and without lawful authority, cut down, root up, destroy, or injure any
fruit or ornamental tree or shrubbery, planted or growing on any street, lane or alley,
or public grounds in any city, borough, or incorporated town in said State, every such
person so offending, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof
shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment
in the jail of the county not exceeding three months, or both, at the discretion of the
court, and shall, moreover, be liable in double the amount of damages to the party
injured.

This law to take effect from and after its passage.

Approved Feurlwvrv 15, 1865.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. XV

An Act for the i*rotection of Growing Fruit.

Section i. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represaiited in thf
General Assembly, That if any person or persons shall, hereafter enter the enclosure of
any person without leave or license of such owner, and destroy or carry away any part
or portion of the fruit of any apple, pear, peach, plum, or other fruit tree or bush, such
person or persons shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction
thereof, may be fined in any sum not less than ten or more than fifty dollars, and may
be imprisoned in the county jail for any period of time not exceeding twenty days.
The penalties incurred by a violation of this act may be enforced by indictment in any
court having jurisdiction of misdemeanors in the county where the offence is committed,
or the fine may be recovered in an action of debt before any justice of the peace of such
county.

ArPKOVEI) P'KBRUAkV l6, 1865.

An Act for the Protection of Orchard.s, and to Prevent the Destruction

of Small Birds.

Sectio.n I. Be it ettacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the
General Assembly, That it shall not be lawful in this State, for any person to shoot, or
in any other manner to kill or destroy, or to entrap, ensnare, or otherwise capture any
of the following description of birds, to wit : The blue-bird, swallow, martin, musquito
hawk, whip-poor-will, cuckoo, woodpecker, cat-bird, brown-thrasher, red-bird, hanging-
bird, rice-bird, sparrow, wren, huniuiing-bird, dove, goldfinch, and mocking-bird.

Sf.CTION 2. Every person who willfully violates the provisions of the preceding
section, or who shall willfully destroy the nest or eggs of any of the birds herein before
designated, shall be punished by a fine of not more than five dollars for each offense.

This Act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

.\l'PKOVEI) FEHRi:ARy 24, 1859.

.\n .Xct making an appropriation in aid of the State Horticultural

Society of Illinois.

Section i. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in tlie
General Assembly, That there be appropriated for the use of the State Horticultural
Society, to be expended in the payment of premiums, in publishing the Transactions of
said Society, procuring scientific investigations relating to Horticulture, and paying ex-
penses of Ad-Interim Committees, the sum of two thousand dollars per annum.

Section 2. The said sum of two thousand dollars shall be jiaid m the Treasurer
of said .State Horticultural Society, on the order of the President and Secretary of the
same.

Api'Rf>vEU February 28, 1867.

[This law, although inoperative under the New Constitution of the State, is published for the in-
formation of new members as to the means by which the Society has been enabled to publish its " new
series" of reports. — Secretary.

An .\ct ff)r the Protection of Consignors of Fruit, (Iriiin, Flour, etc., to

be sold on Coinrnission.

Section I. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the
General Assembly, That if any warehouseman, storage, forwarding, or commission
merchant, or his or their agents, clerks or employes shall convert to their own u.se the
proceeds or profits arising from the sale of any fruits, grain, flour, beef, pork, or any
other goods, wares, or merchandize, otherwise than as instructed by the consignors of

xvi TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

said goods, and shall on the demand of the consignor fail to deliver over the proceeds
or profits of said goods, after deducting the usual per cent, on the sales as commission,
shall be found guilty of a misdemeanor. And any person or persons who shall be found
guilty of retaining or embezzling any money prohibited in this section, not exceeding
one hundred dollars, shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars,
or imprisoned in the jail of the county not exceeding three months, or both, at the
discretion of the court, and shall, moreover, be liable in double the amount of damages
to the party injured ; any person or persons who shall be found guilty of retaining or
embezzling a greater sum than one hundred dollars, shall be punished by fine, not more
than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned in the jail of the county not exceeding one
year, or both, at the discretion of the court ; and shall, moreover, be liable in double
the amount of damages to the party injured.

Section 2. This act to take eftect from and after its passage.

Approved March 4, 1869.

An Act to permit the planting of Shade and Ornamental Trees along

the Public Roads.

Section i. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois yepresented in the
General Assembly, That it shall be lawful for owners or occupants of lands, bordering
upon any puVjlic road in this State, to plant shade and oinamental trees along and in
such road, at a distance not exceeding one-tenth of the legal width of the road from its
margin.

Section 2. This act shall be deemed a public act and be in force from and after
its passage.

Approved March 25, 1869.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE

Seventeenth Annual

MEETING,

HELD AT CENTRAL.IA,
DECEMBER 10, 11, 12, 13—1872.

In response to a call signed by the President and Secretary, the
Illinois State Horticultural Society convened in Reeder's Hall at ten
o'clock a. m., on Tuesday, Dec. lo, 1872.

The President, Mr. James E. Starr of Elsa, Jersey Co., in the chair.

'i'he Rev. Mr. Rankin of the Presbyterian church, opened the
meeting with prayer.

Dr. M. M. Hooton, of Centralia, in behalf of the Local Horticul-
tural Society, and citizens of Centralia, then welcomed the State Society
in the following address :

DR. HOOTON 'S ADDRESS.

Mr. President and Geuilemcn of the State Hortiailtural Society :

On behalf of the fruit-growers and citizens of Centralia and the
vicinity, it becomes my pleasant duty to welcome you to the hospitalities
of our hearts and homes. Somewhat depressed by the results of the
last fruit season, we cannot fail to have our hearts lightened and our
hands strengthened by your discussions, and by the very presence, in
our midst, of a Society whose members show by their intelligence, en-
thusiasm, and refinement, that Horticulture draws to its service many of
the best and ablest men of our country.

Surrounded as Horticulture is by manv unsolved problems, may we

not hope that the action of this Society will, to some extent, clear away

the fog and rubbish that impede us and leave us a purer atmosphere

OJ and a clearer field, in which to pursue our calling, than we have hereto-

(^j-) fore enjoyed? We are glad to believe that these hopes will be reali/td.

" and that while we are benefited, you will have a pleasant visit in our

' city. Once more \ bid vou welcome.

CO

2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Following this address of welcome, President James E. Starr made
a brief business address as follows :

Gentlemen : •

The Seventeenth annual session of the Illinois State Horticultural
Society has now convened, pursuant to adjournment. You are about to
transact business in which, I trust, not only yourselves but the cause of
Horticulture will be benefited-

Your attention is called to the following brief statements. I have
not attempted to accompany them with arguments, but think them of
sufficient importance to call for some action by this Society.

Under date Dec. 20, 1 87 1 , a circular was issued by the Commissioner
of Agriculture, calling for Delegates from each Agricultural College, State
Agricultural Society, State Horticultural Society, and State Board of
Agriculture, to meet at Washington on the 13th of February, 1872, "for
the purpose of conferring upon subjects of mutual interest."

The expenses of Delegates must be defrayed by themselves or by
the associations they represent.

Deeming the call, (coming from so high a source), one entitled to
consideration, I endeavored to appoint such delegates as would fully
understand our position and wants, and at the same time meet the other
requirements. In this I failed. The meeting was held in accordance
with the announcement; an organization was effected and steps. taken,
in the future results of which this Society is interested.

In May, 1872, two organizations, each claiming to be national in
character, met in the city of St. Louis.

Their interests, aims, and o[)jects being common, they consolidated
and adopted a Constitution in which, after much opposition. State Hor-
ticultural Societies were distinctly recognized, and placed upon the same
footing as other State organizations, working for the same general object.
I regret to say that local organizations were not justly or fairly
recognized.

After the re-organization of the two Societies I appointed Dr. E. S.
Hull (who was in attendance at my request) as a Delegate from this
Society.

The Society adjourned to meet in Indianapolis in May next.
It is a fact well known to this Society, that no appropriation was
made by the last General Assembly for our use. With the cause of this
failure I have nothing to do. The General Assembly meeting again this
winter, it was thought best that we should be early in the field, and that
if we made any application for aid it should be through a well organized
and understood plan. I therefore authorized the Secretary to call a
meeting of Delegates from Horticultural Societies, and the friends of
Horticulture throughout the State, to assemble at Bloomington on the
14th of November, to take such steps as should be thought necessary to
secure the needed aid.

The result of the meeting the Secretary will lay before you. I will
only say that the consultation was entirely harmonious.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. Q

The next meeting of the American Pomologiral Society is to be
held in the Uity of Boston Every effort will he made by our sister
states to be fully represented by their Horticultural products on that
occasion.

State aid has been successfully evoked upon similar occasions by
Kansas and other states.

To be fully represented would cost too much for individual effort,
and should be done under the auspices of this So( iety and paid for out
of its treasury.

The custom of leaving the appointment of committees in the hands
of the executive board has hitherto ])revailed, but I have thought, since
brought in immediate connection with this practice, that it had better be
done during the session by the delegates and members from the several
fruit sections of the .State.

It may not be j)remature, in view of the importance of the occasion
to call your attention to the International Exhibition to be held in Phil-
adelphia in 1876.

The sub)e< t embraces too much of importance to be more than
alluded to in this connection.

I call your attention also to the fact that very many railway com-
panies utterly refuse any concession to parties attending our annual
meetings. There are some noble exceptions to this short-sighted prac-
tice, and these roads I would recommend to your favorable consideration
for the liberal course pursued by them.

You, as members of this Association, leave your business, give your
time and means and many hours of thought, all for the cause of Horti-
culture; no thought of pecuniary advantage (for none is possible) urges
you on in this matter, but solely the extension of knowledge in the pur-
suit of Horticulture ; the awakening of public interest and the develop-
ment of resources which now in a great degree lie dormant. As these
resources are developed, so does the railway traffic in that direction in-
crease. It would seem that as we work for, less than nothing and find
ourselves ; as the benefits of our labors are fully shared by the railruads,
that they could well afford to lessen their rates for the general good.

All associations looking to the advancement and develoi)ment of
Horticulture should be recognized.

If of a national character, we should be represented by delegates;
if local in character, by extending such aid and assistance- as will enable
them to widen their influence and give the results of their meetings to
the general public.

Our connection with such bodies must however, be general and
universal, and not special.

Allow me to congratulate you upon the i)rogress made in the cause
of pojnilar education in our common schools since our last meeting, by
the introduction of the natural sciences, and the issuance of primary
books exj)lanatory and aiding to their understanding.

Some changes in the Constitution will be needed to meet the pro-
posed changes in our organization.

4 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

While these are beinp; considered, I would recommend the striking
out of that clause in the By-Laws which renders it obligatory upon your
President to address you upon some Horticultural subject.

I cannot omit tendering the Secretary my sincere thanks for the
care and watchfulness over the interests of the Society, manifested by
him during the year now nearly closed.

It will be seen by reference to the Programme that no special papers
have been solicited, other than the regular reports ; this will admit of
free discussion on any and all topics which you may think of interest.
Let this meeting, then, be remembered by you as one in which all had a
part; let each member consider that he has an equal interest in main-
taining the high standard in public estimation which is accorded us ; an
equal right to be heard and the same right to direct.

That your deliberations may be devoid of all disturbing causes, that
they may be wholly harmonious, and that the cause of Horticulture
through your exertions may be carried forward successfully, is my sincere
wish, and my every effort in connection with the position in which you
have placed me is here fully pledged to that end.

The regular order of business, as announced in the printed pro-
gramme, was then entered upon and adhered to, throughout the session.

Jonathan Huggins, Treasurer, of Woodburn, read the

TREASURER'S REPORT.

Statement of the Treasurer of the Illinois State Horticultural So-
ciety for the year ending Dec. loth, 1872.

RECEIPTS.

Balance in hand, as per statement, Dec 12th, 1 871. - $ 736.19

Membership fees for 1S71-72, . _ _ 132.00

Donation from the State, _ _ _ _ 2000.00

Total - - - $2,868.19

EXPENDITURES.
Paid on warrants as follows :
Dec. 12th, 187 1, A. Bryanc, Senr., traveling expenses, - - $ 10.50
" 15, ■' H. J. Dunlap, (Asst. Sec.) - - - 12.00

" " " W. C. Flagg (balance due on account) - - 32.15

" " " O. B. Galusha (bal. on settlement,) - - 112.64

" 29 " Reade, Brewster, & Co. (advance on publishing

Transactions) _ _ . _ . 400.00

" 30 " A. Bryant, Senr., traveling expenses - - 7.60

Jan. 29 1872. Reade, Brewster, & Co., publishing Transactions 100.00

Mar. 4 " Western B'k Note and Engraving Co. (engraving) 75.00

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. 5

"21 '' Reade, Brewster, & Co., (publishing Transactions) 300.00

May 20 " do do do - 500.50

Nov. 14 " O. B. Galusha (part salary for 1872) - 150.00

27 " do do - - 150.00

Dec 10 " J. E. Starr (postage and traveling expenses) - 7.46

Whole amount paid on warrants, - - $1,857.85

Leaving in the Treasury the sum of $1,010.34

Centralia, Dec. loth, 1872.

Jonathan Huggins, Treasurer.

On motion of the Secretary, a committee consisting of Messrs. H.
C. Freeman, P. Earle and E. Daggy, was appointed to take into consid-
eration the suggestions and recommendations contained in the President's
address, and report to this meeting.

VV. C. Flagg. — I move that the Treasurer's Report be referred to
an auditing committee. Motion carried.

President. — I will announce the committee in a few minutes.

The Secretary, O. B. Galusha, presented the following

REPORT OF SECRETARY.

Mr. President, and Members of the Society :

Perhaps an apology is due from me, or at least an explanation, of
the cause of tlie delay in publishing the last volume of Transactions of
this Society.

I was instructed by a majority of the Executive Board, and solicited
by other prominent members of the Society, to procure the annual re-
port of the State Entomologist to bind with tlie volume, if it could be
done without the expense of printing it. I accordingly obtained a ready
pledge from Governor Palmer for one thousand copies of that report for
this purpose, and also a pledge from the Superintendent of the State
printing, that the report would be ready by the 20th of February, at the
latest. I accordingly phnned the volume, and made a contract with the
publishers, to include this report; but its publication, by the State Prin-
ter was deferred from time to time, so that it was not received by me
until about May ist, though the Transactions of this Society were printed
and ready for the binder, more than a month previous. This delayed
the issue of the volume until the 15th day of May.

1 trust that, hereafter, the Executive Board will instruct the Secre-
tary to wait for no outside matter after the regular proceedings and
papers of this Society are ready for publication, however desirable it
may be to secure such valuable papers as this Entomological Report.

(3 TkANSACTtONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Negotiations with the Northern Illinois Horticultural Society re-
sulted in the publication of the transactions of that Society, to the
amount of io8 pages, for seventy dollars, supplying books for the full
amount at one dollar and thirty cents, postage free — the same rates as
members of this Society and other persons receive them.

HORTICULTURAL MEETING AT BLOOMINGTON, Nov. 14, 1872.

Pursuant to a call ordered by the Executive Board and signed by
the President and Secretary of this Society, a meeting of Horticulturists
of Illinois was held in Shroeder's Opera House, Bloomington, Nov. 14,
at which there were present all the members oi the Board, also F. K.
Phoenix, Dr. E. S. Hull, W. S. Robinson, A. M. Garland, Smiley Shep-
herd, J. Baldwin, Brainard Smith, and Dr. H. Schroeder.

J. E. Starr, President of the State Society, was chosen President,
and O. B. Galusha, Secretary of the Society, was selected as Secretary
of the Convention. Hon. W. C. Flagg explained the requisitions of the
new Constitution as interpreted by the Governor, and agreed to by the
General Assembly, as relating to State appropriations and the necessity
of a reorganization of this Society to secure a continuance of such ap-
propriations. He stated that the bills for the reorganization of, and
appropriations for this Society which were agreed upon at the last an-
nual meeting had both passed the Senate, almost unanimously, but did
not make much if any progress in the House of Representatives, owing
perhaps, to a misapprehension, in the minds of the agricultural com-
mittee of the House of the true import and bearing of the bills.

Copies of those bills were presented and read before the meeting,
and a free discussion of the end to be secured in a reorganization of the
State Society was had.

All the speakers were desirous that a form of reorganization should
be agreed upon, which should operate justly and equally in fostering- the
Horticultural interests of all portions of the State and all Horticultural
organizations within the State.

A committee was appointed to prepare forms of bills to be laid be-
fore the next General Assembly.

The Convention took a recess of an hour during the absence of the
Committee.

MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD.

President Starr called the Executive Board of the State Horticul-
tural Society together, during the recess of the Convention.

. Present, Messrs. Starr, Galusha, Bryant, and McWhorter. A gen-
eral programme of business for the' next annual meeting was agreed upon,
and warrants ordered drawn upon the Treasurer for the salary of the
Secretary and for the printing bills of Reade, Brewster, «& Co.; when the
Board adjourned.

The Horticultural Convention reassembled at three o'clock, p. m..

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. '7

when the committee reported forms of bills, * which, after slight amend-
ments by the convention were unanimously agreed upon.

The Secretary was instructed to secure the printing of a supply of
copies of these bills for presentation and distribution at the next meet-
ing of the State Society.

On motion the convention then adjourned, sine die.

Statement of expenditures and receipts from Dec. nth, 187 1 to
Dec. 8th 1S72 — as per detailed statement herewith presented:

EXPENDITURES.

Stamps and stamped Envelopes, _ _ _ _ _ ^29. 66

Stationery. -----..__ 7. 88

Expressage and Telegrams, - - - - - - '5- 25

Postage on Books, _.__,__ 26. 64

Traveling and Publishing Expenses, _ . _ _ 80. 34

Printing Memorials and Circulars, ----- 10. 00

Total -------

Salary, --------

Office Rent, fuel, and lights, - _ - -

RECEIPTS.

From Northern 111. Horticultural Society,
For Books sold, - _ . -

-

$169.

77

$300

GO

30

GO

3833°

499

77

$69

75

25

45

64

GO

300

GO

$459

20

-

-■ $40

57

" Memberships,
" Salary for 1B72,

Balance due on all accounts,

LIST OF WARRANTS DRAWN ON THE TREASURER, FROM DEC. 12TH

1871, TO DEC. loth, 1872.

For A. Bryant, Senr. -
" H. J. Dunlap, -
" W. C. Flagg,
" O. B. Galusha, -
" Reade, Brewster & Co.,
" A Bryant, Senr., -

" Reade, Brewster, & Co.,

*NOTE — The bills were read by the Secretary, but as they were subsequently amended
they are omitted here.

1871

Dec.

12.

No.

10.

u

IS-

t(

1 1.

4(

ti

i(

12.

«(

u

ifc

n-

it
it

?9-

3°-

11

15-

1872

Jan.

29.

u

16.

$1G

50

12

GO

32

^5

112

64

4GO

GO

7

60

100

GO

Mar.

4.

CI

'7-

ii

2) .

'>

18.

May

20.

tt

19.

Nov.

M-

6i

20.

((

27-

it

21.

Dec.

10.

4«

22.

'•. 75

00

300

00

500

50

'50

00

150

00

7

46

$1,857

85

g TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Western B'nk Note & Engraving Co.

Reade, Brewster, & Co.,

Reade, Brewster, & Co.,

O. B. Galusha, . . .

O. B. Galusha, . - .

J. E. Starr, . _ .

All of which is respectfully submitted,

O. B. Galusha,

Secretary.
Morris, 111., Dec. 8th, 1872.

Mr. Flagg — I move that so much of the Secretary's Report as re-
fers to finances, be submitted to an Auditing Committee, and that the
portion not financial be referred to a committee of three members, who
will report thereon. Agreed to.

The President then appointed the following committees :

Auditing Committee, Messrs. Francis, Nelson and Wright.

Committee on the non-financial portions of Secretary's report.
Messrs. Humphrey, Hilliard and Wilcox.

On motion of Mr. Earle the hours for meeting, during the session,
were fixed at 9 a. m., and 2 and 7 p. m.

The President— I wish to ask the Society, if they will work to

these hours now appointed. That is my course ordinarily. Voices — Yes,

yes.

The President — Well, gentlemen, let us have punctuality. I shall

call the meeting to order sharp at the hour.

POSTAL RATES ON SEEDS.
Mr. Flagg— There is a matter of considerable importance that
should be brought before this Society at some time during its meeting.
And as we shall, perhaps, be crowded hereafter with other matters, I beg
leave to introduce it now. I refer to the change in the postal rates on
seeds and cions. It is known that by an act of our last Congress, the
weight of packages sent through the mails has been reduced from 4 lbs.
to 12 oz., thus subjecting the seedsmen and nurserymen to great in-
convenience. Instead of putting up one package of 4 lbs., dealers are
obliged to make some half dozen packages. Besides having the effect
of cutting off a great many parties from receiving seeds and cions ; by
the provisions of the existing law the packages are not only smaller, but _

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 9

the expense is greater. (It is not thought that this was the intention of
the law, but it has been so interpreted. — Reporter^ The expense of
getting flower and garden seeds by express is so great as to prevent a
large class from getting seeds, that under th^ old law would reach them.

It does seem to me that this Society, in common with all the socie-
ties in the West should enter its protest in this matter, and unite with
them in efforts to secure a repeal of this law, at the earliest opportunity.
It will not be hard to persuade our congressmen into this measure if we
do our duty. The measure is so manifestly just.

I am in favor of having the mails do a considerable amount of
express work. As the matter now stands the express charges are enor-r
mous. It is found, in sending money orders through the Post Office,
that expenses have been curtailed. It has cut down the charges of local
banks and express companies.

Now it seems to me, that a similar use might be made of the mails
in carrying a great variety of packages. I want not only the restoration
of former privileges, but I want to get additional privileges. I would
have the mails carry still larger packages, in compact forms — say of six
pounds weight.

Mr. Freeman — Would you include the abolishing of the franking
privilege .''

Mr. Earle— I move the appointment of a committee of five with
W. C. Flagg, as chairman, upon Postal Matters.

Mr. WiER — I think the best way is for every member of this Society
to do as I have done, viz : — make personal application to the congress-
men of his district. There is no difficulty in the matter at all if every
one will go to his congressman. The law-makers will accommodate the
public in this matter. The people were just beginning to understand
the old law, and it was getting to be of great benefit to all. I would
like to see a law passed that would permit the carrying of anything in
the mails that would not destroy other mail matter. I must say, how-
ever, I have sometimes seen what I call imposition upon the mails — I
have myself received, through the mails, pear trees two feet long. I
believe, also, in resiriciion as well as in enlargement.

The motion prevailed, and the President appointed the following
committee: W. C. Flagg, Moro ; Parker Earle, South Pass; M. L.
Dunlap, Champaign ; Robert Douglass, Waukegan ; Samuel Edwards,
La Moille.

10 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

COMMITTEE ON RATES OF EXPRESSAGE.

Mr. Flagg — There is another matter, upon which I think this So-
ciety should in some way act, and I think I shall move that Mr! Earle
be chairman of a committee to take the subject in consideration. Our
only way to reach corporate bodies is in the formation of public opin-
ion— and to this end I would like to see a ventilation of the manner in
which express charges are made— I will not now say anything about the
reasonableness of said charges, but what I wish to get at now is the
lack of system in making the charges. I move that a committee, with
Mr. Earle as chairman, be appointed, who shall look into this matter
and report to this Society. Motion carried, and the President appointed
the following committee ; Parker Earle, South Pass ; Dr. M. M. Hooton,
Centralia, and D. B. Wier, Marshall Co.

Mr. Earle — I want Mr. Flagg upon this committee.

Mr. Flagg — I would not be willing to serve upon that committee,
unless Mr. Earle will serve upon the other. [Laughter.]

Mr. Earle — My name is mentioned in connection with too many
committees. I cannot attend to all of them. I therefore ask to be ex-
cused from serving on this committee, especially as it is a very important
one. If it is in order I would nominate Arthur Bryant, Jr.

The President — Gentlemen what is your pleasure .' Will you ex-
cuse Mr. Earle ?

Voice — I second the nomination of Mr. Bryant. Carried.

Mr. Bryant was added to Mr. Flagg's committee, in place of Mr.

Earle.

RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION.

Dr. Hooton. — I wish to ask if there is any provision made for
making inquiry into the matter of Railroad Freights. I do not know
what the Society intends to do in regard to this subject. If it is in or-
der, and if it is a proper motion at this time, I would move that a com-
mittee of three be appointed to report upon the subject of Railroad
Transportation of horticultural products.

Mr. Wier — I find that there is a great inequality in the freight
rates — I have paid at the rate of sixty cents for freight carried fifty
miles, and forty-five cents for one hundred and twenty-five miles — I do
not know why this should be so. It does not look right.

Mr. Scofield — The way I get around such things is like this. — If
the freight is considerably more to any point than to a central point be-
yond, I ship clear through, and then back again, and save something by
* the operation. [Laughter.]

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. -[^

Mr. Freeman — It is a fact that railroads cannot carry way freight
as cheap as they can tluougli freight.

Mr. WiER — Now, it does not appear to me that this is so; and
furthermore, I do notbeliexe thnt it is rii^/i/,\.o make the discrimination
that is often made. That railroads can carry way freight cheaper than
through freight apjiears to Jiie evident from the fact that for all freight
shipped through to Chicago, for instance, the agents must give notice;
but for way freights no notice is required. These e.xtra charges on way
freight make it very hard on the small towns, and 1 repeat, to me it does
not seem right to make them.

Mr. Freem.an — I tliink tliere are instances where uniform rates
should not be insisted upon — or at least where the railroad parties could
afford, in one case, to carry freiglit cheaper than in another. It happens,
for example — in going south, that they are running cars empty for want
of freight — on their return to Chicago they are full and crowded, for
want of room.

Mr. Scofield — Mr. President, this question is too much for me to
grapple with. It is big enough for the State to take in hand. I have
thought a great deal, however, and the only way I can see out of the
difficulty is where there is competition. I can ship a roundabout way,
where there is competition and save four or five dollars in a distance of
a few hundred miles.

Mr. Flagg — I propose a different remedy. It has been said that
competition is impossible, and I think it is so. I cannot ascertain that
there is really much competition anywhere. I know very many points
where there is no competition — but combination rather; it is common to
find combination taking the place of competition. I think the Legisla-
ture must interfere and compel these corporations to submit to law, that
will not oppress the people. Our railroads may be run by the Govern-
ment.

In one of these ways 1 think we shall find a remedy for the evils
that oppress us. It has been done in liclgium, where the government
has such a control of railroads as to fix the price ; and if there are cor-
porate bodies controlling railways they are compelled to come down to
the government prices, just as with us, the express companies are com-
pelled to come down in their rates in carrying money packages, since
the new jiostal law has been in force. What we want — and ^vhat we
can do, is to strengthen public opinion — to educate it, and then we
shall have the proper legislation. *

j^2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

A great many, 1 know, are proposing to submit to these monopolies.
Now, I do not think it necessary — nor even safe to take that view of
the subject. If it comes to this — if we are likely to be forced to sub-
mission— I do not see any other way of escape, but through another re-
bellion. The fact is, the people must control the railroads, to that
extent, at least, that will prevent the oppression of the people. And I
think these corporations must recognize the fact that it is essential that
they should be subject to law. Now, it seems to me that the decision
recently made in the McLean county court by Judge Tipton, contains
the gist of the whole matter. 1 understand it to be this — that the State
did not give, and cannot give the right of way to anybody, or to any
corporation, for their own private use. It is only so far as they subserve

the public interest, that they have the right of way.

Now, if the railroads go against the public interests — that is if they
charge unreasonable rates — do not discharge their obligations to the
State, and perform their service to the people — then the decision of
Judge Tipton is that the law can reach them, and the law makers will
compel them to render the public service. It may take time, and cost a
struggle, but it must come to this.

The case of the Washington University in St.. Louis, in reference to

paying city taxes is in point, and shows the progress of public opinion.

The Institution held a charter with special privileges — one of which was

the non-payment of taxes. And when recently the legality or right of

the case was questioned, the University escaped by a majority of only

one vote.

Now, let a similar question be brought up in reference to railroads

and I have little doubt as to how the decision would go. One thing, at

any rate, will be done. If existing courts do not act in the measure, we

must change the courts.

Mr. Daggy — One thing at least is legitimate. We can aid in the
development of public opinion. I don't think it will be necessary to re-
sort to mob violence. There is no question, our Legislature should step
in and regulate the freights. Railroad corporations should and must in
the end, respect the public interest. I see no better thing for us to do
now, than to appoint this committee and get from them a report upon
this subject of railroad transportation.

Mr. Wilcox — It seems to me, that I have lived long enough to
learn that railroad companies work for money. Now, if this committee
can bring this subject before them in this light — if they can make them

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. J^g

believe that they can make money — and more money by lowering their
freights, and accommodating the people, then will they prevail with
them; but if we cannot show them that they can make more money
by adopting a more liberal policy, I see but little hope of reaching
them.

Dr. Hooton — I do not think we are so helpless as all this, nor do
I think it necessary to adopt the submissive policy. Because the rail-
roads work for money, are' we to allow them to oppress the people .'' I
think not. The man who stops you on the highway, works for money,
so does the common swindler work for money and many other scamps
who work for the same purpose. But does that make it right? Is it
not possible for the people to control these railroad monopolies, so far,
at least, as to prevent acts of oppression .'* Railroads are public servants,
and the public should have some control of them, even if they do work
for money. If it is true that we have no sort of control over them,
and if they are to become oppressive, then is their career ended, and
the sooner the railroad iron is converted into horse shoes, the better.

Mr. ScoFiELD — The manufacture of public opinion in these mat'
terswill surely relieve us. I know no other way to bring a remedy. It is
proverbially true that railroad corporations have no souls, and how are
you going to work upon them effectually .''

Mr. Freeman — Now, as being interested in the interests of the
State, and also in railroads, I think I can see how much may be done
indirectly — not directly— that is in the Way that has been suggested —
through public opinion.

Mr. Cooper — As I understand, it is a question of law between the
people and the railroad corporations ; and the interpretation of law
varies. We generally find that courts and judges make different decis-
ions— and these depend, in a measure, upon the state of public opinion.
Mr. Flagg says educate public opinion, and I say so too, for until you
can get public opinion in its favor, you cannot get any law enforced.

But it is said, the railroads have a contract by the terms of their
charter, gi^'ing them control, and that the people must submit — that they
have no right to interfere or make objections.

Now, it is my understanding, that the Legislature consists of rep-
resentatives from the people, and that the people have a perfect right to
elect such men as will carry out their views, and that will un-niake laws
that have been unwisely or unjustly made. The people have a right,

14 TRAXSACtlONS OF THE ILLINOIS'

through their representatives, to repeal laws that give dissatisfaction. I
think this is one of the important features to look at, in this controversy
between the parties. I understand that the railroad companies, in ac-
cepting a charter containing any ])rivilcges, do so at the peril of having
these privileges withdrawn, for sufficient reasons. In asking and receiv-
ing privileges from the State, they are supjjosed to subserve the interests
of the State. So that this question of public opinion is what we are after.
Let this Society, and let our public joufnals speak out — and then
when the question comes up for action, the decision of courts and
judges will be likely to accord with the will of the people; until that
time arrives we shall have to V^t"^ pcf^^ging away. [Laughter.]

Mr. Wier — There is another regulation which the railroads have in
regard to nursery stock baled, and in boxes. If I send apple trees
for example, in boxes, the charges are for first-class freight ; if in bales
double first-class freight. Why this discrimination is I do not know. I
can bale a hundred apple trees so that they can go just as safely as in
boxes.

Mr. Dunlap — I think I can explain this matter. This regulation
of freight • rates in regard to boxed and baled nursery stock was made
when the roads first commenced to ship trees to the West. It was found
that trees not in boxes reached their destination in bad order — and the
railroad parties had to pay for the dead trees, in many cases ; but there
is not now, as formerly, the danger from this cause, and trees are safely
shipped in bales.

The only reason a change has not been made is, that the matter has
not been brought before the railroad officials when they meet in council
to fix their rates. The Illinois Central road now charges first-class rates
for trees in bales and second-class rates for trees in boxes. I think there
is no doubt, if this Society would recommend to the railroad companies
a change, it could be had without difficulty. It would encourage the
shipment of trees, and ultimately increase the traffic of the roads. I
believe all the Western railroads are willing to come into this measure ;
the only thing wanted is to get the subject before them when they meet
in council. Eastern roads, I believe, charge third-class rates on nur-
sery stock ; so that some of the roads are coming down as fast as their
consciences will allow. [Laughter.]

Mr. Galusha — I want this committee, if appointed, to take steps
to secure a reduction of fares to the members of this Society, attending

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ]^5

the annual meetings. I think it can be shown that the railway com-
panies will make more money by returning members at one-fifth fare
than by demanding full fare, as the attendance would be doubled thereby.
Some companies do commute fares, though the majority declined to do
this year.

Mr. Flagg — There will be introduced into the Legislature this
winter, as there was in the last session — a bill to classify freights, and
limit the rates. I think there should be a bill passed to fix the rates —
and I hope this Society will go for something of this kind.

The motion prevailed ; and the President appointed the following
gentlemen on the committee: Dr. M. M. Hooton, Centralia; H. C.
Graves, Sandwich ; L. K. Scofield, Freeport. On motion, the Society
adjourned.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON.

Pres. James E. Starr called the meeting to order.

Reports of Vice Presidents were called for.

Dr. a. G. Humphrey of Galesburg read the following report :

REPORT OF THE THIRD HORTICULTURAL DISTRICT.

^fr. President and Brethren of the Illinois State Horticultural Society.

The horticultural interest in my district this year has not been great,
though by no means entirely wanting. The planting and growing sea-
sons have been fair, so that trees, shrubs and plants have made compar-
atively a good growth of wood. Flower gardens and lawns have done
well. Fruits have not been near as abundant as last year, nor of as
good quality.

Apples in Knox and adjoining counties have been an average
crop and of rather inferior quah'ty, most of tlic varieties being somewhat
scabbed and decidedly irregular in shape, the Hen Davis being about
the only perfectly fair winter apple we have; it is fine in appearance and
is exhibiting excellent keeping qualities. If its flavor was equal to its
other excellencies it would emphatically be the apple for the million.

Several terribly wintry days in October felled many of the winter
apples to the ground, which had to be carted to the cider press or fed
to swine; yet enough remained for our home demand, and prices have
ranged from twenty-five to fifty cents jjer bushel.

\Ve were favored with a crop of peaches this year, the first since
1858; but they were not so abundant nor of so good quality as in 1857
and 1858.

Raspberries were nearly a failure on account of the canes being
winter-killed, though small plantations, well protected bore a good crop.

16 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

The Kittatinny blackberry, on my grounds, bore alight crop of very
fine large berries.

Cherries were not an average crop.

Strawberries blasted ; so strawberry festivals were generally post-
poned until another year.

Grapes were in great abundance, and most varieties ripened well
and were of good quality. The Delaware, as last year, failed to ripen
in flat prairie soils, while it ripened well on high rolling ground.

S. S. White, who made a very valuable report for this Society last
year on grapes, writes me this year as follows:

Dr. a. G. Humphrey.

Dear Sir — As you have inquired, recently, about the Siglar Grape, I
beg leave to state that it maintains its reputation. I left it on the trellis last winter and
it came out all right in the spring, made a large growth of wood during the summer
and bore a heavy crop of fine fruit.

Being anxious to save as much wood as possible I did not prune the vines at all.
It is four years old and with me has been as hardy and healthy as the Concord or Ives'
Seedlins;.

'&•

Dr. J. G. Zeller, correspondent for Woodford County, writes me
as follows •

" The Apple Crop in this county has been the largest known, since the county has
been organized. The hot and dry summer of 1871 and especially the dry fall checked
the growth of wood and produced an abundance of well matured buds. During 1871
the fertility of the soil had been kept dormant for want of sufficient moisture, but the
growing season of 1872 had enough rainfall to unlock the latent fertility of the soil, which
was necessary for the development and maturation of a large crop, of prime quality.
The price for cider apples ranged from ten to twenty cents per bushel ; winter apples
from twenty to thirty cents, the purchaser picking and hauling them himself

In that part of the timber region of this county which is situated along the Illinois
River, consisting of about three full townships, not less than three thousand barrels of
cider were pressed. Cider was sold according to quality, at from three dollars and fifty
cents to five dollars per barrel, the purchaser finding barrel. The farmersin this vicinity
leave no fruit on the ground ; if not taken to the cider mill, the orchard is opened to
the swine.

The Pear Crop was good and of fine quality ; this crop is annually increasing, as
more trees are coming in bearing. Pears sold from two to three dollars per bushel-^
formerly as high as four and six dollars.

Peaches yielded a good crop. The trees in this neighborhood are nearly all seed-
lings, but there is some very fine fruit among them, especially of the clingstone variety.
The crop supplied more than the home demand of the county, and large quantities were
marketed at Peoria, averaging about one dollar and fifty cents a bushel.

Giapes were a moderate crop. Concord yielding the most ; Catawba and Isabella
suffered badly from grape rot, and still more from mildew of leaves. Virginia Seedling
brought a large crop of well matured grapes ; the wine of this variety commands the
highest price in the market. Delaware was damaged by leaf blight and tettigonia ;
Rogers' Nos. 3, 4, and 15 were all attacked with leaf blight.

Cherries and Plums were nearly a failure, the fruit being badly stung.

The Small Fruits brought a medium crop.

SOILS.

Our best apple orchards are found on clay soil with sufficient surface drainage,
which seems to be all that is necessary for the healthfulness of the trees. The stratum
of clay is frequently forty to fifty feet deep. It is generally believed that apples raised
on clay soil are of superior quality and keep better than those raised on sandy soil. lo

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. I'J

most of our orchards on dry aoil the water will rise in a wet season within three or
four feet of the surface, while in a dry season, on the same soil, water will recede as far as
forty or fifty feet from the surface ; therein resembling our prairies. Peaches do well on
the samp soil, but prosper most on a hillside or the abrupt bank of a deep ravine. Pear
trees prefer a richer and more porous soil, but yet many good trees are found on clay
soil where there is good surface drainage.

The good effect of protective timber belts, whether natural or artificial, is most evi-
dent in prairie orchards ; protection from the north and west being the mo>t beneficial ;
a belt of timber even a half mile di>tant from an orchard still exercises a salutary effect
on the same. Most of our orchards are seeded down with grass or clover, the latter
being preferred ; after two or three years the sod is turned under and put in small grain
for one season, generally oats, which is mostly cut green and the ground left in grass or
clover again. Good farmers manure their orchards every few years with well-rotted sta-
ble manure.

The oldest apple trees in this county are now nearly forty years old, and some of
them are still in good bearing condition ; though most of these pioneer trees have been
badly neglected.

I have no doubt that there is no part of a cultivated farm which, with an equal
amount of labor brings as large an income to the farmer as that part on which his or-
chard is planted. .An orchard is a source of money, pleasure, and health.

There has been a marked improvement within the last thirteen years in the quality
of fruits , the trees in this vicinity have for years been sold to farmers by a conscien-
tious nursery agent. The varieties were generally recommended by the agent, and.con-
trarv to general experience, proved to be true to name and mostly well adapted to the
locality."

A. C. H.AMMOND, of Warsaw, correspondent for Hancock County,
writes me the folloAving brief notice of this year's success of Horticulture
in his county.

"The latitude (if liaiinnk Co., the facilities it possesses for shipping cheaply by
river north and south, and west by rail, and the thirty miles of bluff — peculiarly adapted
to fruit growing — that borders the Mississippi river, is destined to place it in the front
rank as a fniit growing locality.

Oitr Apple Crop has been very large, but on heavy clay soils badly cracked and
scabbed ; on sandy soil ihey were more perfect in form and larger in size. Wincsap
was a cnm))lete failure, as the few s])cciinens that were found on the trees were so badly
scabbed as to be worthless, except for cider. Ben Davis is the leading variety grown
for market. It is now selling twenty per cent, higher than much better apples, such as
Rawles' Janet, Baldwin, and Rambo. But I would advise the planter to "make haste
slowly," with thi-- variety, as the lime cannot be far distant when the popular taste will
become "^o far educated as to demand a better ap]ile. Never in the history of orchard-
ing, in this county has so large a ])ortion of the api)le crop been sent to the cider mill.
On tenacious clay soil scab has ])revailed to an alarming extent, Early Harvest, Red
June, Winesap, R.awlcs' Janet, and some other varieties being nearly all unlit for
market.

The rcaih Crop was satisfactory, both in (|uanlilyand r|uality, and good prices were
obtainefl for the best fruit. A peach mania seenics to be taking jiossession of our peo-
ple, antl countless thousands of trees have been planted tluring the last two or three
years. Unless a cold winter like that of 1855 — 6 blots them out of existence, those
that have planted to supply the local markets will soon find that they have "an elephant
on their hands."

/Vfir Orchards have been remarkably free frnm blight, probably owing to the excess-
ive drouth of the fall of 1871, which caused the wood to ripen without making a second
growth. It may be safely predicted that we shall — from the same cause — be measurably
exempt from this scourge next year.

The Crape Crop has been a partial failure ; in some vineyards, the Concord pro-

1g TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS .

duced well, in others very little, probably owing to the enormous crop produced the
year before. Catawbas, except in a few favored localities, were badly winter-killed and
have produced nothing. The opinion is gaining ground that the Catawba must give
place to something more hardy and healthy. The Clinton is also being discarded on ac-
count of its liability to lose its leaves from the attacks of the thrips. Concord, Norton's
Virginia, and Ives' Seedling, are considered the most profitable varieties.

The low prices of farm and orchard products, and the general pressure in monetary
affairs, is operating seriously against ornamental planting.

Mr. Andrew Hagerman of Bushnell, correspondent for McDon-
ough County, sends interesting notes of the status of Horticulture in
that county:

" In McDonough County an increasing attention to the cultivation of fruit is ob-
servable, especially in the newly settled districts. The main supply of apples — which
was almost the only kind of fruit raised by the early inhabitants — has been, heretofore,
from the southern and western portions of the county, which, being well supplied with
timber and running streams, were first settled, and have the oldest and most productive
orchards. In these days, however, one need not go far in any direction, to find among
our enterprising farmers a wealth of choice fruits, in variety, and suited to any tastes.

Several flourishing nurseries, in different parts of the county, especially those in the
vicinity of Macomb and Bushnell are doing a prosperous business in furnishing trees
and other stock to the prairie farmers, who are fast improving the hitherto unimproved
lands, and who almost invariably adopt the commendable practice of planting trees,
shrubbery, and fruits of all desirable kinds.

The past summer has been an unusually favorable one here for the horticulturist;
Our markets have been well supplied — at prices somewhat lower than usual — withap])les,
peaches and grapes ; and in less quantities with cherries, raspberries, strawberries, goose-
berries and currants — the last two varieties of small fruits not having perfected as well
as last year.

The Apple is regarded as the king of fruits here, and is (very properly) the most
extensively cultivated. Of the varieties which succeed well in'this locality we may men-
tion as best in flavor and keeping qualities, the f2arly Harvest, Red June, Red Astrachan.
Summer Queen, Benoni, Am. Summer Pearmain, Sweet Bough, Sweet June, Maiden's
Blush, Sherwood's Favorite, Rambo, Bellflower", Golden Pippin, Spitzenberg, Winesap,
Janet, Small Romanite, Willow Twig, White Winter Pearmain.

Pears are but little cultivated, and are not regarded as a success, either as dwarfs or
standards. Amateur horticulturists generally try a few on quince stocks to make up a
fuller variety in the garden, and sometimes raise a few specimens of the Bartlett, Duch-
esse de Angouleme, or Louise Bonne, before giving up the cultivation entirely. Pears
are a choice luxury, but hard to obtain.

Peaches have yielded abundantly, wherever there are trees of bearing age. The chief
market supply however has come from Brown, Fulton, and other neighboring counties ;;.
prices ranging from fifty cents to one dollar and fifty cents per bushel : but from St.
Louis, seventy-five cents to one dollar per box. With suitable protection in the way of
hedges and timber belts, peach trees stand the rigors of our winters well enough to yield
remunerative crops.

Cherries blossomed well, but were blighted by late freezings, so as to be almost
an entire failure this season ; and the same may be said of all the small fruits, excepting
in some favorable localities.

The Grape crop, in McDonough County, has far exceeded anything heretofore, both
in quantity and excellent quality of fruit. It is much to be regretted, however, that
with such a superabundance of a most delicious fruit, so little, comparatively, should be
brought to the city and village markest, that the non-producing denizens thereof might
be permitted to share the blessing of health-giving, appetizing Concords, Catawbas, and
Isabellas. Three cents per pound in the vineyard, ancl four to five delivered, in bulk or
boxes, has been the average price. The favorite variety is the Concord ; and this is in-

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

19

deed the only grape that unifurmly succeeds in llii.-< locality, bearing bountifully every
season, with or without careful training and cultivation ; perfectly hardy, and ripening
well ; and, (which is not least important,) it has a sweetness and lusciousness of flavor
unsurpassed by any, even of the most costly and stylish new varieties, so hijrhly praised
by their originators and venders. The Ives', Delaware, Diana, Hartford Prolific, Cataw-
ba, Clinton, and other varieties are found in some gardens, but mostly for the sake of
increasing the variety.

Fl-OWKRS, Ornamkntal Trees, and Suki'HUEry, receive considerable attention,
both in town and country. Front yards and gardens are tastefully laid out and adorned
with the common and rarer beauties of the tloral kingdom, and choice specimens of
evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs. These im]jrovements seem to result rather
from a spirit of imitation, and friendly emulation and rivalry between neighbors in the
art of adornment, than from the influences of local Horticultural Societies ami Farmers'
Clubs — of which our county can boast of very few as yet — but the establishment and
proper conducting of which might considerably accelerate our progress in horticultural
science."

DISCUSSION ON Dr. HUMPHREY'S REPORT.

Mr. Hili.iard. — 1 understood Dr. Humphrey to say that he had a
new Grape, Siglar, that hung upon the vines all winter, and came out all
right.

Dr. Humphrey. — Not exactly. I said the vines hung upon the trel-
lis all winter and came out all ri^lit. (Laughter.)

And while I am up, 1 will say the position taken by one of my
correspondents, that the Concord is to be put before all other varieties
of grajjes may be questioned. This new variety of which I speak — the
Siglar — is very promising. It has for four or five years succeeded well
with me, and I think it well worthy of further trial.

Mr. Edwards. — Is this new grape a local variety.''

Dr. Humphrey. — It is certainly a local success; it might not suc-
ceed in every place.

Voice. — Is that upon the river bank ?

Dr. Humphrey. — No, sir. But it is well drained, naturally and
artificially.

Mr. Wier. — I have been interested in the reading of the report
from my neighborhood. The report says the apple crop has been abund-
ant. The fact is, with us we have had the poorest crop we have had for
twenty years. Apples scabbed that never scabbed before this year ; viz :
Willow Twig, Domine, and Rawles' Janet ; while some sorts which usually
scab, more fair this year, as Red June and White Winter Pearmain.
Our grape vines came out of the winter in poor condition ; the Concord
bore a crop, but a great majority of the grapes never turned black. Our
Pear trees lost their leaves as badly as ever I saw them do in " Egypt."

20 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Mr. Flagg. — What was it that injured the grape vines?

Mr. Wier. — I suppose it was the dry weather, together with the
cold winter. The Delaware bore a heavy crop, but the wet weather in-
jured the foliage.

Mr. Earle. — What caused the leaf blight in the pears .^

Mr. Wier. — The extreme hot, dry weather, followed by hot, wet
weather.

Dr. Humphrey. — I do not believe that the freezing up of vines in-
jures them if they remain frozen through the winter. It is the frequent
freezing and thawing of the vines that injures them.

Mr. Wier. — I am very well convinced that the injury done to the
roots of grape vines last year was the dryness of the soil. My vines
that were on the more elevated and dry soils were injured. Those
planted below in soils more moist were not injured.

The President. — Gentlemen^ if there is no further discussion to be
had upon this report, as Mr. Douglass is not ready to report, I will call
for that of Samuel Edwards, Vice President for the Second District.

Mr. Edwards then read the following comprehensive report. ,

REPORT OF THE SECOND HORTICULTURAL DISTRICT.

Mr. President^ and Fellotv Members :

In presenting my Report I will first give the communications received
from correspondents in several counties within my district.

BUREAU COUNTY.

Verrv Aldrich, of Tiskilwa, writes that apples of nearly every variety bore to
their utmost capacity.

Baldwin trees, that iiad never before given much fruit were loaded. Some of his
trees of this variety bearing from twenty to thirty bushels each.

Red Canada has proved one of the best.

Rhode Island Greenings bore very full and the fruit was the finest he ever saw. He
picked these in September, when still green, and stored up about one hundred bushels
" to go through winter as an experiment."

The Stark fruited but moderately — not up to hisexpectations — -but he thinks it may
do better when the trees acquire greater age ; this fruit,dropped much more than Wil-,
low and Ben Davis. " These last two varieties are more profitable than any others that
I have".

" Grimes" s Golden fruited a liltle ujion four year^ old grafts, set in bearing trees, but
the fruit all dropped before the last of October. The fruit was mellow, of good quali-
ty, though too small, and ripening too eai'ly for profit here." He mentions the Newtown
Pippin, Red Seekno/urther, (?) White Winter Pearinain, Michael Henry Pippin and
May (of Myers) as scabbing badly, and of little value.

The Pennsylvania Vandeveie aud Sweet Romanite he condemns as utterly worth-
less on his grounds.

STATE lIOkTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 21

Small Fruits he find-; of no value except for home consumption — tlie cost of pick-
ing and marketing being equal to the price received for them. He manufactures his
surplus grai)es into wine, Init douhts if uine made by a nun-profeb>ional wine-maker
will Hnd a market ; and supposes he will have to use this also for " home consumption."

He finds " California Wine" sells best, though he thinks his one year old wine su-
perior to samples he has tasted which were imported directly from California.

Mr. Aldrich has a variety of sweet .\pples of very good quality, fine size, that hang
well to the tree and he tiiinks will prove a good keeper.

The cions of this variety were obtained from Williamson Durley, Esq.

A. E. Richmond, of Geneseo, correspondent for Henry County,
sends the following statement of fruit growing in that county.

" Fruit has been plenty this year.

Strazvl'frrifs were abundant, and of fine quality.

Raspberries, Currants, and Blarkberries produced well wherever found, though a less
area is planted to either of these than to strawberries.

Cherries. — Early Richmond and Belle Magnfique bore well.

Pears. — Flemish Beauty and Bartlett were fine, as in fact were all others, though
these are the principal varieties planted — there being, probably, more Bartlelts than of
all other sorts.

Grapes. — Concord and Hartford can be grown here almost as easily and as surely
as com.

Peaches. — Trees bore in various parts of the county — though there are few planted.

Apples. — We have trees of Ben Davis, Willow, Duchess of Oldenburg, planted on
White Oak barrens four years since — being then two years old from the graft — which
bore this year a peck of fruit each.

Williamson Durley writes as follows :

" Little Putnam has produced the largest crop of apples the present year that has
ever been produced in any one year in the county.

The county is divided by the Illinois river, the principal part lying on the east side
of the river.

The first orchards were planted about forty-two years ago, were mostly seedlings,
of which many of the trees are vigorou^> and healthy and continue to produce large crops
of fruit ; but the fruit is of little value except for feeding to stock or making cider.

There are many very fine orchards in the county, containing most of the choice
varieties of apples now cultivated in Illinois.

The best locations are those protected by timber, on elevated ground sloping to the
north and west, and near the river or lakes, and on sandy loam with clay sub-soil.

Our orchards that are cultivated in corn, potatoes, and crops that are plowed or
hoed, for the first ten years after being planted do the best, and tiieu they are sowed to
clover not to lie more than three or four years before being plowed again.

The choice varieties of Apples have been sold in our market in large quantities, the
past /all for twenty-five cents per bushel ; and even at that price no crop produced on
the land would pay as well as our fruit crop.

The only nursery in the county was owned by the late I. W. Stewart, and is now
carried on by his family.

Our people are still imposed on by tree peddlers. I met a man this fall with a
handful of trees and asked where he got them ; he said they came from an Ohio nur-
sery and cost thirteen dollars ; all of which, and of better quality, could have been
bought at one of our home nurseries for less than half the money.

APPLES.

The varieties of apples cultivated in this county, that are the best and most profit-
able, are of

Su.MMER. — Early Harvest for family use only.

22 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Red Astrachan, Williams' Favorite, Summer Pennock.

Fall. — Maiden's Blush, Porter, Fameuse,and Rambo.

Winter. — Jonathan, Domine, Smith's Cider, IVagotier, Ben Davis, Willow,
Winesap, Rau<les' Janet, Red Baldwin, Sweet Vandevere ; and I cannot leave out the
Yello7u Bellflorver.

Out of about one hundred varieties that I cultivated, tire aliove list has proved the
most profitable, and I have paid special attention to the cultivation of fruit for the past
thirty-live years, especially apples.

PEARS

Are cultivated for home consumption and have done well the past few years, as but
little blight has affected them of late years.

PEACHES

Are but little cultivated. What trees there are were very productive the past season.

PLUMS

Do no good on account of the Curculios ; even the wild plums are destroyed by them.

SMALL FRUITS

Are cultivated for home consumption only.

We have no Horticultural Society in the county ; but especial attention is paid to
the cultivation of fruit.

Smiley Shepherd reports from Putnam County as follows :

" Our fruit season, from the opening of the buds in spring until frost in autumn
Was not distinguishably different from ordinary seasons by anything that would be con-
sidered a cause to produce a material result in general crop ; yet the crops have been
unusually large, though variable.

Apples. — Apple orchards which have been cultivated have given the best results,
while those which have been for a long time untilled have produced but indifterent crops
of inferior fruit.

Larva; of Codling Moth were found m every orchard, but for unknown reasons
were less numerous and destructive than for the last five years.

The bloom of the apple orchards was large and fine, though not as copious as in
some years, and the fruit did not set as abundantly as it sometimes has done, yet nearly
all that did set developed into perfect fruit.

I will now note, in detail some of my own observations of fruits without reference
to reports from others.

Amongst trees setting fruit in this vvay, and making good crops I note :

No7-thern Spy. —Heavy crops of extra large and fine fruit.

Rambo. — On sound trees, a fair crop and perfect fruit.
Willozo. — An abundant crop, fruit all large.

Summer Pearmaiii. — Healthy trees and an excessive crop, fine and good.

Bald'cvin. — (On sound trees) Heavy and good, though injured by Codling Moth.

Gloria Mundi beat itself greatly, both in size and number.

Autumn Strawberry had a full crop in number and added fifty per cent, to its usu-
al size.

Gravenstein was moderate in number, but its size and beauty put it far ahead of any
Other apple in the LaSalle and Peru markets.

Porter, a good crop and fine size.

Bailey's Sweet was not surpassed in size of fruit and quantity of product.

Early Harvest gave a fair crop of good sized fruit.

Kirkbridge White about the same.

Red Astrachan a good crop, and large size fruit.

Early Pennock a small crop of fine fruit.

Yellozu Belljiower. — Generally a scant crop of inferior fruit ; though in some or-
chards this variety was productive and the fruit fine.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 23

Sofs of Wine.—h small crop of inferior fruit. [I suspect a mistake in the identity
of this fruit.— ShXRETAKV.]

Secknofurther. — Moderate in crop and size of fruit.

Autumn Sraaar. — A good crop, but only a small part of it fair.

One Seedling, only, out of ten varieties produced a full crop of fruit of a larger
than ordinary size.

Domine every\vhere produced a large croj) of large fruit.

Pkars were a very small crop — say not more tlian one fourth that of last year^nd
this failure was nearly equal in all varieties. I liine only one kind (a winter variety)
that bore a full crop, but the fruii of tliis was nearly spoiled by the punctures of the
Four-humped Curculio.

Peaches were a light croji, except in favorable situations; some young trees bore
good crops of large fruit. I have trees that had borne two good crops of small fruit,
which this year produced good crops of fruit of very large size.

I have a number of j'oung trees of the most approved varieties which bore a few
specimens each, of fruit fine in size and appearance, but all of them sour and unpleas-
ant. The same complaint was made of nearly all the peaches in my neighborhood.

Cherries, of all kinds — sweet and sour — were not more than one tliird of a full
crop ; and this was of inferior quality.

Currants and Gooseberries an ordinary crop.

Raspberries bore a good crop, but a very hot sun, in one day, dried about half the
Black-caps.

Strawberries fell short nearly one half in size, of the first pickings, while the last
pickings were still smaller and the ripening protracted to an unusual period.

Plums failed entirely.

Persimmons are an average crop but are not of good quality.

Grapes promised well, but ripened imperfectly and were unfit for the press or for
market owing to the blighting of the leaves."

The following letter is from the well known principal of the North-
western Germa/i-Efhj^lish Normal School at Galena :

Samuel Edwards, Vice President &'c.. La Moille.

Dear Sir: — Complying with your request, and in accordance with the duty of a
correspondent I will concisely write what might be of interest fron Jo Daviess Co.

By my limited time, mostly or entirely taken up by my professional duties, but very
little could be done and observed by me in any other field of labor.

1 Of new fruits in this county none were introduced, to my knowledge. But a severe
loss we had this fall by the departure of Capt. IJeebe, to Geneva. He did so much for
the development of sound m\i\ practical knowledge, that I sincerely regret his loss.

2 The Horticultural .Society of Jo Daviess County is continuing its good work, but
has lost some of its best members by the departure of Messrs. Robson, a year ago, and
Beebe, this year.

3 In fruit, this year was a blessed one :

a Strawberries were plenty and of excellent quality.

b Currants suffered by the currant worm, and were not so aliundant.

c Raspberries were fine, and many.

d Apples were not so plentiful ; but as there are larger and more orchards in bearing,
and the fruit was sound, they are at a low price, the best not over one dollar per bushel.

e Pears were not so plenty ; too many trees suffered by the blight, and many in Mr.
Ehstlain's beautiful pear-orchard died from an unknown cause.

f The Curculio, the friend of plums, appropriated most of this fruit for home con-
sumption ; only the " Hinkley Plum " seems not to be in his reach, and is therefore
regarded by him as sour, like the grape in the fable. This last variety yields well, and
is a safe investment.

g The Vineyards of Jo Daviess County are gaining every year more importance.
The crop is so abundant, the culture so easy, the fruit so certain on the lime-stone for-

24 TRANSACTIONS OF THE TI.f.TNOiS

malion of the hilly Jo Daviess, that this fruit is repaying the best for the labor Viestowed
upon it. Mr. Zius had again a fine and abundant harvest ; Mr. Goulard's vineyard
brought a fine crop ; Messrs. Schmidt and Schclier had their vines overladen with tine
fruit. My \ines, about one thousand Concords, planted in May, 1870, yielded o\er two
thousand two hundred lbs. There are seVeral kinds cultivateii, but the Concord is the
plant for the million ; my J I ait ford Prolific did so well that I shall plant more of them.
Although not of a very good quality, it is two weeks earlier than the Concord and there-
fore commands a higher jirice. My Clintons suflered greatly by the insect that u-.ually
infests this variety.

4 Our Northwestern Normal School is prosperous as far as I can see. The number
of scholars from aljroad is increasing. The action of the Legislature proves that our
institution took the proper course from its beginning, by introducing Horticulture and
the Natural Sciences. But it is very singular that institutions, supported by the state,
and yet being of less general usefulness than our own — " which has to hoe its own row,''
are also generously helped along by privates, while we here are left in the cold and no
aid given us from any part of ihe wealthy state of Illinois.

Are religious institutions below par in Illinois? Never was I treated so shabbily
in Wisconsin, where I taught nine years, and with less power and experience.

Not that we have a special claim, but I know that our limited means also limits our
usefulness. And any man likes to be as useful as possible when engaged in such work
as we are.

Yet tietter times may possibly be in store for us.

Very respectfully yours,

J. Wernli.

C. H. Keim, of Mt. Carroll, correspondent for Carroll County, re-
ports substantially the following :

The Applk crop iu this county was a fair yield though not large> owing probably
to the over-bearing of the trees in 1871. There is an e.vcess of Summer and Fall vari-
eties over Winter sorts.

Varieties that succeeded best this year, in this vicinity, are Red Stripe (.?), Early
Pennock, Tienton Early, Ped Astrachan, Alaiden s Bliisk, Sno-w. and IVinesap. yel-
low Bell/lower did better than lor several previous years.

Pear culture is so limited that I am not able to report upon it.

Cherries were an average crop.

Plums were a failure.

Grapes were abundant, though not of the best quality — many varieties not ripen-
ing their fruit.

Concord, Creveling, Delaivare, and Salem were most remunerative.

Blackberries produced a poor crop.

Raspberries. — Matnmoth Chtster and Doo little gave a large yield.

Strawberries. — The varieties tested here are Wilson and Green Prolific, which
produced a good crop.

W. E. Lukens, correspondent for Whiteside County, sends the fol-
lowing report.

" The chief that can be said in reference to the fruits of this I'egion, can be said in
a very few words, namely : Fruits of all varieties attempted to be raised in this locali-
ty are very abundant and of excellent qtiality.

This part of Illinois has never before been so amply blessed with so large, and so
fine a crop oi Apples. There were some wormy and defective ones, but a larger propor-
tion of sound, fine apples than has ever been known here before. Many persons who
have large orchards found it impossible to dispose of all that were even good that fell
prematurely from the trees. But good picked apples sold at from forty to fifty cents
per bushel. A considerable amount sought a market where the people were not so
blessed with fruit as we.

STATE HORTiCULTURAI. SOCIETV. 25

Cherries also were quite abundant, and sold at alioul ten to twelve cents per quart,
or seven to ten cents per lb. Very few if any but Early Kichniund and Kentish are
raised in this neighborhood.

Straivberries were as good a crop as usual and sold well.

Rasphories. — The production of this delicious fruit is rapiiUy increasing, and yet it
commands remunerative prices. Bushels were sold and consuiue<i the last season, where
but a tew year>> ago scarcely a family consumeii a cjuart. It is a cheering sign, and prom-
i^es \scll for future moral health, as well as physical, that children are fed on more fruits
and fewer dead hogs. Heaven sj)eecl the day when swine's tiesh will pollute no man's
table or stomach. With the present facilities for procuring wholesome fruit, at comisar-
atively cheap rales, it is surprising that the wants of so many children are not supplied.
This natural fondness for fruit every fruit-gniwer knows by the anxiety manifested by
the youth for all kinds of fruits ; so much so that some are terajjled to partake without
leave. Vet who ever knew a boy to steal a dirty pig and eat it to the neglect of fruit.
•> Crapes. — In reference to Grapes we may say, that we have demonstrated theadapt-
bility of the country to the growth of this delightful and health-giving fruit, and that its
production is overdone, it being sold last fall below the cost of production ; still a great
many families consume but few , preferring to invest in dead animal matter. Ii is pleasant
however to know that the consumption of grapes is yearly increasing.

Wherever there were Pt'ay trees large enough, good crojis of excellent fruit were
raised.

1 cannot hear of the much talked of Miner Phtni producing any good results. I
know trees four inches in diameter and a spreading top of nine or ten feet diameter to
produce largely of blossoms but no fruit. Foi tiur climate and soil I think it is vastly
overrated.

The crop of all kinds of fruit is so largely in excess of any previous year, and we
cannot discover but all slopes or levels are equally productive. Neither do we discover
that proximity to groves or timber belts has made any perceptible difference in results ;
all localities and soils producing well this year.

Mr. L. K Scofield, the correspondent of this Society for Stephenson
County, writes from Freeport as follows:'

" The year 1872 has been like the two previous years in respect to the fruit crop in
Stephenson County. W'e have been favored with a bountiful crop of ajjples, but with
the same deficiency as heretofore, in winter varieties — which deficiency is supplied by
importations from Michigan and New York.

Farmers usually place too much dependence on tree-peddlers to make out their
fruit lists — not knowing exactly what they want themselves — and the result has been
that they have planted too many trees of fall and summer varieties." We only need to
plant winter varieties to secure a home supply of winter apples in future.

The Ka>nho, yonathan, Ettt^lish Russet, Raw'es' yanet, lt^i//o':>.' Tzoig, Perry Rus-
set and Talman Sweet are some of the varieties that have come under my notice as
most productive and giving satisfactory results.

I have noticed less ravages by the Curculio and Codling Moth than usual.

There have been large quantities of Eastern trees sold in this county for a few years
past, but purchasers say they do not thrive any better — if as well — as those grown at
home and are usually ready to admit the foolishness of buying Eastern trees at exorbit-
ant prices.

Pears. — Too little attention is given to the cultivation of the pear, yet there are
good results shown from its cultivation in this county. There are a few varieties which
seldom fail to bear a crop — among which is Flemish Beauty.

Plums. — The Miner or Townsend plum has not, this year, verified statements as to
its annual bearing qualities ; there has been less than usual of this fruit in the market ;
yet it is the only sort with which we have had reasonable success, and I shall stand by it
until we can obtain some better sort on which we can depend for a crop. I have several
other varieties on my grounds, but have not been able to gather a quart of fruit from the
trees during the last five years.

26 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Cherries. — Englisli Morello, Kentish, and Early May (or Richmond) seem to suc-
ceed well, giving annual crops ; the latter does well both on the Morello and Mahaleb
stock, but is longer in coming into bearing on the latter, and while young is not as pro-
lific. I prefer the Mahaleb stock, however, as it does not throw up suckers, which are
so troublesome about trees grown on Morello stocks.

Feaclies. — The home of the peach is farther south, yet I observe trees on my grounds
that have grown well without protection for three years and remain sound.

Grapes are becoming so abundant that they have been a drug in the market at six
to eight cents per pound. The Concord is generally cultivated, and is most esteemed
for this latitude. Perkins seems verj' prolific, but many persons object to its flavor.
The Diana, Delaware, Hartford, and Rogers' Nos. four, fifteen, and nineteen, in some
localities, give satisfactory results.

Raspberric's. — I am not yet willing to give up my Doolittle Raspberry, as a market
fruit, for any on the list. With me it will yield more fruit, and show larger returns than
anything in the line that I have cultivated ; but for table use at home, I stand by the
Purple Cane and Philadelphia.

The Davidson's Thornless is too seedy, and after two or three pickings have been
of but little value. They may be better when older. I have gathered the third crop
from my plants.

Of Blackberries in the Open field, with the Kittatinny and Lawton varieties my
experience has been unfavorable, but in protected situations, I have had very satisfactory
results. All my plants exposed last winter were killed down near to the ground, while
others partially under the shade of deciduous trees were not injured and have borne a
heavy crop the past year.

Of Strawberries. —The Wilson's Albany is the stand-by. My President Wilders
were much injured by the winter, and produced no fruit.

I would state that our timber soil produces the largest crops of fruit of most kinds'
— the Raspberry may perhaps be excepteil, although some of our prairie orchards are
not far behind in quantity or quality of fruit.

Young Nursery stock has ripened its wood well for three years past, and what few
trees are grown here cannot be excelled by eastern or any other stock.

Eve) greens suffered to some extent the past winter, but I think not as much as in
some other localities.

The Balsam has been the greatest sufferer, and many of the finest trees in our city
have yielded up their beauty forever. The fatality has not been so great among the
smaller trees. The Norway Spruces have suffered but little, in comparison with the Bal-
sams.

The foliage on very few large trees was slightly discolored, but not otherwise
injured.

I had a few two to three feet Norways too much discolored to remove, but think I
did not have a single one than has not made a good growth this season.

The American Arbor I'lta suffered severely — many having been killed near the
ground. I observed in my nursery where the plants were all exposed that the tops of at
least one-fourth of them were injured excepting a strip of about two rods in width along
a common board fence on the west, where they were untarnished. Among a quantity of
these plants — two to three feet high — two years transplanted in nursery rows, about one-
fifth, scattered through the block were killed from one-fourth to three-fourths of the
way to the ground, while the balance were unscathed. The injured plants were cut back
and all grew.

Irish and Swedish y^inipers, with partial protection were not injured.
Chinese Arbor Vitce all killed at the top with few exceptions. They were not pro-
tected.

Many of the White Pines were discolored in the foliage, but none killed.
Scotch and Austrian Pines unscathed.

Mr. Edwards read the following letter, and placed upon the desk
quite a quantity of the " trap " stuff referred to ; some of which had

STATE IIORTirUI.TURAI. SOriETV. 27

been used; as was shown by the large numbers of cocoons still adher-
ing to the wood.

Little Prairie Ronde, Michigan, Oct. I2tli, 1872.
" Samuel Edwards,

My Dear Sir :

You will call to niind perhaps, that, while at the meeting of
the Horticultural Saciety last winter, I mentioned to you that I thought I had a better
device for trapjiing the apple worm than that patented by Mr. Wier. I experimented
during the season on about one hundred trees, and I feel assured that my method is as
much superior to his as his is to the straw band.

I asked Mr. Wier for tlie privilege of jnitting his traps on a few trees in competition
with mine, and I agreed that, if his was the better, 1 would give him the benefit of the
fact.

The worms have not been so numerous as last year, tliough they have badly dam-
aged our partial crop ; our Greenings are about all spoiled. I am in hopes that by a
thorough and systematic effort, anotlier year, to be able to report a [iromising progress
in the destruction of this insect.

Perhaps I told you of my device — a simple wo(jden l)and to inclose the tree. I
have manufactured a berry box for a long time, and have a machine for cutting the runs.
These runs are about three and a half inches wide and seventeen and a half to eighteen
inches^long.

I use one, two, or three, according to the size of the tree, and 1 fasten the runs
with a string — a jjiece of wool twine.

These I put on about the middle of June, and have looked after them tluring the
season, every two weeks or so. I have put my runs on alternate trees with the Wier
trap, also on the same trees, some above, some below, and the result shows that my trap
will catch on an average four to his one ; at least this has been the result so far. Then
my trap is not only the cheapest, the most simple, the least work to clean, the most
efificienl, but wiiat is of some moment at least, it is not a patented thing.

I find that f)r a part of the season the traps must be looked after as often as once
every twelve days, or thereabouts, while later, as at present, they can run as long again ;
as the weather becomes cool, the change to the miller is slower. I have caught, how-
ever, more worms late than early in the season.

I took some runs to the meeting of my own State Pomological Society at South
Haven in September and distributed them among fruit-men, also to Grand Rapids.
And 1 regret that I did not send some to you in lime to have you give them a trial the
present summer. I will be glad to forward tliem another spring. I might, if you thought
advisable, send you a sample, including some that I have used, showing the marks of
the worms, to be exhibited at your winter meeting.

.■\s you are aware, I have no quarrel with .\Ir. W^ier. He deserves credit for his
efforts, and his trap is, no doubt, an advance upon the old methorls, though, as I have
stated, 1 do not lliink it entitled to the dignity of a patent, and in this view I believe I
am very generally sustained by intelligent fruit men.

Neither, as you need not be told, have I any ax to grind — or selhsh end to subserve
in this matter.

Let it once lie seen that this form of trap — the wooden hand — is the cheapest, best,
far most efficient, and the basket and small fruit-box manufacturers can furnish them
just as good, and even better than I can — for they can furnish any length — at a price that
will be merely nominal.

There is much more that I might say, as that it requires some little practice to
properly manage these runs, in taking them ofi" and killing tiic worms, the necessity,
that is obvious, (jf timely attention, and that but little good can be expected to result if
one man alone in a neighborhood gives battle to the infinite host, and nine-tenths of the
orchards are left to their unmolested mutiplication. But I have already made this let-
ter long.

^g TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOtS

Apple crop good in this state, but just in this county not more than one half or
two thirds of a full crop, and the market is not such as to be encouragnig to fruit grow-
ers. The best apples ai^e only bringing — on the line of the railroad — one dollar a
barrel, the buyers doing their own packing, and as they furnish their own barrels, they
contract with the coopers for large barrels, holding fully three bushels.

My own crop — mostly xVofthern Spy — I shall, as usual, put in my cellar, and mar-
ket in the spring.

Truly Vours,

B. Hathaw.^y.

MR. EDWARDS' PERSONAL REPORT.

In Bureau County we have al)undant cause for gratitude to the Lord
of the harvest tor bountiful crops of nearly all the fruits usually grown
in our latitude.

Strawberries were of fine quality but the yield was moderate.

Currants and Gooseberries bore well, and none of the Currant
Worms seen or heard from in this vicinity.

Cherries. — Early Richmonds bore about half a crop ; English Mo-
rellos were loaded ; but very little fruit could be found upon trees of
the Duke and Heart varieties.

Raspberries of all varieties were abundant.

Blackberries. ^ — Kittalinny bore moderately, and appears hardier
than the Lawton.

Peaches fruited a little, for the fourth year of successive bearing,
among our evergreens; they will be considerably planted in this vicinity.

Plums set full of fruit, which all rotted and fell prematurely.

Pears. — Most varieties in bearing, gave a fair crop, with but very
little blight. Standards, only, are now planted.

Apples were abundant and fair, with no increase of the Codling
Moth. Russets are more exempt from injury by this pest than any other
varieties.

At the time of gathering, good winter varieties were bought by
shippers at twenty-five cents per bushel ; they are now, December jih, pay-
ing fifty to fifty-five cents, with the prospect that in the spring, as usual,
they will command one dollar or more. Last April, Red Romanites
brought a dollar and twenty-five cents per bushel delivered on the cars
at Mendota, and at the same time the previous year a dollar and sixty-
seven cents.

The great extent of country north, west, and south of us, dependent
upon us especially for late keeping varieties will probably give us a good
market for all our surplus winter apples.

In one orchard, planted in i860, sheltered on all sides by belts of
evergreens now thirty feet or more in height, the fruit of Willotv Twig,
especially, along the south side of the orchard, appears to sufter from
fungus, and it is proposed to cut out a tree occasionally, from the screen
in the hope that the air will then have circulation enough to prevent the
injury mentioned.

Grapes of all varieties cultivated here were loaded with fruit of
fine quality, which sold as low as four cents per pound.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 29

Vf.gktabi.f Gardens should receive more attention than is given
to them bv our people generally, and it is hoped that one result of the
present low prices of farm products may be to induce them to begin at
once the planting and proper care of good kitchen gardens.

Fi.owER Gardens. — Very gradually an increase is noticed in the
number of families cultivating flowers, and the lovers of these beauties are
encouraged to patiently labor and wait, in the good cause.

Timber Planting. — The great necessity of planting trees for tim-
ber, on a scale commensurate with the present and prospective needs of
our people, is making no little progress ; yet we need an army of apostles,
with the zeal and energy of Peter and Paul to preach and exhort the
people to go forward in this crusade against the chilly blasts of winter,
and to avert the terrors of the timber-famine [and consecjuent famine of
cereals. — £(/.] which is so certainly and rapidly approaching.

During the past season it was my fortune to traverse, for the first
time the treeless region from Plattsmouth to Kearney Junction, Nebras-
ka, enabling me to realize more fully than ever before the immense and
increasing demand upon the timber resources of the country to open
and keep up the improvements being made almost simultaneously over
the wide extent of territory that constitutes what was the mythical " Great
American Desert " of our boyhood.

Although we might express in figures the requisite number of plants
which should be set to supply this great need, yet it is difficult for the
human mind to comprehend the vastness of the enterprise.

We need a score of establishments like that of Douglas and Sons,
in constant operation to the full extent of their capacity.

It is my painful duty to record the departure of our esteemed Put-
nam County correspondent Isaac W. Stewart of Florid, in January last.
While operating a buzz saw a splinter from the wood struck his head,
fracturing his skull. He lingered for three days, before passing to the
reward awaiting him in the l.md where there is no more sorrow, sickness,
or pain. It is no mere empty formality to rc< ord of liim that he was a
zealous, intelligent laborer in our great work of making the wilderness
bud and blossom as the rose; those who knew him best, loved and es-
teemed him most.

The great loss to his wife and children can only be made up by.
Him who has promised to be "the widow's God and a F'ather to the
fatherless."

To those of you whcj knew my own faithful companion of thirty
years, 1 can say nothing to add to your knowledge of my one great loss
in her removal to the better land since last we met. Whatever of use-
fulness it may have been mine to accomplish is as much the result of her
labors as my own. In this greatest of trials that can befall man, I am
comforted by the great truths that "my loss is her gain," and that the
Infinite One " doeth all things well."

30 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

DISCUSSION ON MR. EDWARD'S REPORT.

Mr. Flagg — Mr. President. There are one or two points upon
which I would be glad to have more light, and which will be proper sub-
jects to discuss in this connection. One is in reference to the singular
fact that we have had, in many cases during the present year, superior
excellence in the growth of fruits and grain. There is in our apples, in
many cases, more coloring and size, as well as superior flavor. I have
noticed upon my own trees, especially the Red June, Benoni, Early Har-
ves*", and several other varieties — in fact, it is true of the majority of my
trees — that the fruit is of extra size, and superior quality. I have no-
ticed the same in some other productions ; for instance, that in our lo-
cality, the wheat was of superior quality, and corn is of better quality
than usual, generally, throughout the State. I have heard some say that
the drouth of last year produced this result, by storing up an unusual
amount of plant food, which has been, this season, appropriated — thus
effecting extra growth in tree and fruit — how is this .^

Another point. Will Mr. Edwards tell us what caused the fungous
growth upon his Willow apples, near the screen on the south side of his
orchard ?

Mr. Edwards — I attribute it to too close confinement of the air in
hot, damp weather. This does not, however, militate against the value
of protection by timber belts, biit shows the results of a too close con-
finement— preventing a proper circulation.

Mr. Flagg — I want to know, whether in planting again, you
would put a belt upon the south side of your orchard.

Mr. Edwards — -I think I mighr, but I would take out a Christ-
mas tree, now and then, and so prevent excessive protection on the south.

Dr. Humphrey — I have noticed this last year this effect of a too
dense shade and shelter on the south. We want protection, but we want
also, and must have, ventilation and sunlight, so that when the rains come,
the water will dry off. We must bear this in mind. Protection on the
north and west seems to be most desirable ; and is, perhaps, all-sufii-
cient.

Voice — I would ask Mr. Edwards, what variety of evergreens he has
planted for shelter belts .-*

Mr. Edwards — The one of which I am now speaking, is a row of
pines, planted ten feet apart. I have taken up some of them.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 3]^

Mr. Fl.\gg — How much shade do they cast upon your orchard
trees ?

Mr. Edwards — I would say about three or four hours in the day.

Mr. Freeman — I have noticed that for three years past we have
had very dry seasons, producing in the North conditions that are the
usual conditions where we have fruitfiflness. In regard to the large size
in corn, I have noticed that we had in the North, as well as on the hills
of "Egypt," some timely showers, which helped to increase the crop.

Mr. Flaog — Have you, this year, noticed anything in regard to the
hardness of the kernels of corn and other grains.'

Mr. Free.man — I have, and think it owing to the long dry season,
and perfect ripening before frosts. In case of early frosts, the grain
would be soft. I think I have observed the same conditions in Northern
Illinois that are the usual conditions in Southern Illinois, and hence
the general increase and superiority of fruits and grains.

Dr. Hooton — Said that fruit is perfected by rays of light and by
heat, — that trees should be pruned so as to admit sunlight and a free
circulation of air to the fruit.

Mr. Wier — Dr. Hooton's theory about pruning to let sunshine on
the fruit don't apply in my orchard. I do not prune, yet all my fruit is
good.

Voice — How do you get into the tree to pick your fruit .'

Mr. Wier — I am least troubled in that way — a large portion of the
fruit is reached from the ground. And I claim that I can grow more
apples and finer fruit on my system of no jjruning, than can be grown
on any other plan. Why is it that you get no fruit from your Northern
Spys till they are fifteen years old .' Take the inside out of a tree, and it
will not bear as soon, nor as well. I can show you Northern Spy trees,
planted in 1866, that are now bearing their second crop.

The President — Will you state the kind of soil .'

Mr. Wier — It is the common sandy loess soil of the Illinois
river banks.

Voice — How long has your orch'ard been planted .'
Mr. Wier — The oldest trees in my 1/ nfir u ned oxchdivd were planted
in 1 86 1.

Mr. Free.man — How will they look twenty years hence.'

32 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Mr. Wier — They will look just the same as now, only larger.
Mr. Douglass — How near the ground are the lowest branches?
Mr. Wier — I have trees started as low as four inches from the
ground, and others as high as five feet and nine inches, and all the way

between.

Voice — What height is best in your judgment.' What height would
you recommend .'

Mr. Wier — That would depend somewhat upon the variety — prob-
ably eighteen inches is a good average.

Voice — How about the cultivation of low-headed trees }

Mr. Wier — You can cultivate closer to low-headed than high-
headed trees.

The President — If there is to be no further discussion upon this
report, we will pass to the next regular business of the afternoon — viz :
DISCUSSION ON SMALL FRUITS.

The subject of Grapes is first on the list. Let us hear from some
gentleman upon the grape question.

DISCUSSION ON THE GRAPE.

Dr. Humphrev — Mr. President. It is, I believe, generally conceded
that the medium system in the pruning of the grape vine is best. I
would not advocate t\\Q no pruning sysfem,r\ox the too close pruning system,
but the golden mean between them. I would then say moderate winter
pruning, and little summer pruning. Twice pinching, and that early, is
all the summer pruning the vine should have. There are a few who do
not prune at all in summer; but, so far as my observation goes, I think
I notice a little the finest results from vines that have been slightly sum-
mer-pruned.

In regard to protection, we believe it will pay to lay down our
vines, in this latitude, and slightly cover them with the soil, and upon
this it is well to spread a light covering of loose litter; that will prevent
the rains from beating upon the ground, and rendering it so hard, that
there is danger of injury in lifting the vines. I believe it will pay to
give this attention to our vines, if it'will pay at all to grow grapes.

Mr. Nelson — Is there no danger of mice secreting in this "litter"
and dirt .?

Dr. Humphrey — I think not, if you put on the dirt first— and then
the "litter" on that.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 53

Mr. Mahan — Will not the buds of the vine be destroyed by this
covering .'

Dr. Hi'MPHRF.v — No, sir, I think not, if the covering was put on in
the right time — that is — after the ground is frozen. If you cover the
unfrozen soil with the mulch I think there is danger.

Mr. Bari,er — If I had to go to the trouble and expense of cover-
ing grape vines, I would never grow grapes for market. There is "where
the money goes." No wonder gentlemen complain "there is no profit
in grape culture." I was never guilty of covering grape vines — and if
they die for want of it — they die eternally .' That is, I will quit the bus-
iness, and turn it over to those who can grow them less expensively, for
market. But for family use I would be at the utmost expeme ami care ^

and I would recommend that everybody

" F rom Greenland's icy mountains,
To India's coral strand,"

plant his "own vine and fig tree." Why not .''

Mr. Flagg — Does Dr. Humphrey train upon trellis, or upon stakes .'

Dr. Humphrey — I train on trellis.

Mr. Flagg — Do you fruit upon the old, or upon the new wood ?

DjR. HuATPHREV — I fruit upon the new wood. I keep my vines near
the ground, and take great care to get fruit buds low down, near the
ground.

Mr. Gamtsha — One would gather from Dr. Humphrey's remarks,
that he, by always covering his vines always had good crops. Now, it is
my observation that covering may or may not be of service. I have no-
ticed, in more than one instance, vines not covered produce better fruit
than vines covered, and that in the same neighborhood on similar soil
and situation, and of the same varieties. For instance, I had a heavier
crop this year on uncovered vines, than my neighbor, on vines carefully
buried with earth — the varieties and conditions were the same, except
the single difference of " protection," of the vines. The reverse is doubt-
less sometimes true ; so I say covermg may, or may not be serviceable.

The point I wish to make is, that to know you are going to insure
your grape crop by burying the vines in earth, you must know what the
winter weather will be — whether wet or dry. I think that in the North,
where the vines can be kept dry, the general result is in favor of cover-
ing the vines; but in my latitude I do not think it is usually necessary,
but have usually found it sufficient to cut the vines loose from the stakes
letting them fall to the ground. 4

34 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Mr. Nelson — I have noticed where the vines were covered deep,
they were injured. I have also noticed that where I have covered with
a very little earth, it is successful. When I first commenced to cover. I
covered deep, and lost my vines. But as Mr. Galusha remarks, I have
had them do as well with no covering at all.

• Mr. Scofield — The best crop of grapes that I ever raised I raised
last season — without protection, save that afforded by a few old maple
trees. While in my yard I had vines that I had carefully cared for, and
protected, and the result was not more than one-fourth of a crop.

Mr. Freeman — I would recommend the Perkins as a better grape
than the Hartford.

Mr. Wier — I have fruited the Perkins this year and find I prefer it
to the Hartford — indeed, I think a great deal of it ; and I want to call
the attention of this Society to one other grape — I mean the Telegraph.
It is, for family use, almost equal to the Delaware.

Now, speaking about covering the vines, I have this to say. In a
vineyard of two or three hundred vines, I had a portion of them covered,
another portion, not covered, was laid upon the ground, and a third
part was left tied up to the trellis ; and now for the result. Every one
of the vines in the spring were dead, except those tied up to th^ trellis.
The roots were all right, but the canes were dead

Dr. Humphrey — If the vineyard is planted upon flat ground 1
would not cover. Upon my flat ground I plow furrows together, so that
the vines stand upon a ridge — and in this way, I can safely cover my
vines.

Mr. Wier — Ordinarily my plan is to lay down my vines, and lay
the stakes upon them to hold them in their place ; this is the only pro-
tection, I think, that is necessary in our latitude.

Mr. H.ammond, of Warsaw — I do not think that you can fix upon
any one plan, that will invariably produce the best results. In some
cases where vines have not been cared for, we had the best results. I
have in mind now one vineyard that was not even cultivated, and yet
from it was gathered one of the finest crops of grapes that I ever saw.
I also have in mind a vineyard, planted by a gentleman, after the Dr.
Grant plan. The soil was spaded deep and filled with manure, the vines
planted and tilled with care. For a few years the vines bore light crops,
but now the vines are ikad. I do not recommend the non-culture sys-

STATE HORTrr(Tr,TUKAI, SOfTKTV qr:

tern; but you see from these extreme cases that no j)arti( iilar system is
always and invariably the best.

Mr. Hii.i.iARD — Brighton. It is my observation, and I give it as
my opinion, that vines uncovered do better than vines covered. ?Jy
vines are tied to stakes. In the fall I cut them loose and let them fall
down u]ii)n the ground, and I have never found it necessary to protect
them in any other way.

Mr. Nelson — I don't wish to be understood as advocating the //o-
pruning system — but I must say, that one of the finest crops of grapes I
ever saw was upon an unpruned vineyard, left to have its way. Not
expecting a crop of grapes they were not looked after, but in the fall,
sure enough, the children crawled in under the vines, and found them —
and such grapes as they were I [Laughter.]

Mr. Hillfari) — They will never bear another crop.

Mr. Wier — I will now tell my story. A. few years ago, I had six
acres of vines. I had cared for them, and waited for them, and expected
much from them — but I have been met with disajjpointment. I saw no
profit in grape-growing for market, either for the fruit or wine. .\r( ord-
ingly, I determined I would not spend any more time with them. I let
the stakes rot upon the ground. The sand-burrs and weeds came up
among them, and for two years, there had not been a |)low among the
vines. The third sununer, I think, 1 had from this " tenibl)- k-t alone"
\ineyard, the best crop of grapes that I had seen for some time.

-Mr. Nelson — I can testify to the uiilh of what my friend U'ier
says, — for I was there and saw the grapes.

Mr. Douglass — \Vell, my friend Wier (an run a fruit farm rheaper
than any man I ever saw. | Laughter.]

.Mr. BrcK— 1 would like to ask Mr. Wier about the quality and the
quantity of the must— of this neglected vineyard.

Mr. Wier — :Tht.Te is surely no I.k k of (/i/<7nfify — Grape juice is
cheaper than water, about this time. | Laughter. |

Mr. Freeman — What Mr. Wier has said may all be well enough in
a dry season. .\n(i in legard l(t wine being ( hea|)er or more plent\than
water, that may be so too. I have heard of its being used instead of
water. [Laughter.]

36 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Mr. Clayton — It strikes me as a very singular and novel view, if
this is the decision to which we are hastening — that Ave are to let our
grape vines run wild. If these experiences related here are of any
value — that no culture is better tlian good culture — why, sirs ! Ave might
as Avell dismiss our meeting and go home. To me, sir, these isolated
facts are of very little value and especially as one man's experience dif-
fers Avith another. I think it can be shoAvn that cultivation is the thing.
Individual experiences must be considered in connection Avith the cir-
cumstances that favor results. It will not do to folloAv any one plan,
perhaps, rigidly and invariably, Avithout regard to time, place, and seasons.
The culture and pruning of the vine may be excessiAC, and then results
are unfavorable.

Mr. WiER— I don't like to be brought to test upon this question. I
am not growing grapes Avith a vieAv to get any profit from them. We
cannot get any money out of the grapes or the vines — and hence we let
them take care of themselves. We cannot afford to put labor and ex-
pense upon them when they bring us no return. If it was a crop that
would give us money we could afford to prune and cultivate — and of
course in that case Ave would give them some attention. I would ask
Mr. Miller, of Iowa, if he knoAvs anything about this "neglect system."
Have you ever seen any vines groAving in grass and producing large
crops .'

Mr. Miller — I have seen something of the kind. I had some vines
put out Avhere I was going to make a laAvn. It was my intention to cut
them out ; but being crowded Avith other Avork, it Avas not done, and the
vines grcAv in the grass — running upon the ground, and Avithout any care
Avhatever. It Avas not my in*:enion to have a crop of grapes, but I did
have a crop and the grapes ripened perfectly in the grass. They Avere
not quite as large as usual, but the quality Avas very fine. I presented
some to my neighbor, Mr. Smith, who was a good judge, and he said
they Avere the finest he had ever seen. Noav, these vines lay right in
the grass, and I think I^hall let them stay there.

Mr. Douglass — Was it a Avet or dry season .'

Mr. Miller — It was medium. My philosophy in reference to the
superior quality of the fruit is, that it lies doAvn in the grass, where there
is regular Avarmth. I had used these vines for a number of years for
propagating by layers. I was told that it injured, and even destroyed
vines to layer them excessively, and accordingly when the price of vines

StATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 37

went down, I let them go, intending, as I said, to cut them down. I am
convinced that all we need is to keep out the weeds, and 1 have found
a better quality where there has been not one bit of cultivation.

Thk President — I would like to ask Mr. Miller if these grapes of
which he speaks, have been put to the test of the must scale .''

Mr. Miller — I did not test them.

Mr. Hilli.\rd — I have my opinion about this rough culture, or "no
culture." I do not think " it will do to tie to." The vines may endure
for one or two seasons, but they will be sure to go back on you.

The President — As I am more interested in the grape than any
individual present — having more invested in the vine — it may be proper
for me to say — I can't approve of this rough treatment of the vine — the
better the preparation the better the result. My practice is close prun-
ing— and good cultivation.

The fact that grapes are grown without cultivation, seems to show
the good-nature of the vine even under severe and harsh treatment. I
would not attempt to grow grapes in this neglected manner — and what
is more, if I lived in the North, I would not attempt to grow grapes at
all for market. 1 would plant, and cover and care for enough for family
use, but no more — and you who live u]) there would do better if you
would leave this business to those who live in latitudes where they can
grow grapes — and turn your attention to that which is suited to your
climate. I say what I believe ; you will do better not to attempt to grow
grapes iox profit — and this is what you say — "there is no money in
grapes for me " — and that must be so. We can grow ten pounds where
you can grow five.

Mr. Scofield — That we cannot raise grapes in the North, 1 think
is a mistake. We have raised as bountiful crops of grapes there as grow
anywhere — and among them the Concord, Perkins, and others.

Voice — Can you do it every year, and all the time .'

Mr. Daggv — I ha\e had vines that I have tenderly cared for, and
put upon trellis and 1 have had them in a neglected condition — and no
grapes. I do not think that any kind of treatment — either care or neg-
lect, will invariably produce a good crop of fruit.

Mk. Wier — I have been tinkering at grape vines, for many years ;
every promising variety I would get and plant it, and cultivate it for two
or three years, tie up carefully to stakes and only be disappointed. As

^-]8 TkAXSACTtONS OF THE II.I.lN'OtSi

for tlie grapes rof/ing — T am not troubled in tin's ^va}^ I have seen
grapes covered up in my sandy ground, in a green state, and there is no
rot there. It is not the trouble of growing the gra])e, of which 1 com-
plain— 1 can grow grapes — but 1 cannot get anything for them when
they are growii — and hence the " no culture " is the cheapest plan for me.

Mr. Ei,i)Rii)t;K — The "no culture " system will do lor two or three
years — but not longer.

Eight years ago Ave had three or four varieties of grapes. When I
found it would not pay to give them attention 1 let them go. The first
year they did about as well as usual. Second year not so well. The
third year they did badly, and the fourth year you would have to hunt
to find the vines.

Dr. Hooton — It is now about time to adjourn, but before a motion
to that effect is made, I wish to move that M. L. Dunlap and Robert
Douglass be added to the committee on Railroad Transportation.

Motion carried. Adjuurned until evening.

TUESDAY EVENING. .

President Starr called the meeting to order at seven o'clock, and
called for the report of Committee on Meteorology.

Prof. J. H. Tice, member of the committee, being absent, sent the
following paper to the Secretary as his

REPORT ON METEOROLOGY.

Af7-. Pr(sident^ and Gentlemen :

I do not claim to be a meteorologist, yet the study of physical phe-
nomena has been a favorite pursuit with me through life ; not for
unraveling the complicated laws of Meteorology, but for solving the
mystery of the universe. My investigations therefore have compelled
a close observation and a thorough study of the imposing phenomena
of clouds, rain, hail, snow, thunder, lightning, winds, tornadoes, water-
spouts, in short, all the facts that form the basis of Meteorology.

The time has now come when people are beginning to talk of, and
want to hear something about this important branch of physical science
so intimately related to the well-being and prosperity of the human fam-
ily. Our discussion then is opportune, since it is possible only to dis-
seminate knowledge on any subject to the extent that an interest has
been awakened in it, and to the extent the public mind has been pre-
pared for its reception. In other words, the subject must have arrested

St ATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. 39

attention, and excited thought by presenting itself as a great problem
demanding solution, and as claiming the undivided intellectual resources
of the age to accomplish it.

\\ henever this is the case, the teacher is welcome, and he has an
easy task, because his lessons will be appreciated and readily understood.
To a great extent the ojjerations and observations of the Signal Service
Corps have prejjared the pul)lic mind for effective instruction in Meteor-
ology by awakening, in many minds, an intense interest on the subject
of toretelling the weather. It has done more than this; it has done an
inestimable service to humanity and civilization by demonstrating that
the facts of Meteorology are capable of bemg systematically arranged
and constructed into a science.

Like all branches of natural science, the foundation of Meteorology
must l)e laid broad and dtc\) in i>hysical facts, recjuiring for their accu-
mulation, long, patient, and exhaustive observation. When a sufficient
number of facts have been collected, they must be classified for study,
and collated to ascertain their whole meaning, and to discover the gen-
eral and special laws in which they have their origin and by which they
are governed.

Meteorology is that extensive science which takes cognizance of- all
atmospheric changes, and explains their causes and laws. It conse-
quently embraces not only the variation in pressure, in temperature, and
in moisture of the air, but includes the phenomena of fogs, clouds, dew,
rain, hail, snow, winds, water-spouts, lightning, thunder, auroras, and the
electric and magnetic tension of the Earth and its atmosphere. It
therefore offers a wide field for investigation, and presents problems that
tax for their solution the utmost capacity of the mightiest intellect.

We ha\e no design, even if we had the ability, to discuss the whole
scope embraced by this comprehensive science. Time and the occasion
demand that we confine ourselves to the humble task of merely stating
and explaining the general principles of the science and the causes of
its phenomena as far as they originate in, and are connected with our
Earth and its atmosphere.

First ; there is the phenomenon of clouds, and consequently of the
stores of rain, hail, and snow they bear. What are the facts? A tropi-
cal rainstorm appears upon our Gulf coast, and traverses the Atlantic
front of the continent from the Rio Grande to the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
a distance of over 3000 miles, and then it passes on the ocean beyond
our observation. In its progress it deposits water from three to four
inches in depth throughout its entire course. As such a storm usually
passes any given point in a few hours, it cannot have any great width.
Suppose it to be even one hundred miles wide. Then if it held all the
water it discharged while under our observation, the water so held must
have been from seven to ten feet deep over its whole width. This we
know is an impossibility.

Moreover, it came to us laden, and when it took its departure be-
yond our observation, it was unimpaired in energy and capacity. It is

40 Transactions of the Illinois

therefore preposterous to assume that the clouds constituting and envel-
oping a rainstorm bring along with them either the water they precipi-
tate in their course, or even the elements of which it is composed.

We have selected a tropical storm for illustration because it answers
our purpose better on account of the immense rain-falls that characterize
these storms. But what is true of them, is equally true of continental
rain and snow storms that frequently sweep over our continent from the
Pacific to the Atlantic. It is in their case also impossible for a cloud to
hold aqueous vapor enough to deposit, for instance, a snow from two to
four feet deep for a distance of four thousand miles. As these facts
show that the clouds cannot carry this immense load of rain, hail, or
snow from one ocean to the other, it therefore is evident that they, in
some manner, must gather it in their course. This brings us back to the
the original question ; how are clouds formed .•*

You must here pardon a necessary digression ; for it is impossible
to answer or to understand this question, unless we know the condition
of the Earth and its atmosphere, and the necessary action and reaction
consequent to this relative condition.

The fundamental principle of Meteorology, — in fact of all physical
science,— is that the Earth and all bodies in space, are highly charged
with electricity. The necessary consequence is that the atmospheres
of all suns and planets have an equally high charge, but of opposite
electricity; that is, all celestial bodies have a negative charge, conse-
quently their atmospheres must be positive. Every tyro in electricity
knows that both poles of electricity are always present, and that they
are inseparable. It is the same with magnetism : break a magnet in
ever so many fragments, yet each fragment is a complete magnet. In
our laboratories we can prove that if we charge any conductor with
either of the electricities, it evokes its opposite pole by induction in
surrounding bodies. Besides, if we take two wires forming closed cur-
rents, and send a current through one, it induces a current in the other,
or adjoining wire, but in the opposite direction and of opposite elec-
tricity.

It has been established by observation that constant currents of
electricity flow through the Earth from east to west, consequently there
must be a constant current in the atmosphere in the opposite direction.

But electricity can only pass by either of two ways ; conduction or
convection. As the atmosphere is a nonconductor, therefore electricity
must pass through it by convection. Aqueous vapor is the medium of
conyection ; hence those fine cirrus clouds that we can see almost every
day, and all hydrometeors take uniformly an eastward direction in the
temperate zones.

Besides these electric currents in the Earth, there are electric waves
both in the Earth and in the atmosphere, rolling from west to east. In
the Earth these waves, obstructed by matter of low-conducting capacity,
produce earthquakes ; while in the atmosphere they collect the aqueous
vapor to form clouds and feed a rainstorm. It is to the action of these

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ^^

electric waves that we must look for the laws and explanation of the
formation of clouds, and consefiucntly of rainstorms.

The fore-casts of the weather are made upon the state of atmos-
pheric pressure as indicated by the barometer. When the barometer is
rising at our locality or west of us, we confidently ])redict clear weather.
On the contrary when it is falling, we as confidently predict the apj)roach
of cloudy weather, and a storm whose violence we estimate by the ra-
pidity and extent tliat the barometer falls.

We are not now speaking of the two daily risings and fallings of the
barometer which have a fi.xed position in relation to the Sun, the former
occurring regularly with but little variation at nine o'clock a. m., and
about ten o'clock p. M., the latter about four o'clock a. .\i., and three
p. -M.; but we are speaking of those secular and irregular variations in
pressure which occur with more or less frequency and at intervals of
longer or shorter duration, and whose wave-like motion is from west to
east at the rate of from eighteen to thirty-six miles per hour. These
waves carry beneath them the phenomenon called low-pressure. The
wave is dual to correspond with the two electric poles, and can appro-
priately be represented by an hour-glass. The positive wave of the
upper atmosphere, being an inverted cone, is met by a counter cone on
the surface of the Earth. They have no great breadth from east to
west, but sometimes have great length from north to south. They
move side-ways toward the east, their line being frequently straight, but
generally it is curved with the convex side toward the east. But our
attention must be fixed upon the apexes of these cones, for there the
phenomena are taking place which solve our problem, namely: the most
intense action and reaction.

We have seen that these invisible cones or rolling waves, — revealed
to us only by the barometer, — are the opposite poles of electricity ; and
between opposite poles in such a position, there is always a reciprocal
interchange of their respective electricities to relieve their tension. The
atmosphere, — as already stated, — is a nonconductor of electricity, and
as electricity cannot pass without being conducted or conveyed, there-
fore some medium must be found to bring the opposite electricities
together.

In speaking of the apparent general eastward movement of the at-
mosphere, it was shown to be really only an electric current conveyed
by attenuated cirrus clouds and other invisible aqueous vapors. The
case before us of conical electric waves rolling eastward, one on the sur-
face of the Earth and the other opposite but inverted in the clouds,
mutually neutralizing each other by one discharging in the other, is only
another aspect of the same phenomenon, namel), aqueous vapor i on-
veying electricity.

For illustration of these natural phenomena we must here refer to
similar ones which we can reproduce on a small scale in our laboratories.
The electric matihine has attached to it a brass cylinder called the con-

42 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

ductor and which is charged by putting it in communication with the
machine when in operation. But if this conductor is left exposed in the
free air, after a while it is found to be discharged. If however it is put
under the receiver of an air pump, it retains its charge for an indefinite
time. How does the conductor in the open air discharge itself.'' By its
inductive influence it acts upon the particles of dust and all other mat-
ter floating in the air. It evokes the opposite electricity in them; hence
attracting them, and having charged them with its own electricity, re-
pels them. In flying off, they of course carry a portion of the charge
with them. This operation is continued, and in a short time the con-
ductor is found discharged. The conical electric wave which rolls over
the surface of the Earth eastward acts similarly on the air and all par-
ticles of matter floating in it. It attracts both ; hence there is always a
current of air toward, or, in the northern hemisphere, rather in a direc-
tion somewhat to the right of an area of low pressure. The wind
moves around this area in a direction opposite to the hands of a watch.
But over the whole area covered by the low pressure, there is an ascend-
ing current of air. Hence all the vapor within the periphery of the
electric wave's influence, is attracted and carried up, forming and feed-
ing the overhanging cloud. Hence it is when we are within the attractive
influence of an approaching electric wave, no dew falls, and we predict
rain. In fact the low pressure indicated by the barometer is not ow-
ing,— as is generally supposed, — to a diminished volume of the superin-
cumbent atmosphere, but to the upward current that there obtains. In
proof of this. Professor Wise, the aeronaut, while investigating the phe-
nomena of a thunder-storm, witn his balloon passed in the ascending
current upward through the centre of the storm above the clouds, and
then descending by its own weight, his balloon was repeatedly drawn in
below and carried up through the storm again.

The manner in which an electric wave feeds the overhanging cloud,
is beautifully illustrated in every mountain region. The only difference
is that a high range of mountains, is a fixed electric wave. A mountain
is like a ridge on a corrugated conductor. When the conductor is
charged, the charge collects on the ridges, while the furrows between
give no sign of electric excitement. The Earth is permanently charged
with electricity, secularly varying in intensity. Hence a high charge is
permanent on the summits of all mountain ranges. If therefore we
watch the action of a mountain in the formation of clouds, all mystery
vanishes as to the origin and the supply of vapor to form rain.

I cannot refrain from relating and describing an interesting and en-
trancingly beautiful observation illustrating this point, made by me last
summer in the Rocky Mountains. My position was in a mining camp
over nine thousand feet above the sea. It was a bright morning in the
fore part of August ; and I was up as soon as day had sufficiently dawned
to make the magnificent scenery visible. West of me, at the distance of
about four miles lay the Snowy Range exposed to full view from Long's

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV.

43

Peak on the nortli to CJray's Peak on the south, a distance of about
sixty miles. At the nearest jjoint due west, majestically rises Mount
Audubon to a height of nearly Iburleen thousand feet above the sea.
For symmetric al shape, steepness of ascent and impressive aspect, this
is the most nota])Ie ])eak of the range as seen from here. I saw its base
except on the east front, enveloped in aderse gray fog. I discovered this
fog had a rapid motion from west to east ; and vast masses of it were
rolling up from Middle Park. Casting my eyes along the whole range
in sight, 1 perceived through each notch in the range, similar masses
were rolling. 1 expected every moment to see the whole range envel-
oped and shut from view. What was my surprise, after watching some
time, to see that notwithstanding the rajridity with which these rolling
volumes moved, they made no advance eastward ; but mysteriously dis-
appeared in front. It soon became evident that the strong current of
east wind setting toward the range was the cause of this mysterious
disajjpearance.

The Sun had now sufficiently risen to illuminate the range to its
base, and presented one of the most magnificent spectacles I ever be-
held. There lay the Snow Range with its deeply serrated crest sharply
defined against an intensely deep blue clear sky, while its fields of ice
and snow glistened like rubies and amethysts; and there rolled restless
and headlong through each notch those massive and mysterious volumes
of mist, e\er moving yet making no progress. It was not only an in-
spiring sight for a poet, but a ])henomenon of deepest import to the
philosopher.

The mass of fog gaining volume from Middle Park in the rear,
gradually pushed up to the crest and cloud-capped each peak. Then
could be seen attenuated fibrous tufts of fog standing upright along the
summit of the range. A close inspection showed that the fog of these
tufts streamed with great velocity upward, disappearing in the deep blue
sky above.

The complement of the phenomenon now presented itself. This
was a dense cloud stretching north and south parallel to the range,
and separated from it by a streak, about thirty degrees wide, of the
aforesaid intensely deep blue clear sky. This cloud rolled rapidly east-
ward toward the Plains, but its western margin was stationary, so that
its relative position remained unchanged as to the mouutains. In the
clear sky along the cloud's margin now reappeared in a continuous
stream, — as if shot from below, — the fog which had so mysteriously
disappeared over the mountain range. Tl:ie sequence was a heavy thun-
der shower in the afternoon, followed by a rain of thirty-six hours dur-
ation on the mountain and plains east, and a heavy fall of snow on the
range.

The phenomenon however was not new to me. I had often, — how-
ever not in this exact form, — seen it in n:.y boyhood days, but this was
the first time that 1 comprehended its cause, and understood the laws

44 tRANSACtlONS OF THE ILLINOi'5

by which the physical effect was produced. Reared at the western base
of the Tuscaroras, I had observed during a general rain, — there always
accompanied by an east or northeast wind, — a dark scud-cloud over-
hanging the mountains which was rolling rapidly away, yet remained
stationary. Between the scud-cloud and the mountains, there was a
wide belt disclosing the upper grayish white rain cloud ; and on the
upper margin of this belt, along the edge of the scud thin streamers of
fog were seen rapidly shooting over the belt and replenishing the scud-
cloud as fast as it drifted away. It excited my boyish wonder so much
as to often set my wits at work, to explain the paradox of a flying cloud
remaining stationary. Since the world has learned the laws and mode
of electric action, the explanation has become self-evident. The moun-
tain range, acting like an electric wave, — or, if you prefer it, — like the
ridge of a charged corrugated conductor, attracts the watery vapor float-
ing in the atmosphere below the clouds by its inductive influence, charges
it with its own negative electricity, and shoots it up to meet the positive
overhanging charge in the clouds.

We can now understandingly explain certain phenomena which have
been noted in previous ages, and handed down to us by tradition as
teaching abstract truths and as unfailing signs by which to foretell the
weather. For aught we could see, the relation between these phenomena
and what followed was entirely arbitrary. We could trace no necessary
antecedence and consequence between them. No such relation as cause
and effect. It was so, because observation had established it to be so ;
but we could see no reason why it must be so and could not in the na-
ture of things be anything else. One of these is embodied in the me-
teorological maxim current throughout the civilized world, that a fog
that rises brings rain ; to which may be added its corollary that a falling
one brings fair weather. It is the same with haze and smoke. As long
as they rest on the Earth and shut out the horizon, no rain can be
expected. Because there is a high barometer and consequently a
downward flow in the atmosphere. Or a downward discharge of matter
floating in the atmosphere. But when they lift, there is a low barometer,
and consequently an upward discharge of matter in the atmosphere.
Or, to speak philosophically, the Earth then having a high charge of
electricity, is discharging itself by electrifying the vapors floating near
its surface, and sending them to the upper region of the atmosphere.

I will now recall your attention to one of the phenomena of the
mountains. I refer to the belt of intensely blue and clear sky through
which the vapor in its transition from the negati\ e to the positive state
passed, not only invisible, but heightening, intensifying and deepening
the serenity. We may therefore lay it down as an unfailing sign, that
the deeper blue and serene the sky is when fog is lifting or has lifted, the
more copious will the rainfall be that is sure to follow. While on the
contrary, the grayer and hazier the sky remains after such an event, the
less is the probability that there will be any rain. The cause, I take it

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 45

to be, is that there has been no complete transition of such fog or haze
from the negative to the positive state.

If the theory advanced be correct that high and low atmospheric
pressures are electric phenomena, then il follows that the currents of air
to which they give rise are electric jjhenomena also. Time and the oc-
casion prevents me from going into details to establish these propositions.
There are however some observations made by Or. Wislizenus of St.
Louis which are pertinent here. lie says, — in his remarks on his tables
on electric observations published in the Missouri Statistical Report for
1867, — that from 1861 to 1867, he had observed the atmosphere to be
eleven thousand two hundred and thirteen times in a positive state ; four
hundred and forty times in a negative state ; and three thousand four
hundred and seventy-six times neutral, that is the electricities in equi-
librium

I have already stated that the Earth is always negative, while the
charge on the upper atmosphere is always positive. As the electrometer
of Dr. Wislizenus is insulated and placed some thirty-five or forty feet
above the surface of the Earth, it can only show a negative state when
an electric Avave is rolling over, and streams of negatively electrified
vapor are flowing upwards. He tacitly admits this, when he says that
"instantly with the approach of a storm the negative makes its appear-
ance, and of such high tension that the electrometer cannot measure
it." When however the rain sets in, the negative tension decreases until
it becomes zero, or when the atmosphere becomes positive. Why .' Be-
cause the rain is positively electrified and neutralizes the negative charge
on the surface of the Earth.

He adds "of the four hundred and forty times that the atmosphere
was observed to be charged with negative electricity, it was found one
hundred and sixty times to be connected with thunder-storms: one hun-
dred and fifty-eight times with rain only ; one hundred and three times
with dry storms, that is, without rain, or thunder and lightning, and
seventeen times with snow. The dry storms, no doubt, were the effect
of a rolling electric wave, whose storm-center, where precipitation took
place, passed north or south of the observer.

He also says, ." Snow is generally accompanied with positive elec-
tricity, and fogs, always." Why.' Because snow receives a positive
charge in the upper region of the atmosphere, and in descending neu-
tralizes and finally changes to the positive the surface stratum of atmos-
phere. In the (ase of fogs and in that of dew, the positive condition to
which the atmosphere is changed is owing to the same cause operating
as in rain and snow, with this difference ; rain and snow descend through
the atmosphere by their own specific gravity; while dew and fog are
vapors having greater levity than the atmosphere; when they become
positively charged, they are precipitated ag^ainst their specific gravity by
the law of electric discharges between ojjposite poles.

We have spoken of areas of low barometric pressure and of winds
blowing toward them ; and of areas of high barometric pressure and of

46 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

winds blowing from them. This is not strictly correct. Such winds
move in winding spirals. Those flowing from an area of high pressure,
can be represented by a spiral receding from the center or axis ; and
those toward an area of low p;essure, by a contracting spiral.

Draw a double spiral resembling the letter S reversed, and you will
have a graphic illustration of such winds in the northern hemisphere,
while a spiral drawn so as to resemble the letter S will illustrate such
winds in the southern hemisphere. Re])resent the direction of the wmd
by arrows pointing in opposite directions along the line of the first dia-
gram,— that is, the one representing the winds in the northern hemi-
sphere, and you will find the direction of the out-bowing wind is a direct
spiral, that is from left to right or with the hands of a watch with its face
lying upwards ; while the in-bhiuing wind describes a retrograde spiral,
that is, from right to left, or contrary to the hands of a watch. If sim-
ilar arrows are placed alongside of the other double spiral to represent
the direction of the wind in the southern hemisphere, it will be seen
that the direction of corresponding winds is reversed.

The practical point now is to ascertain in what direction the areas
,, of high and low pressure lie. In whatever direction the winds may be
blowing, turn your back square to it ; then to the left will be the area of
low pressure, and to your right the area of high pressure. For instance,
if it be a south wind, then you will face the north ; your left hand will
be west and your right hand east. Consequently, the area of low pres-
sure will be west, and that of high east. But an electric wave has
longitudinal extension, while ii; may have only one point that is a storm-
center. If therefore the wind be south, while a wave of low pressure is
approaching from the west, then the storm-center or nucleus of greatest
disturbance will lie about half-way between the north, — the way you
are facing, — and the west, that is in the northwest. If in such case the
storm-center only covers a small area, there will be no rain ; since all
hydrometeors in the northwestern part of the Mississippi valley, move
on a line nearly due east from the west.

Suppose that the wind is southeast, then the point of the compass
toward which your face will be turned is northwest, and your left shoul-
der will be turned to the southwest. In that case, because the wind
describes a retrograde or left hand spiral, the storm-center will lie in the
west ; and the probability is, you will be in its path eastward. Your
safest guide now will be the indications of your barometer. If the wind
remains steady in the southeast, and your barometer keeps falling, you
are on the line of the storm-center. If the wind shifts to the east, the
center is passing south of you ; if to the south, then it is passing north
of you. When the storm-center passes south, the wind shifts by way of
the east and north to northwest; if it pass north, then the wind shifts
by way of the south and southwest to the west.

If the storm-center approaches you, the wind will be steady in the
southeast until you are in the center, when there will be a lull for a few

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 47

moments ; then the wind will break furiously from some point west, and
the barometer will commence rising. In proportion to the rapidity that
it rises, will be the force of the wind that concludes the phenomenon.

I have now passed under review a small section of the vast domain
of Nature. I have tried to treat it in as popular a form as possible, and
hope I have succeeded in making myself understood. It is a difficult task
to popularize physical science, because with truth it must be said, that
physical science in its highest sense is not yet born, but will be the child
of the future. We have wild theories that we call science, which the more
a man studies the less he knows, because they have no foundation in solid
facts. But physical science of the future will be absolute truths de-
duced and demonstrated from actual facts; and the whole logically ar-
raned into a system. The first step toward constructing it, will be a
thorough investigation of the phenomena, laws and modes of the Phys-
ical Forces, namely. Light, Heat, Electricity and Magnetism, their cor-
relation, equivalence, mutual convertibility, and persistence in some form
of Force. They constitute the motive power of the universe and pro-
duce all its phenomena. Phenomena are only the behavior of matter
when affected by these invisible, imponderable, and intangible forces.
This is the great lesson yet to learn. Man is intended as the interpreter
of Nature, and he has ample ability bestowed upon him to do it. Nature
is also a ])atient and persistent teacher, obtruding her lessons on all oc-
casions, at all seasons, and in all ages upon the attention of the people.
Her authority to teach is enforced by severe penalties on her obstinate,
refractory, and intractable pupils, for Man is under a 7iecessity that he must
learn. The people now as in prior ages " perish for want of knowledge ;"
and will continue to perish until Man has mastered the interpretation of
Nature, and in his life and conduct follows her infallible precepts,

The other members of the committee — Profs. Wernli of Galena and
Baker of ('hanipaign, were not present, and sent in no reports.

A letter from Professor Baker, stated that he was prevented frorn
making out his report, by a serious illness.

The President then read his annual address, as announced in the
printed programme.

PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS.

Ladies and Gentlemen :

It will be admitted that the immense area of Illinois embraces lands
adapted to all the varied pursuits of Agriculture and Horticulture. All
lands are not alike; differences of soil, location and ex[)osure exist on al-
most all farms ; climatic differences also exist ; the growth of spring wheat
is a success on the north part of the State, while it is a failure in the
south, where the fall sown or winter wheat takes its place. The rich
prairie and alluvial bottoms are ff)und best adapted to corn, while the
broken, hilly lands produce the finest wheat. Orchards abound in al-

48 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

most all soils and all locations, but even here it is found that the adap-
tation of the variety to the soil and location is the cause of success or
failure.

While then we have lands adapted to the cultivation of the cereals
and orchard fruits, we have also lands bordering our rivers and creeks
where the soil is too thin and light for successful farming or too broken
to render the cultiv'ation easy, but which are admirably adapted to the
cultivation of the grape.

These lands are found in all parts of the State and upon almost
every farm, yet notwithstanding that such a condition necessarily presents
a great variety of soils, exposures, and climatic influences, so hardy and
healthful are some of the many varieties of the grape, that no exposure
or condition can be found thar some vine will not meet its requirements.

The importance attached to the culture of this fruit on a large scale
for commercial uses has been distinctly recognized by some of our sis-
ter states.

California, at the expense of the state, sent an agent to Europe to
investigate as to the varieties, modes of culture, soils, hardiness, etc. of
the grapes of that country ; the report of his mission has been long be-
fore the public, the results have added largely to the productive capital
of that country, and given her a position in this speciality not held by
any of her sister states.

Missouri too has claimed high rank as a grape producing state,
and great stress is laid upon the fact that they have large bodies of land
peculiarly fitted for this culture. The State Geologist and the press
have dwelt particularly upon these advantages.

From my own observations I am led to believe that Illinois, our
own beautiful Prairie State will eventually take high rank for her grape
production. The steep hillsides and rocky slopes, the beautiful bluffs
bordering her streams will be made valuable ; these lands, useless for
the ordinary purposes of agriculture, when converted into vineyards,
will add largely to the wealth of our common country. It is not my
purpose however to dwell largely upon this view of my subject but
rather upon that Avhich brings it nearer home to us, viz. Home Culture
and Home Consumption.

Here then we have a fruit of surpassing worth, health-giving and
delicious — almost unknown — yet ready to add to our comforts.

When about to plant an orchard the first inquiry is : " What apples
shall I plant ? " Perhaps the party has seen or heard of pears, but if
he has, he has heard of the blight also, and wisely resolves to let them
alone. If he is located where peaches are an occasional success they
are added to his list. Grapes ? O no, his old boy home had apples,
they grow themselves, somev/hat like Topsy, but grapes, they require
care, they must be looked after. The impression evidently is that there
is a mystery about grape culture, a mystery which they have no right
to investigate ; or if they did. they would find its culture encumbered

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 49

with innumcraldf difiu ultios, to nverrome whirh they have neither time
nor inclination. Thus it is tliat one of the rhoircsl fruits, designed to
add t(j the coinforts of lionie is persistently neglected.

I would that this impression should be done away. I would have
grapes upon every farm and around every homestead. There are diffi-
f ulties in the way but they can be overcome. The greatest of our
troubles arises from ignorance. We have a class, and a large one too.
who would not rec ogni/e a fine bunch of grapes if placed within their
reach ; they have never eaten a really good grape. They are the unlut ky
ones;4heir homes are remote from the schoolhouse, they have orchards
and fields of grain perhaps, they are surrounded with many comforts
from whiih the dweller in the city is debarred, but grapes are not for

them.

This class I would I could reach. I avouM say plant, plant vines,
plant trees, plant shrubs, but plant, ^'ou may not see the money in the
operation but it is there and nnich comfort besides.

We are all too much disposed to follow the practices in which we
have been educated rather than to strike out new paths for ourselves.
The introduction therefore to the homes of the many of any variety of
fruit, which they have been taught to believe required for its successful
cultivation a peculiar and mysterious knowledge, is fraught with more
than usiial difficulties.

Now, thanks be to liurtii ullural and agricultural societies the ( ul-
ture of the grape is likeh- to become known to all or at least to those
who do not stand aloof from such associations. There is a class, and
a large one loo, who shun these associations, and books, and papers de-
voted to their calling as the mad dog shuns water. Even these how-
ever have occasional attacks of " Horticulture " when some beautiful
fruit IS on exhibition, but the disease is not dee))-seated and they soon
recover.

Most of those whom 1 now address have homes of their own and I
should judge from what 1 see that they are surrounded with the fruits
in their season; but there are some 1 fear whose ideas of home-
comforts are too contracted, for it is a fact that by far the larger part
of those who own. occupy, and cultivate the land are without them.
They may have a few neglected apple trees dignified with the name of
orchard, in some few instances you will find some Morcllo cherries,
(the gift of a friend or neighbor whose grounds have become overstocked
with them) or a few worthless seedling peaches, these last grown from
the seed of some peach of unusual excellence, which seed has been
saved and planted under the mistaken delusion that in this case "like
would i)ro(iu( e like." But no grape-vine has found its home there, no
pleasant arbor or ])orch is sheltered by its grateful foliage or perfumed
and made pleasant with its lus( ious fruit ; they are content to gather
their grapes in the woods disputing for their possession with the wild
beast of the forest. That which can be so easily procured and at a

50 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

small outlay is never bought or planted ; they seem possessed with the
idea that such choice fruit is to them a forbidden thing.

There are however many noble exceptions to this rule — homes
where not only the grape, but the sweet cherry, the luscious pear, the
plum, and other choice fruits are gathered and used freely as home ne-
cessities.

Most of our ideas of grape culture have been derived from hot-
house practice. The necessity of a thorough preparation of the soil by
deep culture, under-draining, and expensive manuring has been held as
an absolute prerequisite, until many who would have entered upon its
practice, in a small way at least, have been driven from it and their at-
tention given to some seemingly easier pursuit.

Now, on the contrary, those who have been, and still are advocates
for the old practice or a near approach to it are held by many modern
cultivators in derision ; they point exultingly to vineyards which with
only such cultivation as one should give a well prepared cornfield are
making splendid returns for the labor and capital employed.

I believe that the deeper an*d the better the preparation, all else be-
ing equal, the better will be the final result. So vigorous and hardy are
many of the varieties now in cultivation that they will surmount neglect
and produce good returns even under no treatment; superficial observers
are thus led to draw erroneous conclusions and decry all methods
when they see success so easily attained.

As to what soil is best adapted to the growth of the vine, let me say
that any soil well prepared will give satisfactory results. The very best
success can only be secured however by understanding well the wants
of the vine, and then creating as near an approach to that condition as
possible. Vines succeed best in loose, friable soils, such as do not retain
water, and where the drainage is good ; if then you have a retentive
soil or a subsoil that is compact, so that the drainage is imperfect you
should so far as possible remedy those defects. I do not attempt to
give you explicit directions for each peculiar soil, but only state a gene-
ral rule. To you who would plant for home use, I would not be under-
stood as saying that you cannot grow grapes without Complying with
these conditions ; thex will i;nnv if you 7oi/l plant t/iem, though placed
under the most unfavorable conditions; but I repeat, the better the pre-
paration the better the result. Something is gained by the growing of
the grape besides the fruit. I hesitate not to say that 1 think the cul-
ture of the grape is the most instructive branch of Horticulture. Once
well understood and practiced it attracts and stimulates the most neg-
ligent and slothful. It hunhhe?, practical cdncafion, the result of a close
study of the habits and growth of the vine, with the pruning and train-
ing necessary for the best results. The practical education thus com-
menced, stu-died, and applied, is founded upon a great principle alike
suited to orchard trees as to the vine, producing in either case similar
results. This prinri])lc kept constantly in view and carried out in the

STATE HORTirULTURAT. SOCIETY. g-^

successful treatment of the vine viz : the adaptation of the crop to the
capabilities of the plant is found, I repeat it, to be alike applicable to
our orchard trees. The necessity of so doing with the vine has been
made the law, while the same necessity exists with regard to our fruit-
trees but has never been sufficiently insisted upon.

This training and j)runing of the vine has become reduced to a
system and the success following it has clearly demonstrated its ne-
cessity.

Societies have been formed to ameliorate the conditicjn of the lab-
oring brutes, to jirotect them from their hard taskmasters, but few sym-
pathizing friends have raised their voices for the crushing, rending,
breaking cruelty to fruit trees. They blossom in beauty, they cover
themselves with the foliage so pleasing to the eye — time rolls on and
the red and golden fruit peeps out from the green which enshrouds
them, man looks on and sees from day to day the bending bough droop-
ing to the earth pleading for relief, but no relief comes. — That which
was so shapely and beautiful becomes by man's neglect or cupidity dis-
torted, broken, and almost worthless. If the vine system had been ap-
plied, the trees would have maintained and increased their fair propor-
tions, the fruit would have been larger and better, and the owner have
been anijily paid for all his extra labor.

In some few instances this has been practically demonstrated in its
application to fruit trees. The peach especially has been subjected to
this system.

\Vhen the fruit has been thinned out, or more correctly speaking
when it has been proportioned to the capacity oi the tree, when the
Mood has been shortened in and the superfluous parts removed, the re-
sults have been precisely similar to those produced under the same
treatment of the vine, ('arry this i)rinciple into your orchards and you
will not only grow finer fruit, but what is perhaps to you individually of
fully as mut h importance, you will tind a ready market and better prices;
for this rule holds good, that while fine fruit is eagerly sought for by
the buyers, poor fruit is as ( ertainly neglected. Ciood fruit, ready sale,
and good prices on the one liand.poor fruit, dull sales, and empty purses
on the other.

1 have alluded briefly to some of the pleasures and advantages to
be derived from the culture of the grape; think not however that
grape growing is all sunshine. It is true of this as of all other varie-
ties of fruits, they need care and intelligent attention.

Insects injurious will need to be carefully exterminated, while
those which aid you and are your friends must be as carefully protected.

There must not be any strong competition between the growing
vine and the growing weed; if you will look carefully after the weed
growth, the vine growth will be satisfactory.

The grape is not alone however in its demands upon your labor
and must not suffer in your regard on that account. The time was

52 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

when the apple was so entirely free from insect depredators that it could
be safely eaten at any time without fear of disturbing them ; but it is
not so now ; the Codling Moth has found an abiding place there, and
you who expect good, sound, marketable, paying crops of apples must
not longer be content to let them grow themselves, but must exterminate
that pest and all others which prey upon your apples.

So of the grape, there are some insects which you will need to
look after to insure fair crops. You need not feel alarmed nor discour-
aged because of these insects; a resolution to succeed, a little watchful
care will richly repay all outlay of time and labor while the education
afforded in this way will extend until your entire crop will be benefited
by it ; for the truth exists notwithstanding it has been so long buried
under the crust of ignorance, that all your crops have their especial in-
sect enemies, and as you extend cultivation either of the cereals or fruits,
you afford food and nourishment to your enemies.

Every source of enjoyment, every comfort or luxury is but a means
when rightly used and appreciated, by Avhich home is made pleasant and
attractive.

Our homes are in this respect too much neglected. Let us strive
then to make them lovely and beautiful too look upon ; let us surround
them with the fruits in their season, with flowers and shrubs that in
their loveliness and usefulness shadow forth God's munificence, love,
and bounty. Let us add the grape also both for the beauty of its foli-
age and its rich clusters of fruit. Let us study its habits and wants and
in so doing educate ourselves for greater usefulness.

Let us above all teach our children to take an interest in all these;
so that in after years they shall remember with pleasure the place and
the associations which surrounded them in their youth.

DISCUSSION ON GRAPES.

Mr. Wier — Mr. F reside/if — I understand you to say, that in the
growing of Grapes, the better the preparation of the soil the better the
result. I think I have some facts upon this point. I know a man who
had read in some of our books that he must trench the ground two or
three feet deep, and add half as much manure as soil if he would suc-
ceed in growing grapes.

Accordingly he set to work and trenched a piece of ground, two
rods wide by sixteen rods long, and planted Catawba vines. After fill-
ing up his trenched ground, he found that he had one vine left ; this his
wife claimed, and she wanted him to plant it near the house, for the
benefit of its shade. He did so — planting it in the sand without ma-
nure; and now for the result. The vines upon the trenched land did not
thrive, and finally gclunJly died, while the vine near the house grew,

STaTE rtORTlCULTURAL SOCIETY. 53

and was exceedingly productive, and one season matured a crop of 300

pound-i. This does not look as if tlie better the preparation the better

the result.

Now, a person that did not know anything about grape culture,

would say,that the President of our State Horticultural Society says, *' the

better the preparation the better the results," and might be led astray.

1 have grown grapes without any rnanure, on a soil that was good enough

for plastering houses. 1 do not understand that we need as rich ground

for grapes as we need for corn. The most of our ridges are good

enough for grapes without manure.

Mr. Galusha — I would not like to have the idea of non-culture
which is here advanced, go out as if it were indorsed by this Society,
lor such is not the fact. We know that the grape will adapt itself to a
great variety of circumstances and soils. It is a fact that our native
grape vines, and especially the Concord, have inherited from their ances-
tors an original, hardy constitution, and great power of endurance, and
hence will bear much neglect ; but is this any reason why they should
be neglected, or why it would not be better to give them needed atten-
tion and care. It pains me to hear these remarks of gentlemen, for it
will tend, I fear, to encourage neglect. There are gentlemen here who
have traveled this State over and over, from one end to the other, and
have seen vineyards in every conceivable state of care and neglect, and
I ask any such gentleman, who has observed our vineyards from year
to year, if it is not true that care and culture produce the best results —
the largest fruit and heaviest crops ?

Mr. VViER — I would give fair cultivation.

Mr. CIalusha — I believe in thorough culture and frequent stirring
of the soil for all crops. Soils frequently stirred absorb most freely the
manurial gases and dust particles from the atmosphere. That has been
sufficiently proved. Cultivation and pulverization is manuring — and is
most effectual. Vou may put manure upon a lumpy soil, and not pul-
verize it, and you will not get as good results as you will in any other
part of the field not manured, which you_have thoroughly cultivated so
that you get all the benefit from the atmospheric manure. The pulveri-
zation without manure usually gives a better crop than manure without
pulverization. This theory of good cultivation is no mistake. It will
hold good. I have made this matter a study, and I know that good
culture — and not poor culture — pays.

54 tRANSACTiONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Dr. Hooton — Was not the eft'ect, in the example Mr. Wier men-
tions, the result of digging holes ?

Mr. Wier — Where this experiment was tried was upon sand, and
not where water could stand. I say more — You can manure corn till
you will fail to get a crop. Mr. Galusha would manure his orchard.
I would ask if you have not soils that should be made poorer for apples
instead of richer ? I know such soils ; this is not a new thing. I have
had grape vines grow and do well on soils as poor as you can imagine.
I have grown grapes for ten years, and had good crops on soils not rich,
and I can still do it. — I will guarantee this. We need cultivation, it is
true, but not manure. If there are soils too poor to grow apples and
grapes they must be very poor !

Dr. Hooton — I understand Mr. Wier to say, that in the example
he has mentioned, the manuring and cultivation given were in the high-
est style of the art. The question is, how shall we know when we are
putting on too much.? Excessive manuring may destroy our plants,
but a reasonable amount can't hurt the soil around Centralia.

Mr. Hilliard — Mr. Wier has advanced an idea that I never heard
before, that you can injure corn with manure ! [Laughter.]

Mr. Galusha — " Brains " make the best manure. You must know
what is in the soil if you would know what kind of fertilizers to use.
Suppose the soil about Centralia is new prairie, rich in humus,
with considerable ulmic acid in it, it is not then a suitable soil for the
grape, although very rich, until the excess of ulmic acid is neutralized. '
You must put your brains at work — experimenting and observing results,
and you will soon know just what manure and what conditions it re-
quires to insure good crops of grapes. Few soils, perhaps none, contain
all the elements, and in the best proportions, for any kind of fruit or
cereal. Brains^ applied in the right way, must supply the deficiency.

I know a vineyard, to which I have before called the attention of
this Society, of which the soil one year before planting was nearly level
prairie, black and exceedingly rich in humus; this was subsoiled, ma-
nured with a hundred large loads of barnyard manure, three hundred
bushels of lime, and a hundred bushels of ashes to the acre, all well in-
corporated in the soil. The ground was thrown into ridges, and grapes,
pears, apples, and cherries planted. All varieties of fruits have borne
well there for six years, and the ground has been well cultivated and

StATJE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 55

manured every year. Among the grapes bearing good croi>s of large
clusters are Allen's Hybrid, Delaware, and Rebecca. The crops of Del-
awares, Hartfords, and Concords arc iininense.

I know another Concord vineyaiil upon a sandy soil which usually
bears good crops of sweet fruit without manure; but it is manured with
"brains" and muscles too, the entire vineyard being kept pulverized as
finely as can be done with a garden rake, and a plank crusher to grind
the soil to a powder.

Mr. Wier — What if llie gentleman had put on stable manure and
did not put on the lime and ashes ?

Mr. Gall'sha — I would say in that case, he did not manure with
his brains. [Laughter.]

Dr. Humphrey — It is not over rich ground that we want for grapes.
If we find that our land is too rich and fat, we had better take some
of the "fat " out of it, by seeding it in grass for a few years, and then
it would be in a good state to put in to grapes.

Fres. Starr — I do not know, but that you may e.xpect an exj^lan-
ation from me. I said, and still say, the better the preparation the
better the result. Excessive manuring would not be good preparation.
I said nothing about manure. 1 would get away from the idea of ''hot-
house " culture, and would encourage the thorough preparation and cul-
tivation of the virgin soil, as productive of the best results. I am sorry
gentlemen, you did not get a better hold of the illustration.

Mr. Wier — I understood you myself. But those who go back to
the books,they get just this principle — "the hot-bed process." It burns
the vines up. I was afraid your remark might lead the novices in grape
culture astray.

Pres. Starr — They must be better informed.

Mr. Wier — I would say just one other thing. 1 tind i can raise a
great deal of manure right on the ground, and since I adopted this plan
of plowing in the natural manure grown upon the land, 1 can see a
vast improvement in the productions. 1 now grow twenty bushels more
of corn to the acre than before I adopted this practice of plowing under
the natural food for plants ; and I now apply to many crops, no other
food.

Mr. Flagg — There seem to be some very contradictory facts. It
is known that the Delaware grape is grown successfully, upon just the

56 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

conditions that is here stated are so dangerous. I have seen the Dela-
ware grown over manure in just this way, and under the influence of
one of the most powerful manures, that of bones. I do not pretend to
account for the facts. I wish to call on Mr. O. L. Barler for his facts
and experience in the culture and treatment of the grape vine.

Mr. Barler, Alton — I shall certainly not be influenced by what I
hear to-night to go home and commence any systematic neglect ot my
vineyard — certainly not after all the care and attention I have given it
in the past, and the excellent returns that it has made me. What is
worth doing at all is worth doi?ig ivell. I am aware that of late years
vineyards are not always paying institutions, but how the no-culture
system is going to help the vineyardist does not come in my " way of
thinking." It strikes me that this would only be making bad worse.
Far better would it be, where grapes do not pay, to grub up the vines,
and plant corn, or other crop in which you have confidence, and that will
reward good culture.

I ask myself, can it be possible, that which I hear — that neglect of
culture in any crop — a garden overgrown with weeds — a vineyard turned
to a wilderness — can in any way profit its owner, and not damage his
credit .''

I respect the opinions of these gentlemen of experience who say
these things, and can only put it up in this w.iy : — grape growing is not
their business, and they are, after all, tnistaken in this matter. The fact
that has been stated, that the vine will bear rough usage — if smitten on
one cheek it will turn the other — and under the worst circumstances,
bring the owner a half crop, which if found in the ^r^/i-x looks big indeed,
— proves nothing favoring non-culture. Why, sirs! if \ou should find
the heavy rich clusters that I grow upon clean land, nicely tied up on
their wire trellis, I say, if you should find such a crop, say ten tons to
the acre, in the grass and upon the grourid, — you would never cease
speaking of it as one of the wonders of the vegetable world. It is be-
cause you find your small grapes on smaller bunches (than ordinary) —
sweet though they may be— in so wretched a place., that you think they
are so many and so fine !

I remember when we used to gai:her our strawberries wild from the
woods, if perchance we were fortunate enough to find a few quarts, we
would tell of it, and how sweet they were ! But how mean a product
in size and quantity, when compared with our cultivated crops that

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCTETV. 57

produce from 200 to 300 bushels to the acre! I tliiiik gentlemen are
mistaken, honestly mibtaken. Had this idea been advanced in our Alton
Horticultural Society, I should have been temi)ted to meet it with a
sharper reply than here, because the vineyardists around Alton hww
better.

Mr. Miller, Imva — I do not wish to be understood as recommeml-
ing growing of grapes in grass to any one. It was not my intention to
have a crop of grapes, in my case, and I purposely abandoned my vines,
I expected nothing from them ; but without my attention they grew and
prospered, and bore a crop that surprised me. I have stated the facts.
I do not know what the ultimate result may be.

Mk. Wier — For one, I believe in growing grapes in grass for the
reason that it does not pay to give them cultivation; we can't get any
money out of our grapes. A few men who are favorably situated as to
soil, climate, and the market can, perhaps, grow grapes and sell them,
but for us there is no money in them.

Mr. Edwards — If I had been fortunate enough years ago to have
had the instructions you have given here this evening, I might have had
grapes to eat long before I did ; but I had formed an idea that grapes
could not be grown without a great deal of trouble and extra care. So
I postponed planting the vine, until I could give it needed attention.
I am thankful that you have introduced this subject, and yet I believe
many will plant vineyards, and tend them in a careless, loose way, expect-
ing to reap a harvest, and will be disappointed. I had a few vines of
the Clinton that were left without cultivation, and for three or four years
thev gave us some fruit, but for the last five years they have not fruited.
1 am of the opinion, that the neglect system will not do to depend upon
for a long series of years.

The President announced the next thing in the regular order of
business to be

DISCUSSION ON STRAWBKRRIES.

IJR. Humphrey — We have given up, pretty much, the cultivation of
all varieties save the Wilson and Green Prolific. 1 think the Cireen
Prolific bears more berries than the Wilson, and will bear one or two
more pickings than that variety ; the berr) is firm and ships well.

I have one patch of Jucunda strawberry, that has borne well for
four years. It is on clay and gravelly soil, has good culture, and is

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

mulched with leaves. We prefer to plant in the spring ; if fall planting
succeeds, we get more berries the first season— perhaps half a crop — and
the second season a full crop.

Mr. Clayton — Please describe your process of setting out.

Dr. Humphrey — We set out just the same as we would set out to-
matoes or cabbages.

Dr. Hooton — We have but two good strawberries here. I have
tried ten or twelve different varieties, and have settled down upon the
Green Prolific and the Wilson as standard sorts. Of course, there are
others that I would not be without, but these succeed the best. The
Green Prolific, however, is rather soft for market. In some respects the
Colfax is a better berry than the Green Prolific ; and to my friends who
wish to get rid of the weeds, I recommend the Colfax, for it will kill out
the weeds and everything else, and completely occupy the ground ; it
is worse than white clover in this respect.

The Wilson succeeds finely — nothing does so well. I have tried
Knox's Seven Hundred and I can do nothing with it ; I never got a berry
from them. I tried Charles Downing, and this served me in the same
way.

I have planted the Wilson in hills and in rows, and have settled
down upon the plan of planting in rows of thirty inches, by fourteen be-
tween the hills. I plant with a trowel, opening the ground so that I can
put the plant down and draw it up, till the crown is just at the top of the
ground, avoiding doubling up the roots of the plant.

Voice — Have you any Crown-borers in your strawberry plantations.''

Dr. Hooton — We have ; some have had their plants damaged by
them. They have not damaged my field yet. After planting I give
thorough cultivation with the plow and hoe. I do not cultivate after the
middle of August. Sometimes I have not been as thorough as I should be.

Mr. Clayton — How do you clean the hills of runners }
Dr. Hooton — I do it with hoes in the hands of boys. I set them
to work, and walk behind them to see if they do it right. You cannot
trust them in your strawberry field behind your back. They will cut up
one-third of your plants ; there is no such thing as delegating labor
here ; yourself must direct it.

If you are going to get a full crop of berries you must go into the
patch, and, as you have been told, " manure with brains." I mulch with

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV.

S9

straw, — as leaves are likely to be blown away, — there should not be a
vacant place upon your ground.

Mk. Miller — How long can you keep a strawberry field in bearing?

Dr. Hooton — This is my fourth year, and I think I can keej) it in
good bearing order for another year; I keep up the cultivation; I first
use a plow that simply lifts the ground, without turning it over, running
from twelve to si.xteen inches deep, then take the cultivator and the
harrow, and finish up with the hoes — cleaning all up nicely.

Mr. Miller — How many bushels of fruit do you get to the acre?

Dr. Hooton — Last year 1 got from fourteen to fifteen thousand
quarts from four acres. I never set plants in the fall or in the summer ;
it is an expense for nothing. The spring is the time to set your plants
and get them in as early as you can ; and the next spring you will get a
better crop than you would with fall planting — and what is very impor-
tant— you will have a better stand of plants on the ground. If you will
try this plan 1 think you will not wish to plant at any other time.

Before the plants start to grow the second spring, open up the mulch
and leave it upon the ground as a protection to the plants, and then the
pickers can get down upon their knees, and work easily. Keep the
pickers in the space between the rows, and never let them get on the
plants. I never let a team and wagon drive upon my strawberry beds.
1 think it is a fair conclusion, that if you are thorough and neat in your
strawberry culture, you will be most likely to get your reward.

Foice — Do you use any fertilizers on your strawberry beds ?

Dk. Hooton — Yes, sir. 1 have applied two barrels superphosphate
on two-thirds of an acre. 1 also put on ,one »vagon load of ashes, on
rows by the side of those which had the phosphate — same kind of
plants — and the result was quite satisfactory.

I also put one barrel of land plaster on two-thirds of an acre, sprink-
ling the plaster around the crown of the plant. Where the land plaster
was applied, there were more berries but not so large, and the foliage
was not so abundant as where I applied the phosphate; the plants upon
which I put tlie phosphate were the most magnificent I ever saw ; they
stood fully one foot above the ground.

Foice — What time did you make this application ?

QQ TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Dr. Hooton — Soon after picking the crop — and all about the same
time.

President Starr — What was the effect of the ashes ?

Dr. Hooton — It increased the foliage, and considerably increased
the berries. One of the most peculiar effects was, the berries had the
most brilliant gloss on them I ever saw, but those where the phosphate
was applied were the largest.

Voice — Do you keep an account of the yield of berries .■*

Dr. Hooton — I do ; but I have not with me the figures, and cannot
speak the exact yield.

Foue — What is the expense of the fertilizers of which you speak ?

Dr. Hooton — The superphosphate, I think cost about five dollars
and fifteen cents. The plaster, four dollars and fifty cents. The ashes,
the cost of a man and team to haul them, say one dollar and fifty cents.

Mr. Earle — I wonder how those who applied the phosphate liked
the job ? [Laughter.]

Mr. Clayton — I like these careful and minute statements. It looks
like and implies good culture.

Mr. Barler — What do you think of the practice of some in mow-
ing off the leaves of the strawberry plants after fruiting.'' t

Dr. Hooton — I don't approve of the plan.

Mr. Essex, Don^ola—l use a tool for cutting off runners, which I
get made at the blacksmith shop. It is inexpensive, and with it a man
can trim his plants as fast as he can walk.

Dr. Hooton — I have tried this process, and have quit it. I find
that it pulls up a great many of my plants, in spite of all I can do, and
this is what I will not allow. I forbid anythnig that makes vacant places
in my strawberry beds.

Mr. Clayton — I would like to hear from gentlemen from other
parts of the State. What are their experiences, as to soils, manures and
manner of culture .'*

Mr. Freeman, South Pass — I believe in the application of manure
to this crop, if it is done early in the season. I once applied to my straw-
berry crop a preparation of gypsum and poudrette, about one-half table-
spoonful to the hill. The land was thoroughly prepared, and subsoiled,

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. Ql

and the yield was \ cry large and profitable, although I got but fifteen
cents per quart for the berries.

Mr. Mili.fk — How much do you think the application benefited
you in the crop ?

Mr. FRKK^fA^■ — About, I should say, twelve hundred dollar?, on the
one and a half acres — for without the fertilizer I do not think I could
have got twenty dollars out of it.

Mr. Wif.r — I would recommend Cramer's Seedling strawberry as
a very valuable berry for family use. It is not fit for a market berry,
>)ut you can use it with less sugar than any other, and for canning pur-
poses I know no better; the color is too dark, and it is too small for the
market.

Mr. E.arle — I would like to ask Dr. Hooton, if he has compared
the hill-culture system with the row system of his neighbors, so as to tell
which gives the best yield.

Dr. Hooton — I do not think I have any statistics, but I believe
my neighbors think my strawberry crops are about as good as any one's ;
and my practice is to me satisfactory, and I shall not change.

Mr. Earle — I think soiue, by the row system, have heavier crops —
perhaps double — with the expense of one cultivating. Still I think the
hill system is very nice.

Mr. Freeman — In Southern Illinois the soils, except the bottom
lands, are rather destitute of humus, and we have a drouth just at the
time of ripening of the berries, hence the importance and benefit of the
application of gypsum or some fertilizer to help the plants.

Dr. Hooton — 'I'here is one fact, to which 1 wish to call attention.
I hear it stated, that in this locality a large number of plants have died,
— that many whole fields have died outright, — while my fields, under this
system have not died. I'here are very few good healthy fields in this
neighborhood. I would like to know if this is so elsewhere.

Mr. C? avton— \Vhirh system do you think will last the longest .•*

Dr. Hooton — I think the ///// system will preserve the plantation
longest. T think this system will preserve the plants in a healthy con-
diti<jn for four years.

Mr. Scokield, Freeport — I have never been successful in the culti-
vation of strawberries. I have a neighbor who has for five years raised

52 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

annual crops of splendid berries, and grows more on one hill than I grow,
in the row system, on one rod. His crop is enormous ! In regard to
the dying out of the plants, I have noticed this — I have in mind a plan-
tation near Freeport that has thus died out; I have myself a plantation
of the Wilder — or did have, but I find not a single plant now. In an-
other plantation, under cherry trees, I find a few plants. The Wilson
has stood the test.

Mr. Daggv — At Onarga, we have strawberries cultivated on the
" broadcast " system, and it produces more berries than any other sys-
tem, and I have known them to last for four years. The soil there does
not go to weeds, as in many places, and this may favor our practice.

Mr. Edwards — We used to grow strawberries for the Chicago
market, but since that market has become glutted, we grow them for our
own town. We grow them on the "broadcast " system. I have tested,
perhaps, fifty varieties, but have now settled down on Dr. Humphrey's
list — the Wilson and Green Prolific. In regard to the Cramer, I can en-
dorse what Mr. Wier says. It is good for family use. We have tried the
plan of mulching with corn-stalks, and we think them the best mulch
that we can use, as it brings no weeds. I have never known of any
special fertilizers being used in our section of the country. It is said
that plantations will remain good for four years, although I have known
plantations to remain good for seven years, and that on the broadcast
system.

Mr. Miller — I know a plantation that has borne good crops for
seven years, and the only attention that is given to it is to harrow it once
a year, with a large two-horse harrow.

Mr. Galusha — I have grown good crops of Wilson strawberries
for five successive years, on light, sandy land by mowing off the weeds
and old leaves every year after the crop is gathered. The patch was
manured with barn-yard manure once — late in the fall — during the time.
A good crop can be grown in this way, though a better method is either
cultivation in hills or rows.

Mr. Flagg What proportion of the leaves of the plant do you cut
off in the mowing ?

Mr. Galusha — Only the older leaves; probably one-quarter. All
the new and best leaves are left.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. g3

Mr. Nelson — I know a man who plants in rows three feet, by one
foot in the row — cultivates the next season — the next year he pulls out
weeds, and then lets the runners take the ground. After he has gathered
the crop, he plows up the old row, and rolls the land ; the next year he
gets a good crop from the new plants, and after harvest goes through the
same operation.

Mr. HAM^roND, Warsaw — I have settled down upon the Wilson as
the best strawberry. I cultivate in rows and have obtained the best re-
sults from top-dressing with barn-yard manure ; I think it is just as good
as any of the special fertilizers.

Mr. Westgate — When I undertook to grow strawberries I started
my patch thirty inches by twelve inches, let them remain two years, and
then practiced the renewal system and I like it.

Mr. Scofield — I move we adjourn. Motion carried.

SECOND DAY.

MORNING SESSION.

President Starr in the chair. Meeting opened with prayer by
Rev. I. S. Mahan.

The Secretary exhibited a volume of colored plates of Fruits and
Flowers, which had just come to his hand as a present to the Society,
from the artist, Mr. William H. Prestelle, of Bloomington, 111.

On motion of Mr. Earlc the thanks of the Society were unanimously
given to Mr. Prestelle for his beautiful present.

The regular order of business was taken up.

The President calling for Mr. Daggy's report, Mr. Elias Daggy,
Vice-President in the Fourth District, then presented the following

REPORT OF THE FOURTH HORTICULTURAL DISTRICT.

Mr. President and Gentlemen :

I have endeavored to act upon the suggestions made at our last
meeting, on the subject of condensing reports as far as may be possible
not to destroy their value.

I am compelled however to re))ort each county independently — in-
stead of giving a synopsis of the various subjects reported upon — on
account of the tardiness of correspondents, as most of the counties still
remain to be heard from.

g4 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Mr. Francis, of Sangamon, reports the fruit crop too large to be
appreciated.

"Arri-KS ripened prematurely, and the trees were affected by leaf-blight to some ex-
tent ; while the early peaches were badly injured by the curculio.

TilK Pi.i'M crop was also heavy where protected from curculio. but badly damaged
by a kind of blight or rust.

The Lawton Blackberry was winter- (or rather perhaps) summer-killed while
the Kittatinny bore a good crop and commanded a high price.

He also states that insects were quite abundant, but the fruit crop was so very
large that their depredations were scarcely observed — was not successful with Wier's
moth trap on a limited trial— and thinks the apple bin the best moth trap of which he
has any knowledge."

Mr. Capps, of Logan, thinks that success depends upon the adapt-
ation of varieties to soil and climate, and attaches very little importance
to protection by timber-belts. He mentions Early Harvest, Carolma
June, Summer Rose, Keswick Codling, Sops of Wine, Red Astrachan,
Pomme Royal, Maiden's Blush, Rambo, Aut. Strawberry, Snow. Fal-
Pippin, Mother. Rawles' Janet, Domine. Ladies' Sweet, Winesap, Jon-
athan, Smith's Cider, Fulton, Wagoner, Ben Davis, Newtown Pippin. Mi-
lam, and Willow, as twenty-five favorites out of one hundred and sixty
sorts fruited on prairie loam.

The most successful pears are Bartlett and Flemish Beauty, as
standards, and Belle Lucrative, Duchess De Angouleme, and Seckel, as
dwarfs — out of more than fifty sorts fruited.

Thinks heavy mulching or red clover better than clean culture for
the orchard, and especially for the pear orchard.

Early peaches rotted badly, but the crop was heavy.

He introduced the " Alexander " as a new seedling having ripened
as early as the i8th of July — three weeks before Hale's Early, and pos-
sessing the rare qualities of extra earliness, attractive appearance, pleas-
ant smell and agreeable taste.

The sweet cherries were a failure generally, while the Early May,
English Morello, and May Duke, produced good crops; but the plums
are all given up to the curculio.

Ealy Golden Apricots abundant — but it is useless to waste time
with Nectarines.

f^uinces produced a moderate crop.

Concord and Hartford grapes did well but some twenty other sorts
failed on account of unhealthy foliage.

Wilson and Green Prolific, our best strawberries, but the crop was
short this year.

Lawton, winter-killed. Kittatinny, more hardy. Doolittle, Miami,
and Philadelphia raspberries have proven the best.

l>ess damage done by insects than for some years past. Codling
Moth scarce.

Have had three dry summers in succession.

STATE IIORTICULTURAI, SOCIETY. g5

Mr. H. T- Dunlap, of Champaign, reports another very dry sea-
son, yet an abundant fruit cro]) excci)t S/nni'/'rrr/rs which were damaged
by the jjrevious season's tlrouth, and grubs, both white and brown.

Cunanls and Gooseberries plentiful but not jirofitable as a market
fruit.

Of Raspberries, he mentions Davidson's 'rhornless as early, Doolit-
tle for (piality, and Miami for late crop.

Blackberries, badly damaged by drouth.

drapes produced a heavy crop, suffering but little from insects; the
Concord still holds its position as a favorite.

I"'arly May Cherries i)roduced a half crop; Late Richmond and
English Morello good crops — while other varieties produced only enough
to entice tJie birds and ants.

Quinces |)roduced a i)artial croj).

Peaches plenty, as well as curculios. Hale's Early rotted as usual,
while Early York, Early and late Crawfords, and Honest John ripened
well.

/'ears were abundant, of leading varieties — without damage from
blight.

Apples, abundant with an e.xcess of summer varieties, while good
keeping varieties are demanded — especially a good sweet apple. If I
had Doctor, Professor, or Judge before my name I might venture a sug-
gestion to fill this demand.

Mr. Mr.RioN DuNi,.Ar', of Ford County, says their orchards are
young in his county, but the Northern Spy and Prior's Red are fiworites,
while the .V//^';i' is superceding the i'i'^/w^^ on account of its great prcj-
ductiveness.

Thinks people buy and [ilanton reputation — without regard to adap-
tation of varieties to soil and climate — and mentions Sops-of- Wine, Stan-
dard, Raivlcs' Janet, Winesap, and Wilhnc, as the very best. He recom-
mends the Osa\:;e Oran^:^c as a windbreak rather than the White WilUnv
—or the sprouting Silver-Poplar — and also the //'////<• ^Af// as a shade and
timber tree.

The Early May is the only reliable Cherry among many sorts
tested.

Of Grapes, the Concord and Clinton have thus far given the best
satisfaction.

The Soft Maples are nearly destroyed by the borers — and although
the Ash Leaf seems to be the < oming tree — people are greatly inclined
to purchase something new if offered under a fascinating name. Thinks
also that if the Transactions of this society could by some means be
placed in the hands of every farmer, the county would be greatly bene-
fited— so say I.

In Douglas county we have had a fine crop of Apples, Pears, and
Peaches, with a good showing of Grapes and Raspberries, while Strawber-
ries and Hlaeklh'rries were nearly a failure, and Cherries were unusu-
allv scattering. •

66 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Insects were less injurious this season than usual, or rather, the
crop was too much for them.

Tree planting has not been very successful for two years on account
of the drouth. The borers are not satisfied with the Silver Maple but
have attacked the 7\sh Leaf also.

I have received reports from the four counties above named which
are only one fourth of the district exclusive of my own county.

While I regret that so few correspondents reported, I am inclined to
the belief that they are a fair indication of the condition oi the whole
district and you are relieved from the great addition they would have
made to my report, which is already long enough.

Very respectfully,

E. Daggy.
DISCUSSION UPON APPLES.

The President — The first branch upon this subject as laid down
in the programme is Nursery Culture.

Mr. Daggy — While others are getting ready to speak, I wish to
say that most customers who come to our nurseries, choose trees by
their appearance above ground ; they want large trees. I think it is a
grand mistake, and sometimes a fatal mistake. These trees have not
been root-pruned, or transplanted, for we cannot afford to grow trees to
the size that is wanted, and give them the treatment that they should
receive. The roots of nursery trees are more important than the tops,
and the former should be increased rather than the latter. But we can't
get the people to take small trees. If you keep trees on hand, they should
be root-pruned ; which increases the numbers of small roots and at the
same time checks the growth of the tops, so they do not appear as thrifty,
and hence we can't get customers to take them.

My attention was recently particularly called to this : a man who
is one of the best tree growers in the county, who knows but a few vari-
eties, but grows fine fruits, came to buy trees. I showed him my root-
pruned trees, but could not get his attention to them, until I had taken
them up and showed him their roots.

But we can't afford to transplant large trees, and sell them at the
price demanded. I cannot afford it. I would like to hear from others
on this point.

Dr. Humphrey — I would ask Mr. Daggy if he would not like to
have his customers go through his nursery and pick out all the big trees.'

Mr. Daggy — Oh yes. I am always glad to see them do this. My
point is, we can't afford to grow trees four or five years old, and then
sell them at the sajne price as younger trees with equally large tops but
less roots.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIFTV.

67

Dr. Humphrey — T think it is the experience of all intelligent fruit
growers that trees not more than three years old make the best growth
in the orchard. I believe that two years old trees are the very best size
and age for setting, and I believe that in seven or eight years they will
be from one-half to two-thirds larger than trees that were four or five
years old when set.

Mr. Daggv — I have noticed that this recommending young trees
is generally regarded as a kind of trick of the nurseryman to get off
his stock, (I don't know but it is a trick,) and the idea of going upon the
prairies and planting little switches seems to many preposterous. But
we have tried it. and can testify that it can be done successfully.

Mr. Vickrov, orchardist and gardener for the vState Industrial Uni-
versity, presented the following statements of experiments at that Insti-
tution.

REPORT OF EXPERIMENTAL GRAFTS FOR i87i-'72.

Variety.

Cut of Cion.

CutofR't.

Average
Growthl871.

Average
Giowthl872.

Per rt.
Living,

Per ct.
Living,

Rem'Ks.

F««t. Ui.-h»..

r.«.

In'h*s.

i»;i.

lf-72.

Ben Davis

I

I

I

3

3

8

90

70

IH

2

I

9

3

I

70

40

ill

3

I

8

3

4

80

50

4

I

I

7

3

7

60

40

^lif

I

2

I

3

3

70

20

II 1;

2

2

I

4

3

6

80

10

s-g^i

3

2

8

3"

r^-1

I

3

9

3

4

30

20

n^f

2

3

10

2

5

40

40

^115

3

3

10

3

5

70

20

rsSr

4

3

7

40

3: S- t Oi*

I

4

12

2

5

30

10

-.•?"3

2

4

3

4

12

I

9

40

10

S t •» s

4

1

8

2

2

20

10

r.- ■? 3

6 inch Root.

I

1

11

3

II

80

80

6 inch Root.

2

8

3

I

50

40

2.3 ^'^-

4 inch Root.

I

I

4

3

6

80

70

?r-^

4 inch R'jot.

2

I

7

3

3

70

60

2^ inch Root.

I

I

7

2

10

60

60

'? s.

2I inch Roof.

2

9

3

20

10

i"^5-

2j inch Root.

3

9

2

II

10

10

zsi.

2\ inch Root.

4

I

I

4

2

30

10

ili inch Root.

1

I

9

3

II

30

30

^^

1% inch Root.

2

T

II

4

2 1

10

10

0 J*o

iJ^ inch Root.

3

r

I

3

5

40

30

s?"-

iH inch Root.

4

I

5

2

7

30

20

Hs

2^a inch Root.

1 cut Inverted.

I

3

3

2

30

10

'si

2V3 inch Root.

Cdcntlnvorted

' I

2

3

I

60

40

-s «* a*

Rool 6 times larger tli'nCion

1st

I

10

3

5

80

80

?h;

'Root 4 limes larger Ui'DCion

1st

I

7

3

7 1

70

70

f-fl

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

REPORT OF EXPERIMENTAL.GRAFTS FOR 1872.

Variety.

Cut of Cion.

Cut of R't.

Average
Growth.

Fmi. IncbM.

^ct.
Liv'g

Remarks.

Ben Davis

I

I

II

70

2

I

II

80

3

I

8

50

I

2

9

70

2

2

8

90

3

2

10

60

I

3

7

60

2

3

6

80

3

3

Land was low and they

6 inch Root.

I

0

6

70

drowned out.

6 inch Root.

2

2

I

100

4 inch Root.

I

2

I

90

4 inch Root.

2

2

60

2i inch Root.

I

2

80

2I inch Root.

2

I

10

60

il inch Root.

I

I

11

So

i' inch Root.

2

I

7

40

Root 3 limes larger tl'nCicn

I

2

5

70

!Root same size ol Cion.

I

I

10

80

Stark,

Dressmg witti M wax.

I

II

68

"

iDressingwilli warm wax,

I

8

88

tt

iBressing Willi medium wax

2

56

Number one to nineten inclusive, ten grafts of each, grafted Feb.
first, eighteen seventy-two, using warm wax for dressing the joints, and
packing them in sawdust until planted, April twenty-sixth, eighteen sev-
enty-two. They were all planted at the same time and received the
same care and attention. The roots were cut in pieces three and a half
inches long and cion five inches. First cut of cion is the butt, the sec-
ond next to it, and the third the one with the terminal bud on it. The
first cut of root is the collar cut. C)ur roots were not long enough to
make a fourth cut as we did last year.

There were of Nos. twenty, twenty-one, and twenty-two, twenty-five
grafts each. These were grafted to see how hot we could use the wax
and not injure them. The hot wax would run like water and burn the
hand if touched to it; the warm wax was a little thicker but would burn
the hand if held in it a second or two; the medium wax would not make
any rattling noise when a spoonful was taken up out of the bucket and
dropped into it again. When the wax will not make any rattling noise
when dropped into the bucket, you need not be afraid of its doing any
injury. You will see by the record we had about as good success with
the hot wax as we did with the medium warm. The advantage of using
the wax hot or warm is that it takes only about one fifth the wax.

We use a two quart tin bucket — for the wax — fixed on a frame so
we can set a kerosene lam]) under it, and in this way we can keep the
wax about the right temperature. We use a wooden spoon — which- a
man can make in fifteen or twenty minutes — about one and a half inches
wide, with notches cut across at the handle, wide enough to receive the

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. (39

graft. Then let the handle of the spoon rest on the side of the bucket —
using the bucket as a fulcrum — and by the time the spoon is raised as high
■as the level of the bucket, the wax will begin to run out at the notches,
when we turn the graft in once, having a box of sawdust or sand at
hand, we give it a turn in it to prevent them from sticking together, and the
work is done. We can dress them in this way two or three times as fast
as tying with thread, and we get an air- and water-tight joint. In getting ,
an air-tight joint we need not plant them so deep and use shorter roots
which seem to do about as well as long ones.

We observed this year where grafts were planted shallow they start-
ed growing sooner in the spring and made a better growth than where
they were planted deep.

We prepared most all our ground by subsoiling fourteen inches.
Then we ])repared some by common plowing, six inches deej), and on
the common plowing they have done just as well as those on the sub-
soiled ground.

As the ground is prepared for planting, I would lay the land off in
blocks, planting the winter, fall, and summer varieties in blocks by them-
selves, leaving avenues crossing the blocks between the winter, summer
and fall apples for driving teams thfough to get the trees when dug.

For marking off the ground for jilanting we use a line stretched
across the piece to be planted, using a pair of wooden wheels, say one
and a half to two feet in diameter and two or three inches thick with
cleats screwed on the rim the distance apart you want the trees to stand
in the rows. These wheels are put on to an axletree four feet long, with
holes in it so we can slip the wheels and make them any width. We
have a tongue attached to this axle, so we can draw it along with one
wheel on the line. In this way we mark two rows at a time, and space
grafts at the same time. Respectfully,

H. K. ViCKROY.
DISCUSSION ON GRAFTING.

Mr. Clayton — What was the per cent, of the grafts that lived on
the whole.

Mr. Vickroy — I should think about fifty or sixty per cent.

Mr. Douglass — What was the cause of the loss ?

Mr. Vickroy — I think the cause in great part was the dry weather.

Nelson — How long were the cions used ?

Mr. Vickroy — From three to four inches.

Mr. Phenix — You did not try planting at different depths.'

Mk. Vickroy — Yes, and found that shallow setting did best this year.

The President — Gentlemen will understand that this year the
loss in budding and grafting ha^ been greater than usual, from some
cause.

70 TJiANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Mr. W'lER— 1 have had some experience in grafting, and as for this
waxing, it is only of use in holding or strengthening the grafted parts
while handling. I have had just as good success without as with waxing.

Mr. Net.son — In regard to this waxing, I think it excludes the air
too nuuh. 1 have had the best success without waxing, only tying. I
think this is all that is necessary, if the root is large enough.

Mr. Flagg — What do you mean by excluding the air. Is not ab-
solute exclusion of air the best thing.-*

Mr. Nelson — It never succeeds so well with me.

Mr. Baldwin of LaSalle — The exclusion of the air where the graft
has been cut is all well enough, but if you in any way stop the pores of
a tree you injure it. If you varnish it all over, you kill it. I have used
wax, and I have used waxed thread. I prefer tying with sot't thread,
and if the grafted part is put below the ground, it is all sufficient.

Mr. Clayton — It is a physiological law in the process of healing,
that the air should be excluded from th^ wound. Is not this the law in
grafting .-*

Mr. Baldwin, of LaSalle — It is well to exclude the air where the
cut is made, which is sutticiently done by putting it under ground, but
it is not necessary to exclude air from the part above ground. This
would be injurious.

Mr. Douglass — My experience is that of Mr. Baldwin.

I have used waxed paper, but now use only the waxed thread ; it
answers every purpose, and does just as well as any other way. It is
only needed to strengthen the graft while handling. I think now, nearly
all the large nursery men have adopted the waxed thread as the best
method. It is cheaply and easily made. I take balls of cotton yarn
and throw them into a kettle of wax, and then lay theija on a rack to
drain.

Mr. Flagg — What is the composition of your wax .-*

Mr. Douglass — I shall have to answer as the good cook answered
when inquiry was made how she made her nice pudding. She said: I

take a little flour, a piece of butter, and some rasins, and [laughter].

That is about the way I make my wax : I take some rosin, a piece of
tallow, and some beeswax, and melt them together.

Mr. Baldwin, of LaSalle — The following proportion makes a good
mixture : three parts rosin, two parts beeswax, and one part tallow.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 7J[

Mr. Nelson — I use in place of tallow, linseed oil. I think it is
better. The wax works better.

Mr. Coopkr — I would infer from the remarks here made, as well as
from my own observation, that the object in wrapping is to hold the graft
in its place, and cover the cul portion, and that is all that is necessary.

Mr. Phenix — Not only in reference to grafting but also to budding^
we hear it said it is necessary to exclude the air. We do not find this
necessary at all. ^\'e make no attempt to wrap the bud air-tight; we tie
with cotton string and do not care to exclude the air. We think this
practice cheaper and pleasanter. The old practice of waxing is a te-
dious and miserable process. 1 have seen buds set even without tying*
but 1 do not recommend it.

Mr. D.\ggv — I am satisfied that notion of excluding the air is a
kind of delusion. It is not necessary.

Dr. Humphrey — If you have a small cion and small root you must
tie ; a large root does not need tying.

Mr. Nelson — I have tried some experiments in this thing of fitting.
The graft will often grow without fitting the barks of root and cion as
generally recommended. I have taken pains not to have them fit, and
have had them grow, and you will find where you examine a package of
grafts, that many of them do not fit, and yet the most of ihese grow.
But I do not recommend this kind of practice.

Mr. Galusha — It is well known that the cirulation of sap is be-
tween the bark and the wood, and if the joining is close and neat, the
cion and root will unite readily and in a short time; but if the barks of
the root and cion do not coincide at any point, they will still unite, after
a time, provided these parts are not So far apart as to be beyond the
reach of the granulations which are formed on both cion and root in the
process of cicatrizing, for whenever they meet, the union is soon effected.
These granulations — except in very strong roots and cions — rarely extend
more than the sixteenth of an inch, either way, from the inner bark.

But I suggest whether we are not losing sight of the points that it
was intended should be discussed. I know that, in getting up this pro-
gramme, the design was to have such parts of this subject discussed as
would show how to propagate and grow nursery stock so as to produce
the best orchard trees; I think we should not lose sight of this in this
discussion.

72 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Mr. Wikr — Gentlemen here lay great stress upon having the bark
in grafting meet. Now, I assert to the contrary. I know that the union
will take place, even if the separation is a quarter of an inch, and another
thing, it does not make any difference which end is up.

Mr. Douglass — Does it make any difference in the planting? —
[laughter.] In regard to the budding, I have seen Mr. Phenix's work,
and can testify that the wrapping with string seems entirely satisfactory.
It is my practice, also.

The President — The practice in Alton is to use cotton string,
waxed.

Mr. Freeman — Woolen yarn is better than thread.

Mr. Nelson — I used to be foolish enough to believe that if I did
not have the bud covered up, it would not grow. Now, I want nothing
better than an old sock that I can ravel out and tie up my buds. They
need no other covering.

Mr. Miller — I would like to have an opinion as to the best length
of roots in grafting. I wish Mr. Phenix would give us some light upon
the subject.

Mr. Phenix — It is rather my opinion that a section two or three
inches long, of a good root, is about as good as a longer root — though
perhaps a six inch root would give greater growth the first season under
favorable circumstances. The late Mr. Overman used roots about two
and a half inches long and would not admit that longer roots were any
better.

Mr. Nelson — I have made some experiments in regard to ascertain-
ing what is the proper length for roots, and have settled down upon
two to two and a half inches.

DISCUSSION ON PRUNING.

Mr. Phenix — When is the best time to prune ?

Mr. Flagg — What do you think, Mr. Phenix.'

Mr. Phenix — I am getting into the notion that fall pruning is best.
September is as good a time as any ; all things considered, it is perhaps
the best time.

Mr. Essex — After the leaves fall, then prune.

Mr. Flagg — Must we wait till the leaves fall ?

Mr. Phenix — I think, if I had my choice, i would begin to prune
the last of August. I know some persons who prune in February, with

StAtfe HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. 'J'3

success, and the fact is, if your trees are in good, healthy condition and
all right, you can prune at all times, except in the dead of winter.

Mr. Flagg — I saw the statement, made in the Alton Horticultural
Society, that pruning in frozen weather did not injure the tree, and that
apple grafts, cut when frozen, came out all right. What do you think
of it ?

Mr. Phenix — 1 know this, we very frequently cut cions in tiie win-
ter, but I would not like to cut very close to the tree in frozen weather,
but would trim to a long stump, and finish up in the spring.

Mr. Scofield — My experience has been that June pruning is the
best for nursery stock. i

Mr. Galusha — Mr. President — One imiwrtant object which the
nurseryman should have in view, in pruning his trees, is to so prune as
to avoid forks and double headed trees. There should be only one
leading stem. If other strong branches put forth, threatening to destroy
the shape and unity of the tree, I do not out them entirely away, but
cripple them — by cutting them back — and thus encouraging the main
shoot; and in this way get a good tree for the orchard ; one that will not
split down. I would refer to the Ben Davis tree, as a model nursery
tree. Get your trees as near the natural shape of the Ben Davis as you
can.

Mr. Scofield — Have you any experience in June pruning.'

Mr. Galusha — Yes, I have; I would not like to tell all my experi-
ence here. It is my opinion that the best time for summer-pruning is
just at the time the terminal bud is forming.

Mr. Earle — Are you speaking of pruning nursery stock, or orch-
ard trees .?

Mr. Galusha — I am speaking of nursery trees.

Mr. Phenix — The perfect, model tree is to be made at two years
old.

The President — "As the twig is bent the tree's inclined."
Voice — At what height would you top, or cut back your tree.''
Mr. Phen'ix^I would make heads little higher than I used to, but
vary the height according to the habit of the growth of the tree.

But about your model trees, that you talk about. I think gentle-
men will find that there are some varieties, the Primate, for exami)le, and
Rhode Island Greening and some others, that all their cutting back and

74 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

coaxing will not straighten. I do not like to sell crooked trees, but you
take such varieties as 1 have mentioned and you cannot help yourself;
they won't grow straight. Another crooked grower is the Stannard — Mr.
Dunlap's tree — It is a perfect abomination to the nurseryman.

Mr. M. L. Dunlap — It wants a little moral suasion and cutting back
to bring it into shape.

It is a remedy for the crooked growing varieties to cut them back
near the ground at one year old. I know a man who adopts this prac-
tice upon all his trees, with good results.

DISCUSSION ON ORCHARD CULTURE.
The Secretary — I would like to hear from Judge Baldwin upon
the subject of Orchard Culture.

Mr. Baldwin, La Salle Co. — I do not know that I can impart
any light upon this subject. If 1 were going to cultivate trees for my-
self, I would like to begin in the nursery, where I would plant them
about one foot apart, and let them grow till the third year, when I would
transfer to the orchard, setting the trees twenty feet apart, so that the
trees might occupy the ground and shade each other. I would cul-
tivate for five or six years, until they came into bearing. Perhaps, heavy
mulching would do as well but I prefer the cultivation. I would
not seed to grass, especially at this early age, for I am convinced that a
crop of grass in a young orchard is injurious.

After the trees have grown so as to shade the ground, I would
seed to clover, and plow up every few years ; a little barnyard manure
will not hurt them. I would prune sparingly till they come into bearing.

Mr. Miller, Iowa — Have you ever seen an orchard where the
trees were set ten feet apart 1

Mr. Baldwin — Yes, I have, and never saw a better.

Mr. Miller — Have you ever seen them planted thirty feet apart }

Mr. Baldwin — Yes, and they were more affected with drouth.
My first planting of an orchard was thirty feet apart.

Mr. Cooper — I will relate my experience. In the year 1856 I set
an orchard on my farm in Iowa, the trees sixteen feet apart, and trained
them low ; I cultivated the ground in vegetables and small fruits, such
as would not be in the way of the trees, being careful to keep the plow
from breaking the roots; I cultivated in this way for a few years, until
they shaded the ground, when they were able to take care of themselves,
with the exception of running the cultivator to keep down the weeds.

STATE HORTICULTURAL .SOCIETV. Y6

In six years after I planted this orchard I left the farm ; last fall
I went back there, and learned that this orchard was the most success-
ful of any in the country ; the trees completely covered the ground and
were annually loaded with fruit.

Dr. Hooton — I would like to hear from Mr. Flagg.

Mk. Flagg — I do not know that I can say anything new, or par-
ticularly instructive.

I have trees that were planted in 1822, and 1 have trees that were

planted last year; and between these dates many plantings have been
made, as in 1842, 1857, and 1858.

The first orchard that I planted, I put the trees forty feet apart.
My next planting was thirty-two feet apart, which I think is a very good
distance — for our latitude. But, perhaps, there is too much waste of
land, at this distance, when the orchard is young. The pruning in my
earlier orchards was not well done. Crotches were allowed to form,
making hollow and rotten places in the trees, and often causing them to
break down. In my later practice 1 f)rune to one stem with lateral
branches; this, I believe, is Mr. Galusha's plan.

In my orchards planted forty feet apart, 1 filled up with peach
trees — planted half way between. So I have stated, in my old orchards
I did not prune enough ; indeed, I did not prune at all, till I was obliged
to, then 1 found I had to cut off great iogs of wood, which could only be
the least of two evils. I do not approve of the low-head plan, because it
makes too much dead air in the orchard, inducing fungus and blotches on
the fruit. I find that the lower limbs do not ripen their fruit well. So
that 1 am inclined to think that we do not want low-headed trees,
especially if closely planted ; I prune the stems to three or four feet.

I have recently planted one orchard sixteen and one-half feet
apart, and another, for experimental orchard, I have set ten feet apart.

I do not expect any good result from the trees set ten feet apart,
but for some varieties, as the Benoni, I do not think sixteen and one-
half feet is too close — in case the trees interfere, a part can be cut out. In
an orchard I think it is best to grow trees and nothing else.

It is my opinion — and this is the point I make — that you must keep
a good circulation of air under the trees to have the best results.

I)k. Humphrey — 1 think it is important to set apple trees so that
the feet are dry. I think orchard trees are often lost for want of this.
If the ground is level, and the tree is set without special preparation
upon the level surface, the roots must stand in water much of the time.

fJQ TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

When I set trees upon level ground, which I have done, I plow In
lands so as to raise the roots of the trees at least six inches above the
general level, and for ten feet from the tree on each side. In this way,
I have excellent results, because the roots stand above Avater. I have
set two rows of apple trees ten feet apart, to serve as a wind break, and
on these trees I have, for five years past, had more fruit than from trees
set twenty feet apart. I have noticed the same advantage in close plant-
ing in other instances.

Mr. Galusha — I once saw an old orchard, near Mt Vernon, 111.
that had been planted about twelve feet apart ; and it looked like a
grove of timber — a forest. The fruit was so far skyward that it was
not worth gathering. If gentlemen will plant forest-orchards, they will
have forest trees.

Dr. Humphrey — I will say, these trees of which I speak are head-
ed back, and not allowed to run up.

Mr. Flagg — I would like to call out Mr. Bryant, Jr., upon the sub-
ject of orchards protected by forest trees. I wish to know if his own
orchard which is surrounded by forest trees, continues to bear Avell 1

Mr. Bryant, Jr. — I would say, it is one of the best orchards I
know, it bears good crops, but the timber which formerly surrounded it
has been cut off. In regard to this matter of close planting, I may say
that we have another orchard planted, one hundred trees to the acre,
(about twenty feet apart) and the trees are too thick ; the most of the
fruit upon the lower branches is inferior to that in the tops of the trees
where the sunlight can strike them. The trees have not been shortened
back, as Dr. Humphrey suggests.

This discussion was ended here, by general consent, and the subject
next in order was taken up.

DISCUSSION ON NEW VARIETIES OF APPLES.

Mr. Flagg — There is one apple to which I would like to call your
attention, that promises to be a valuable variety; I gave a drawing of
it recently in the Prairie Farmer — The apple is called Peak's Fall, and
comes from North Carolina. It is evidently a seedling of Rawles Janet ;
it has the color, size, texture, and pretty nearly the taste of the Janet
and has the same persistency to hang on the tree. It seems to me,
from what I have seen of it, that it promises to be a valuable variety
for early winter use. With us, it would probably ripen in December; I

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 77

have not observed whether it is a late bloomer. T will be happy to fur-
nish any of the members of this Society with cions, wlio wish to try it.

Dk. HooTON — 1 have here two specimens of apples, that were
grown in my orchard. I would like to know if they are new or old
varieties. One (jf them is now out of season, the other will keep till
spring.

Mk. Fi..\go — One of the varieties looks very much like the Penn-
sylvania Red Streak.

TiiK President — They should go into the hands of the Commit-
tee on Fruits.

Mu. Flagg — I want to call attention to another apple — The
Bonam of N. Carolina. Mr. Downing mentioned it to me as one of the
best southern apples ; it is a fruitful tree, and the apple of good quality,
and I think promises fair. T will be glad to furnish cions to all who
may desire to have them.

Dk. Humphrey — I would speak of the Ben Davis as one of our
best apples. The tree has excellent qualities, and the fruit is beautiful
and quality fair. I thjnk if the Ben Davis is planted on high dry soil,
and well cultivated, it will give most excellent returns.

Mr. H.v.m.moni) — I have an apple here — a seedling — for which I
would be glad to have a name suggested. I have only one tree of it,
which is an annual bearer,and from it I have taken twenty-five bushels of
apples in one season.

Mr. Phkxix — I would like to ask if any one has fruited the
Huntsman's Favorite .-*

President Starr — I have fruited it. The apple resembles the
Fulton; it is a large and showy apple, that originated in Missouri.
It does not keep well witli nic, and worst of all, it drops from the tree
before its time.

.Mr. Wkiister — 1 have an apple here that was taken from the
nursery, which I submit to the Committee for examination.

Mr. (Ialusha — Spoke of the Fulton as one of our best dessert
api)les. It will keep till January.

Mr. Phknix — I think it is a seedling from the Rambo.

Mr. Fi.agg — I would ask about the Grimes' Golden. Is it to be
recommended .'

Mr. Phinney — I cannot recommend it ; the fruit drops from the
tree, \\ill keep till January when you get it.

78 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Mr. Hammond — T have had this apple in bearing for three years,
and with me they drop from the tree.

Mr. Nelson — I have had this apple in bearing, and have noticed
this disposition to drop from the tree, and I came to the conclusion
that it was an early fall apple. Recently the trees split and broke
down, and I was not sorry — I don't like it.

Mr. Phenix — I would like to ask about the Stark. What is its
reputation .'

Mr. Webster — With me this apple rots badly, and I have no
specimens left.

Mr. Polk — They dropped this year. The apple is good, and the
tree is a good grower, and until this year, they have succeeded well
with me.

Voice — They are better than Willow Twig.

Mr. Polk — Yes, they are better than the Willow Twig, and I do
not know why they did not succeed better this year.

Mr. Flagg — I want to have some expression in regard to an apple
that was named in honor of one of our members, called the Nelson.
It is a seedling of Tolman Sweet, and I would like to have Mr. Nelson
tell us more about it.

Mr. Nelson — The apple did not originate with me. I came
across the apple, and presented it to the Horticultural Society at Cham-
paign. I think it is evidently a seedling of the Tolman Sweet — fully as
good as that variety, and its keeping qualities make it a very desirable
apple ; it has been kept till the fall of the succeeding year. About the
middle of May the apples begin to turn yellow, and some of them have
a little blush on one side ; they make excellent pies, and bake well.
The man who had the apple told me that he was in the habit, every
year, of putting them up and keeping them till June, and that he had
kept them in a sound condition till September of the next year. I saw
some of the apples that had been kept till this time, and could not tell
but they were sound enough to run another year. The tree is hardy ; is
inclined to form a high top, and when in bearing it weeps over like a
weeping willow ; it is an early bearer. The tree was brought from
Edgar County, and planted when four years old ; bore a crop the second
year after planting, and has borne every year since.

I will send cions of this variety to any member who wishes to
progagate it.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 79

Mr. Francis — It is said that an application of charcoal about
the roots of flowering shrubs imparts a brighter red color to the flowers.
I used it about apple trees, bearing red apples, but cannot see that it
affects the color of the fruit.

Dr. Humphrfv — I have used ashes about the roots of apple trees
with excellent. results, both in quantity and <|ua]ity of the fruit.

Mr. Buck — I wish to caution members about using ashes ; a little
may do good, but too much will take the acid out of the fruit and make
it insipid. (.') Ed.

Mr. Baldwin, La Salle — I have noticed that a long drouth affects
fruit, in ripening it prematurely, causing it to drop — nearly all varieties
of apples drop this year, more than usual.

Dr. Hooton — Exhibited two apples — both called Rawles' Janets,
which are really two distinct varieties.

The trees look alike, and the fruit is almost indentical, except in
size. This difference in size is radical and permanent.

Messrs. Dunlap and Nelson — Testified to the fact that they had
both the Big and Little Janets, as they are called, and that there were
two varieties of Rawles' Janets.

Mr. Dunlap — I wish to speak of another thing. We have grafted
the apple, and grown them, and now we want something to put them in,
and I present this box, as the most convenient thing that I can use.

[ Mr. D. here exhibited a box for gathering and marketing
apples ; consisting of heads — ends — and lath sides and bottom.] Ed.

Mr. Flagg — Ho\T much will it hold.'

Mr. Dunlap — Just one bushel. It is twelve inches high, fourteen
inches wide, and seventeen inches long. Thirty-six of these boxes
made a two-horse wagon load. They arc more convenient than baskets,
and cheaper. I have no doubt we have saved in labor this year the
cost of the boxes.

Mr. FlagG' — What is the cost of the boxes.'

Mr. Dunlap — About twenty cents each. We take stock boards,
and have a machine that will cut out the heading — say forty pairs an
hour. — They charge seventy-five cents an hour for the work ; this, with
the price of the lath and labor of making, brings the cost to about
twenty cents.

The Society adjourned until two o'clock.

80 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

SECOND DAY.

AFTERNOON SESSION.
The Society reassembled and business was resumed at two o'clock.
The President announced the business first in order to be the
continuation of reports from Standing Committees, and called for report
on Vegetable Gardening.

Mr. Hay from the Committee, reported the following :
VEGETABLE GARDENING.

In the cultivation of vegetables, as in all other pursuits, the largest
possible returns for the amount of money and labor expended is the ob-
ject always sought to be obtained; not always the greatest number of
pounds per acre or rod, as is generally the case in growing root crops
for stock, but the greatest amount of rich, wholesome, nutritious, veg-
etable food for the family or market as the case may be.

Different cultivators often adopt different methods for securing the
same results ; for instance one man may plow deeply and cultivate often
for the purpose of securing his crop from the evil effects of drought,
while another, with the same object in view, may practice a system di-
rectly the reverse of this, and each will support his own method with
argument and often facts that appear almost conclusive. But the point
I wish to make is this : that, if farmers and the heads of families gen-
erally could be made to understand that to be successful in the culti-
vation of any or all of our common vegetables, it is not particularly
necessary to follow the directions of any expert, there might be at least
a possibility of some of our most valuable vegetables that are now to be
found only in market, coming into more common use.

It is a well attested fact that the earlier any vegetable arrives at
natural maturity after the seed has been sown, the better, sweeter, and
more nutritious it is as an article of food ; and the best and cheapest
method of obtaining this result is the point at which every gardener
should direct all his efforts, even from the time of saving the seed to
the harvesting of the crop.

The earliest ripened beans, peas, peppers, tomatoes, and other veg-
etables are always the largest and best ; and seed saved from them will
in turn produce a much better and earlier crop of its kind than that
from late-ripened, inferior specimens.

As one of the earliest vegetables and one of exceeding great merit,
I would mention

Asparagus — Coming into use as it does soon after the frost leaves
the ground m spring, and furnishing a fresh supply from day to day
until peas Sire ready for the table, it fills a place in the kitchen garden
that could not be occupied by any other vegetable.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ^1

Writers upon the siibjcf t of vegetable gardcnini; tia\c unclouhtcdly
done more to discourage the cultivation of asparagus, among the people
generally, than any other influence I could mention.

The idea of trenching land to the depth of three or four feel and
stuffing it with old hoots, bones, brickbats, etc., is a task too great for
most persons to undertake, and after several years of varied experience
I have found that such a process is not only unnecessary, but is really a
disadvantage to the plant.

A thorough comminution of a well drained, thoroughly cnric lied
soil, to the dej)th of ten inches or a foot is, I believe, the best possible
preparation for an asparagus bed, and may easily be accomplished with
a team and j>lo\v. This much, il ( onvenienl, should be done in the fall
.it which time the plants may be set, or left until spring. If placed five
or six inches below the surface they will, after once eslal)lished, require
little or no winter protection, but a few inches of manure if forked in
before the plants start in spring will be found beneficial. A spring top-'
dressing of salt will also encourage a stronger growth, and if applied in
sufficient quantity will completely eradicate all weeds.

This extra care though not necessary to the production of a re-
spectable crop of asparagus, will always be found a paying investment,
but more especially so if the crop is grown for market.

If planted in rows three feet apart with plants two feet apart in the
row, and well cared for, a bed two rods square will be sufficient for a
family of ten persons. When cultivated for market the returns will be
more satisfactory if planted in rows three feet by four, and cultivated
the sjame as corn, with the addition of a liberal topdressing of strong
manure.

Rf.ans — One great object of a kitchen garden should be \o give to
the familv a succession of vegetables from the earliest ])ossiblc moment
in spring until the season of severe frosts in fall. Therefore the origin-
ator of the potato that arrives at maturity fifteen minutes earlier than
the Early Rose may be justly regarded as a benefactor of his race, and
the one who brought the Early Fejee and Early Rachel beans to the
notice of the public is equally worthy of respect. Either of these vari-
eties with the Early Mohawk and Dun Cranberry, will give a long suc-
cession of excellent string beans. The Fejee is remarkably early, is less
susceptible to injury from cold than the other varieties mentioned, and
is therefore best adapted to early planting.

The Dun Cranberry is very productive, and remains longer in a
green state than either of the other varieties, making it almost a ne-
cessity when once introduced in a garden. As a pole or running
bean, the small lima or Butter bean has given such general satisfaction
thai I try no other. '

Beets — There is probably no vegetable more highly appreciated
than the early beet; and the gardener who can bring them into market
a week in advance of his neighbors may rely upon large sales and ex-
cellent profits. The early Egyptian being of good size and color for

82 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

market, and several days earlier than any other sort, should have a place
in every garden. The Bassano and Philadelphia Extra Early follow the
Egyptian in regard lo season, but their color and manner of growth are
very objectionable and they should not be largely planted. The Blood
Turnip is undoubtedly the best of all for winter use and entirely obvi-
ates the necessity of planting the deep growing sorts.

Cabbages. — In the kitchen garden, where but few cabbages are used,
and two plantings are generally expected to supply the family for the
whole year, much difficulty is usually experienced by the bursting of the .
heads as soon as they arrive at maturity, with often a loss of one-half
the crop ; especially is this the case with the Early York; therefore
where convenient, it should be succeeded by the Jersey Wakefield. I
say where convenient, for the reason that most families depend upon
professional plant-growers for their supply of plants, and the seeds of
the Wakefield costing nearly three times as much as the York, they are
not likely to grow them for market where so few people understand the
difference in the value of the different varieties. Besides being several
days earlier than the York, it has uniformly larger heads and is not so
shamefully addicted to the habit of "going on a bust."

There are many other varieties of early cabbages worthy of culti-
vation, but to extend the list would only serve to perplex the cultivator
and result in no good.

For winter use the Flat Dutch has no equal. Cabbages may be
preserved during the winter by simply throwing in piles and covering
with straw to prevent frequent freezing and thawing.

Corn.— A garden that fails to furnish the family with a full ^ujjply
of green corn for at least three months of summer, falls far short of
accomplishing the good that it ought. The ground u])on which early
corn is grown may, the same season, be made to return another crop of
equally as great value. The Extra Early Dwarf sugar is, 1 believe, the
earliest variety now in cultivation, while the Mexican ranks first in re-
gard to quality.

For late use, Stowell's Evergreen should be planted.

Corn may be started in pots in a hot-bed or green house, and grown
until six or eight inches high and transplanted to the o[)en ground, with
but little trouble, and but a slight check to its growth. With me Greg-
ory's Mammoth proved perfectly worthless the first season. It was its
first and not a very extensive trial. In other localities, or under differ-
ent circumstances, it may do well.

Potatoes. — The great improvement made during the past few years
in the varieties and cultivation of the Irish potato is truly remarkable.
Ten years ago, new potatoes by the fourth of July were considered a
rarity; but by the introduction of the Early Rose, and improved modes
of culture, our markets are now well supplied nearly a month prior to
this.

Experiments made during the past few years prove conclusively to
myself at least, that the nearer potatoes are divided to one eye on apiece,

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. §3

and planted one piece in a place, the more satisfactory will be the re-
turns, and I have adopted the following method of planting and cultiva-
tion as the one requiring the least expenditure of labor and money,
and the most likely to lead to success.

If possible select new or sod land; prepare in the most thorough
manner by frequent plowing and harrowmg; furrow four inches deep,
one wav only, and three feet apart. Drop the seed one piece in a place
—varieties with small growing tops, one foot apart — those of larger
growth from fifteen to eighteen inches — cover with a double shovel plow
going twice to a row, throwing a furrow from each side. This forms a
slight ridge immediately over the seed, and in case of heavy spring rains
(which were quite common a number of years ago), throws the surplus
water between the rows, and if the land is likely to wash, prevents the
seed from being imcovered. Tf weeds should start, or the surface of the
ground become baked, harrow thoroughly both ways; this will extermi-
nate the weeds, pulverize the crust, and allow the air and heat to pen-
etiate to the seed. As often as the ground becomes baked or the weeds
start, the harrowing should be repeated, and may be continued with
profit after the plants have made their aijjjearance above ground. A
five-tooth cultivator will be found an excellent implement and should
be used at least one e each week. The last two plowings are generally
done with a double shovel plow.

As a late potato the Peerless has proved an entire failure ; with me,
it ripens earlier than the Early York, and in one month's time after dig-
ging, is pcrfectlv worthless for the table. It yields enormously, and the
tubers are remarkably tine looking; further than this it does not compare
with the recommendations of the parties introducing it.

SwK.Ki' PoTATOF.s. — In the cultivation of the sweet potatt), I have
found the instructions of many writers upon the subject to be very er-
roneous. Tf the ridge and drill system of planting could be entirely
abandoned, and the plants set in hills about the size and shape of an
inverted bushel basket, more than half the ])lants now used might be
saved tcj the cultivator, and the yield per acre would be much greater,
besides being of better quality and a week or ten days earlier ili;in those
planted in drills.

The rolling, tumbling, twisting, turning, ui)sctting, and caijsi/.ing of
the vines during their growth — a practice so generally recommended by
all writers — is probably the most systematic and effective method yet
discovered for entirelv prohiliiting the formation of potatoes.

It would l)e equally as sensible for an ajiiarian to visit his bees once
or twice per week, and give them a thorough shaking up, when a large
yield of honey was the object aimed at, as for the sweet-potato grower
tf) be continually belaboring his vines when a large crop of potatoes is
the object desired.

The practice of plant growers selecting the smallest, most inferior
potatoes for seed, has been the great cause of so deteriorating the \'el-
low Nansemond that it is not worthy of cultivation ; and the Early Jersey,

84

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

which much resembles the old fashioned Nansemond in shape, color, and
quality, will undoubtedly supersede it; but this also will, in a few years,
have lost all its good ipuilities, and from the same cause.

Peas. — After a thorough trial of many varieties of peas, I have
found that for early table use Carter's First Crop is one of the best. It
is an abundant bearer and requires less care and trouble in sticking than
any of the other very early sorts; and with McLean's Little Cem, sown
every ten days or two weeks for a succession, will give a family a long
supply of the very best peas.

To^^ATOES — Among the new vegetables introduced during the past
few years, the Trophy tomato has been among the most successful in
gaining public favor. Wherever cultivated it has given the greatest sat-
isfaction, both for table use and for market. The vine is a vigorous
grower, capable of carrying an immense amount of fruit, and is much
more hardy than most other varieties.

Manures. — I have said nothing in regard to the use of manures in
connection with the vegetable garden, believing that it is generally un-
derstood that to arrive at anything like perfection in the growing of
vegetables, it is necessary to use it without stint.

For any crop the deep plowing-in of manure as practiced by many
is a mere waste ; in fact, it is simply throwing it away. A stick of wood
buried one foot underground, will undergo less change in five years
than it would in one, if buried only two inches, and the same thing is
true in regard to manure ; if buried a foot or more it Avill be manure fgr
a much longer period than if kept at or near the surface, and so long as
it retains shape and form, it continues plant food that can in no way be
utilized. If it is wanted for the immediate use of growing crops, it
should be applied in a liquid form, and its effects will be visible in twenty-^
four hours.

During the month of March last, I succeeded in growing lettuce
and radishes (in a hot-bed) ready for the table in eighteen days from
the time of sowing the seed. This unusual growth I attribute mainly to
the care taken in the preparation of the soil, and the after use of liquid
manure. The soil, to the depth of six inches, was passed through an
ordinary sand-riddle, and mixed with one-half sand. As soon as the
plants made their appearance, they. were watered with tepid water, im-
pregnated with guano. As often as water was required it was applied in
same manner. At no time were the plants allowed to settle more than
two inches below the glass ; and the result was as above stated.

The destiny of a plant is fixed during the first few weeks of its ex-
istence ; if allowed to suffer and become stunted for want of food during
the early part of its life, it can never recover from it, and the result must
be a vegetable inferior in both quality and size. Therefore the necessity
for the thorough preparation of garden soil before it recei\es the seed,
and the application of the proper stimulants in such a manner that they
may be readily taken up Ijy the tender rootlets, and the plant not allowed
to suffer from starvation at the very period of its life when it most needs
assistance. A. L. Hay,

Gardener for the D. o^ D. Instiluiion, Jacksonville , III

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCltTV. g5

The President — You will now listen to the report wf the Com-
mittee on the Secretary's Report, through its chairman, Dr. Humphrey.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON SECRETARY'S REPORT.

•

Your Committee beg leave to report that we fully endorse the Sec-
retary's report, and recommend its approval by the Society.

We believe that the reorganization of this Society, therein recom-
mended, will secure the best interests of this Society, a just recognition
of local horticultural societies, and, in securing the co-operation of the
State Government, will result' in promoting the best interests of the
State. (Signed)

A. G. Humphrey. )

A. A. HiLLiARD. V Committee,

L. G. Wilcox. )

Mr. Flagg, from the Committee, reported upon ornamental and
timber trees.

REPORT UPON ORNAMENTAL AND TIMBER TREES FOR SOUTHERN

ILLINOIS.

The State of Illinois, according to the estimate made in the Auditor's
office, contains fifty-tive thousand, eight hundred seventy-two square .
miles, or thirty-five million, seven hundred fifty-eight thousand, eighty
acres. According to the census of eighteen hundred seventy, about
five-sevenths of this amount, or twenty-five million, eight hundred
eighty-two thousand, eight hundred sixty-one acres are in farms;
nineteen million, three hundred twenty-nine thousand, nine hun-
dred fifty-two acres being improved; five million, sixty-one thou-
sand, five hundred seventy-eight acres woodland ; and one million
four hundred ninety-one thousand, three hundred thirty-one
acres, " other unimproved "; leaving nine million, eight hundred
seventy-five thousand, nine hundred nineteen acres to be otherwise
accounted for. Assuming the acres of woodland returned with farms
to be all the woodland of the State, we find that about one acre in
seven, or fourteen and one-tenth per cent, of our Prairie State is covered
with trees. Iowa with the same area has only half as much or about
seven per cent, of her area in forests. Wisconsin has ten percent;
Missouri twenty-one per cent ; and Indiana thirty-two per cent. From
this we may argue that our portion of the great Northwest, is not so
much wanting in forests and future limber as is sometimes asserted.

Coming to our own State I have had the curiosity to ascertain the
distribution of forests within its borders, following our Society's division
into Horticultural Districts.

The Fox River District in the northeastern corner of the State with
its twelve counties comprising seven thousand, three hundred fifty-
four square miles, or four million, seven hundred six thousand, five

hundred sixty acres, has two hundred ninety-seven [thousand

1

gg TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

three hundred fifty-three acres of woodland, or about six and three-
tenths per cent, of its surface.

The Rock River District, including the northwestern portion of
the State, has a somewhat larger amount of forest. Its eleven counties,
six thousand, six hundred fifty-two square miles, and four million
two hundred fifty-seven thousand, two hundred eighty acres
contain three hundred seventy-two thousand, seven hundred twenty
acres of woodland, or about eight and seven-tenths per cent.

Taking these two districts together we may say that about seven
and a half acres in every hundred of Northern Illinois lands are wooded.

Coming to Central Illinois, we find the Illinois River region, com-
prising twenty-one counties, eleven thousand, two hundred eighty
square miles, and seven million, two hundred nineteen thousand,
two hundred acres, to have one million, seventy-three thousand, five hun-
dred ninety-three acres of its surface, or about fifteen per cent, cov-
ered with with woodlands.

Going thence eastward into the Grand Prairie District we find its
seventeen counties, twelve thousand ninety-six square miles, or seven
million, seven hundred forty-one thousand, four hundred forty
acres of territory, to have five hundred thirteen thousand, seven hun-
dred and twenty-six acres of woodland, or about six and six-tenths per
cent.

The two districts comprising Central Illinois have therefore an
average supply of ten and eight-tenths per cent, of forests.

Coming down into Egypt we ascertain that the Wabash District,
comprising seventeen counties, seven thousand, eiglit hundred
seventy-four square miles, and five million, thirty-nine thousand, three
hundred sixty acres on the Wabash slope, contains one million, two
hundred sixteen thousand, nine acres of forest, or twenty-four per
cent, of its whole surface.

The Kaskaskia District comprising thirteen counties, six thousand
nine hundred seventy square miles, and four million, four hundred
sixty thousand, eight hundred acres, has nine hundred sixty-four
thousand, six hundred thirty-six acres, or twenty-six and six-tenths
per cent, of woodland.

Whilst the Grand Chain District, comprising the eleven counties
in the e.xtreme southernmost part of the State and having an area of
three thousand, six hundred forty-six square miles, or two million,
three hundred thirty-three thousand, four hundred forty acres,
has six hundred twenty-three thousand, five hundred forty-one
acres, or twenty-one and six-tenths per cent, of woodland.

The forty-one counties of Southern Illinois contain therefore
eighteen thousand, four hundred ninety square miles, or eleven
million, eight hundred thirty-three thousand, six hundred acres, of
which two million, eight hundred four thousand, one hundred
eighty-six acres, or twenty-three and seven-tenths per cent, are covered
with forests.

STAT£ HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV.

87

Placed in tabular form for the reader's eye, the amount and per-
centage of woodland in the districts is as follows :

District No. and Name.

Miles Surface.

Acres Surface.

Acres
Woodland.

297,353

Per cent.
Woodland

I

Fox River,

12

7.354

4,706,560

6.3

2

Rock River,

I I

6,652

4,257,280

372,720

8.7

3

Illinois River,

21

11,280

7,219,200

1,073,593

15.0

4

Grand Prairie,

17

12,096

7,741,440

513,726

6.6

5

Wabash,

17

7,874

5,039,360

1,216,009

24.0

6

Kaskaskia,

13

6,970

4,460,800

964,636

21.6

7

Grand Chain,

1 1

3,646

2,333,440
35,758,080

623,541
5,061,578

26.6

Totals,

102

55,872

14.1

These statistics probably understate the amount of acres in wood-
land. As 1 ha\'e noticed nt-arly ten millions of acres are unaccounted
for. It is probable that out- million of these are in woodland. In the
case of Franklin, Johnson, and ])ro])ably other counties tliere were great
omissions made by the census takers, and it is not likely that the count
was often if ever in excess. On the other hand no doubt much of the
so called woodland had little valuable timber upon it. Much of it was,
no doubt, either young and small or the refuse left by the woodman.
Much of it never was and never will be of value as sawed lumber but
may answer for firewood and posts, and the coarser uses of the farm.

But these figures show our weak side as well as our strength. From
the Galena on the northwest around to Champaign on the east there is
but seven per cent, of timbered land. This is not made good by the
twenty per cent, along the Illinois, Mississippi, and Wabash.

It is only when 1 come down into Egypt and to the proper ground
of this report that I find timber still to spare ; and now that a half-
do/en new railroads are rushing out the great trunks of white oak, and
the nicely cut and sawn i>lanks, timl)er, laths, and heading of tulip
wood, 1 know that the end of good lumber is not far off, even along
the Grand Chain.

As exhibiting the forest wants and resources of the different coun-
ties of the State, I submit a table giving the number of acres of wood-
land to the square mile in each county of the State :

-

Squ're

Acres

.2«

Squ're

Acres

-2i

Miles.

VVoodl'd.

ill
136

Miles.

VVoodl'd.

ill

Adams,

828

112,576

Calhoun,

255

63,443

248

Alexander,

226

17,761

78

Carroll,

446

29,793

67

Bond,

37«

42,613

113

|Cass,

379

33,493

88

Boone,

288

29,886

104

iChampaign,

1,008

16,780

16

Brown,

296

35,491

119 .Christian,

709

19,803

28

Bureau,

867

41,866

48 |Clark,

509

102,201

201

88

TRANSACTIONS OF* THE iLLINOiS

!

Squ're

Acres

* 5 a^

Squ're

Acres

.2*

S as

Miles.
468

VVoodl'd.

do s
IS to

172

Miles.

Woodl'd.

.5 2
» g §

Clay,

80,6x2

Marshall,

387

28,260

73

Clinton,

489

48.868

100

Mason,

560

31,739

57

Coles,

523

45,214

86

Massac,

242

33,396

138

Cook,

982

^9,635

20

McDonough,

576

52,547

91

Crawford,

435

78,350

180

McHenry,

624

53,293

85

Cumberland,

350

40,234

115

McLean,

1,154

40,366

35

DeKalb,

648

17,722

26

Menard,

314

34,931

II I

DeWitt,

405

29,548

73

Mercer,

548

45,977

84

Douglas,

408

11,897

29

Monroe,

381

83,369

219

DuPage,

338

17,243

51

Montgomery,

702

47,804

68

Edgar,

631

66,803

106

Morgan,

564

60,217

107

Edwards,

233

57,585

247

Moultrie,

331

24,783

75

Effingham,

486

56,330

116

Ogle,

758

43>643

58

Fayette,

720

93,460

130

Peoria,

618

48,666

79

Ford,

480

2,996

6

Perry,

444

68,470

154

Franklin,

422

(?) 3,994

Piatt,

442

5,978

14

Fulton,

878

123,823

141

Pike,

795

128,953

162

Gallatin,

326

68,750

211

Pope,

362

87,754

242

Greene,

546

93,242

171

Pulaski,

187

12,516

61

Grundy,

432

6,256

14

Putnam,

168

17,184

102

Hamilton,

431

93,878

218

Randolph,

577

162,274

281

Hancock,

773

43,385

56

Richland,

361

50,618

140

Hardin,

176

44,771

254

Rock Island,

436

3i>239

71

Henderson,

386

34,705

90

Saline,

379

70,393

186

Henry,

828

12,620

15

Sangamon,

868

5i>o85

59

Iroquois,

1,132

22,478

20

Schuyler,

426

62,477

147

Jackson,

582

87,642

151

Scott,

251

44,633

178

jasper,

506

67,023

132

Shelby,

776

74,908

96

Jefferson,

574

94,888

165

Stark,

288

12,375

43

Jersey,

365

51,427

141

St. Clair,

665

76,591

115

fo Daviess,

609

82,076

102

Stephenson,

567

43,167

76

Johnson,

336

(?) 3

Tazewell,

626

45,268

72

Kane,

540

34,646

64

Union,

398

83,606

210

Kankakee,

696

10,978

16

Vermillion,

1, 008

53.078

53

Kendall,

324

14,244

44

Wabash,

218

37,558

172

Knox,

720

41,566

58

Warren,

540

27,294

51

Lake,

478

21,072

44

Washington,

556

55,852

100

LaSalle,

1,152

48,117

42

Wayne,

720

146,794

204

Lawrence,

365

72,738

199

White,

500

78,167

156

Lee,

• 736

12,071

17

Whiteside,

697

21,823

31

Livingston,

1,026

12,462

12

Will,

852

24,261

28

Logan,

618

17,394

28

Williamson,

432

116,949

269

Macon,

577

18,153

31

Winnebago,

540

37,238

69

Macoupin,

864
748
576

81,224

89,459
61,579

94
120
107

Woodford,

527

25,217

48

Madison,
Marion,

Totals,

55,872

5,061,578

90

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. ^9

Throwing two of these counties, in which there has evidently been
gross mistakes out of consideration, we may classify them as follows :

One County (Ford) has less than ten acres of woodland to the
square mile.

The following seventeen counties, naming them in order as the
ratio of timber increases, have more than ten and not over forty acres
woodland to the square mile : Livingston twelve, Grundy and Piatt
fourteen, Henry fifteen, Champaign and Kankakee sixteen, Lee seven-
teen. Cook and Iroquois twenty, De Kalb twenty-six. Christian, Logan,
and Will twenty-eight, Douglas twenty-nine, Macon and Whiteside
thirty-one, McLean thirty-five.

The following have more than forty and not exceeding eighty acres
of woodland to the section : La Salle forty-two, Stark forty-three, Ken-
dall and Lake forty-four, Bureau and Woodford forty-eight, Du Page
and Warren fifty-one, Vermillion fifty-three, Hancock fifty-six. Mason
fifty-seven, Knox and Ogle fifty-eight, Sangamon fifty-nine, Pulaski sixty-
one, Kane sixty-four, Carroll sixty-seven, Montgomery sixty-eight, Win-
nebago sixty-nine, Rock Island seventy-one, Tazewell seventy-two, De
Witt and Marshall seventy-three, Moultrie seventy-fiv.e, Stephenson
seventy-six, Alexander seventy-eight, and Peoria seventy-nine ; embrac-
ing twenty-seven counties.

A fourth class having more than eighty, and not exceeding one
hundred and twenty acres of forest to the square mile, embraces the
counties of Mercer eighty-four, McHenry eighty-five. Coles eighty-six,
Cass eighty-eight, Henderson ninety, McDonough ninety-one, Macou-
pin ninety-four, Shelby ninety-six, Clinton and Washington one hundred,
Jo Daviess and Putnam one hundred and tw^o, Boone one hundred and
four, Edgar one hundred and six, Marion and Morgan one hundred and
seven, Menard one hundred and eleven. Bond one hundred and thir-
teen, Cumberland and St. Clair one hundred and fifteen, Effingham one
hundred and sixteen. Brown one hundred and nineteen, and Madison
one hundred and twenty: twenty-three counties in all.

The counties having more than one hundred and twenty and not
exceeding one hundred and sixty acres of woodland to the square mile
are Fayette one hundred and thirty, Jasper one hundred and thirty-two,
Adams one hundred and thirty-six, Massac one hundred and thirty-eight,
Richland one hundred and forty, Fulton and Jersey one hundred and
forty-one, Schuyler one hundred and forty seven, Jackson one hundred
and fifty-one, Perry one hundred and fifty-four and White one hundred
and fifty-six ; eleven counties.

The counties ranging between one hundred sixty and t,wo hun-
dred acres of forest to the section are : Pike one hundred sixty-two,
Jefterson one hundred sixty-five, Green one hundred seventy-one.
Clay and Wabash one hundred seventy-two, Scott one hundred
seventy-eight, Crawford one hundred eighty, Saline one hundred
eighty-six, and Lawrence one hundred ninety-nine; nine counties in all.
Six counties have from two hundred to two hundred forty acres of

i^O TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

woodland to the square mile, namely : Clark two hundred one, Wayne
two hundred four, tJnion two hundred ten, Gallatin two hundred eleven,
Hamilton two hundred eighteen, and Monroe two hundred nineteen.

Five counties ha\-e between two hundred forty and two hundred
eighty acres of forest to the section • Pope two hundred forty-two, Ed-
wards two hundred forty-seven, (^alhoun two hundred forty-eight, Hardin
two hundred fifty-four, and Williamson two hundred sixty-nine.

One county only, that of Randolph, has as much as two hundred
eighty-one acres of woodland to the section.

The most heavily wooded region of the Fox River District is found
in Boone and AlcHenry, whilst in the Rock River region it is in Jo
Daviess. Pike and Scott are most heavily wooded of the counties of
the Illinois River District, and Edgar and Coles of the Grand Prairie
District. Edwards and the adjoining counties are the most timbered in
the Wabash District, and Randol])h and Calhoun in the West. Pope,
Hardin, and Williamson rank first in the counties of the Grand Chain.

Thirty-two counties have more than twenty per cent of their terri-
tory in woodland, and therefore come within the line of climatological
safety drawn by some climatologists who say that not less than one-fifth
of our territory should be planted to trees. Thirty-four counties have
ten per cent, only, or less, and undoubtedly would be improved clirnato-
logically and otherwise by the planting of trees.

I submit herewith a map illustrating the distribution of the forests
by counties, with the remark that in the future I hojie we may have more
exact and frequent information as to the extent, increase, and diminu-
tion of our forests. Our new assessment law requires assessors to '' set
down in separate columns the number of acres in wheat, corn, oats,
meadow, and other field products, in enclosed pasture, orchards, and
ivood/aniis, "u'lietlwr enclosed or not, in that year." This will furnish a
means hereafter of judging of the increase or diminution of wood-
lands from year to year, and obtain a basis of facts for legislation upon
the subject of encouragement to tree planting in this State for which
we have failed thus far to obtain a law, but for which we should not fail
to again memorialize the General Assembly, and present a bill for an act
to give such encouragement to tree planting as we think the case de-
mands.

I have said thus much of the general question of woodland in our
State in order to place before the Society and the people of the State
the latest facts that have been collected, even though I may seem to
trespass upon ground assigned to other members of the committee. We
need to consider the forest question as affecting a wide scope of country
rather than in its immediate effect upon a limited territory in our own
State.

What I have said upon the general topic shows that Southern Illi-
nois, upon which I am expected specially to report, has nearly one
quarter of its surface clothed with woodland. xNo county has less than
one-eighth, and one has seven-sixteenths of its territory in forests. With

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. 9]^

us therefore it is a question not so much of new planting as how best to
preserve, continue, and improve our woodlands, and how best to add
new trees for ornamental and useful purposes. Upon this subject I
shall offer a few suggestions.

I may say in the first place, that so far as my knowledge extends, a
very large part of our forest growth cauld be reitlaccd advantageously
with better species of trees. We ha\e a great quantity of oak and
hickory trees, for instance, that has little value except as firewood, and
that might with great profit be replaced by other species of the same
genera.

if our Black jack. Post Oak, Laurel-leaved Oak, and Water Oak
were replaced by the White Oak and Burr Oak, it would be an immense
addition to our forest wealth. If we had more Tulip-trees and fewer
Cottonwoods, more Deciduous Cypress and less While Elms, more Pecan-
trees and fewer Pignuts, it would doubtless be greatly to our advantage.
Hence we should aim to save the young trees of valuable species and
to plant our broken Innds with something that will make them as pro-
ducti\e and profitable as otlicr parts of the farm. Hence arises the
question here as elsewhere : What will be most valuable to preserve and
plant ?

This leads me in the second place, to suggest a icw native species
that we know will do. With the fear of Mr. Douglass and his favorite
Larch before my eyes, 1 will not say because they are native species but
because they are well trieil and not found wanting.

First, 1 would place the Black Walnut. It grows easily and vigor-
ously. Makes a timber valuable for nearly every purpose, from fence
rails to fine furniture, that should the present taste not change will make
a few acres of old trees a fortune twenty years hence; bears valuable
nuts, and is a handsome tree. Next, for purposes of general utility 1
am inclined to name the White Overcup and Chestnut Oaks, without
special preference for either. Oak is one of the timl)ers for which
there is perennial use and demand. The White Ash, the White Hickory,
the Pecan Hickory, the Sugar Maple, the Tulip-tree, the Mulberry, and
the Catalpa are all trees that promise to be useful and profitable.

In the third place, 1 would say a few words of trees not native.
One of the most [irofitable for our Southern Illinois soil I believe to be
the uuuh abused common Locust; admitting that it has been nearly
exlcrniinated on our northern and central i)rairies by the climate or borer
— perhaps by the two, I find it slill liealthy and vigorous in many
places in Southern Illinois; and its value where it will grow is well
known and conceded. The Osage Orange is another tree of consider-
able i)rospective value, but it has not like the locust, had a fair test.

The Chestnut, to which a great deal of attention has been latterly
called, will succeed on porous sub-soils such as are furnished by our
river bluffs, but 1 think will find an un( ongenial soil, as a rule, through-
out Southern Illinois as well as in most other parts of the State. I have
known several instances in my own county where the tree after bearing

92 TRANSACTIONS OF TIIK ILLINOIS

fruit, has, at the age of fifteen or twenty years, begun to fail, and died
m the course of a few years. Trees upon our Mississippi blufls in the
same county and of equal age seem healthy, vigorous, and fruitful.

The Larch of Imtli species does not seem to me to give promise of
success in our almost southern climate, whatever may be its fortune in
the north. I think we can do better than to grow it; but it needs farther
trial in a variety of soils before we can speak intelligently on the subject.

As the })rofit of growing Conifers for timber has not yet, so far I
knows been proven in Southern Illinois, I will only suggest the trial of
the Norway Spruce as most reliable, and of the Scotch, Austrian, and
White Pines. Our one native evergreen, the Red Cedar, is of course
one of the most vigorous and healthful.

The consideration of ornamental trees, also embraced in the scope
of the duties assigned us, opens a much wider field. We have a great
variety of native trees and a climate favorable to many foreigners. I
give the following notes from my own and others' experience of some of
the more desirable species :

The Tulip-tree of course is most desirable ; the Great Flowered
Magnolia, an evergreen and beautiful tree, is grown, says Dr. Vasey, at
Jonesboro, and I think I have seen it at Chester.

The Cucumber Tree is native, and of course desirable throughout
Southern Illinois at least.

The Asiatic species of Magnolia I have not happened to see, but
several of them would no doubt succeed.

The Papaw is a beautiful tree, but I have hardly seen one instance
of a successful attempt to cultivate it. It is native everywhere in the
South.

The Linden is a common though not plentiful tree, and makes one
of the handsomest of our larger ornamental trees.

The Ailanthus, tliough in disrepute, "has many good points ; prom-
inent among which are its great vitality and availability for planting in
places unfavorable to plant growth, and its unique foliage.

The Horse-Chestnuts, native and foreign, succeed well and are
admired by many.

The Maples, of which we have three native species, according to
Dr. Vasey, are all easily grown and all more or less attractive, though I
hear a good deal of complaint of the liability of the Soft Maple to the
attacks of the borer. ■

The Sapphora does not seem quite hardy with me, but I presume is
so in the southern district generally.

The Red-Biid is found native quite commonly, and is beautiful by
reason both of its early flowers and later leaves; but by reason of its
prevalence is little cultivated.

The Kentucky Coffee-tree is native and curious, and as such per-
haps admired, but I do iiot much like it.

The Honey Locust is more common, and more ornamental. Being
more common it is less planted for ornament.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 93

The Peach in its ornamenlal varieties, ^\■ccping, Fastigate, and
Double Blossumed, is much less grown than it deserves. The orna-
mental foliage sorts I have not seen; .hiii I tiiink we should pay more
attention ti> these fair if not productive relatixcs of our fruit trees.

There is a double (lowering riuni lately introduced from China, that
would probably also be desirable, as well as the double blossoming
Cherries.

The wild Blai k Ciierry is a handsome tree in foliage, blossom, and
fruit, and only needs to be( ome rare in order to be valued.

The same is true of our native Hawthorns, of whit h we have two
or three beautiful species.

We have at least one species of the Service-tree, though I have
seen it but once and cannot specially recommend it.

r)ur Wild Crab, so ])lentiful throughout the State, is one of the finest
ornamental trees; but too j)lentiful to be appreciated. •

The Sweet Gum is native and a most desirable tree in the shape
and color of its foliage.

The Flowering Dogwood is a common tree, and like the Red-bud
much admired from the early appearance of its so called flowers.

The Tupelo is admired by those who know it better than I, and is
native in the southern end of this district.

The Persimmon is sometimes a rather handsome. tree, but is spe-
cially desirable on account of its fruit, some varieties of which ripen by
the last of August. Frost is not needed, as is popularly supposed, to
ripen either this or papaw's fruit. The persimmon tree may be top-
grafted with choice varieties (by the ordinary process of cleft grafting,
with grafting wax wrapped about the junction) and thus much im-
proved. As the tree is dioecious, or rather occasionally tending to be so,
its barrenness may thus be corrected.

The Catalpa, native in the southern end of the district, is at once
beautiful in foliage and blossom, and very easily grown from seed. It
is tender in the northern part of the State, but grows to nearly a hun-
dred feet in height in Pulas'ki County.

The Paulownia I have not cultivated, but have seen near Alton, and
I believe it is worthy of cultivation in many parts of our district, though
it is somewhat impatient of our colder winters.

W' e have no less than five species of Ash : White, Red, Green, Black,
and Blue. Of these I have seen most of the White Ash, of Avhich
we formerly had very straight and tall forest growth in Madison County.
The Green Ash is said to be more handsome, and all are valuable.

The Sassafras is to my notion one of our most ornamental trees.
Grown singly it makes a tree of handsome shape, and its foliage, glossy
in summer and red in autunm, with its yellowish green twigs and dark
berries, makes it at once uniijue and ornamental.

There are three species of the Kim native in our district, including
that magnificent tree, the White Kim, which Henry Ward Beecher pro-
nounced the true, absolute tree, and that curious species, the Winged

94 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Elm, which is found only in the extreme south. 1 have the English
Elm in cultivation but it presents no noticeable superiority in any respect
to our native variety.

We have two species of the Hackberry, one of which is familiar to
us all as a handsome though not valuable tree. The other {Celtis Mis-
sissippiensis) is found, according to Dr. Vasey, only in the extreme south,
and T have not seen it.

The Mulberry in its native species is a rather handsome and valua-
ble tree. Our poultry show a keen appreciation of its fruit. It makes
a dense shade whilst alive, and a durable post when dead. The foreign
species are less hardy and valuable, so far as I have seen or tried them.

The Sycamore is one of our forest giants. Very unique from the
whiteness of its branches ; and grown in the open ground makes a broad-
based pyramidal tree, of impressive appearance.

The Butternut is a common but not plentiful tree in Southern Ill-
inois, and ornamental enough to be desirable with the many who love
its fruit. I have however seen little success in its cultivation. For some
unknown reason, I am informed by others, and have a like experience
myself, the tree often dies young.

The Black Walnut is very abundant in the richer soils of Southern
Illinois, and perhaps has been more grown than any other forest tree ;
and as I have before said it is one of our finest trees, rapidly disappear-
ing, however, in these days of walnut furniture and finishing.

The Pecan is abundant at many points in the American Bottom,
and the groves of it at East St. Louis and the old town of Kaskaskia
are handsome as a body, and as individual trees. As producing the
most delicious and valuable of our American nuts, its culture ought to
be extended, especially in rich, deep soils.

The Shell-bark Hickory makes a handsome tree; its timber is val-
uable and its nuts delicious. The variation in the size, (piality, and
thinness of the nuts is so great that there is no doubt but that the fruit
might be much improved by the selection and propagation of the better
varieties. Two trees in my own neighborhood bear nuts of nearly twice
the usual size, preserving the thin shell though perhaps not the finest
flavor of the smaller nuts.

The Western Shell-bark, found upon our creek bottoms in Madison
county, and common, I think, through the southern district, is equally fine
in tree, and bears an enormous and good, though rather coarse flavored
nut. I have never seen it in cultivation, and failed in a single trial
made by myself

The Mocker nut, as 1 suppose it to be, is the pioneer tree in ad-
vance of the woodlands on the prairies in our part of the State, and
though sometimes a handsome tree it often, like the Black-jack Oak,
shows the honorable scars that are apt to mark the leaders in other move-
ments, whilst its nuts are of little value. Two or three other species of
hickory I will not now take time to notice.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 95

Twelve or thirteen species of Oak, accordiriL;; to Dr. Vasey, are na-
tive to Southern lUinois, many, perhaps all of them, are more or less
attractive though not always be4utiful.,. I suppose their appearance of
gnarled and rugged strength excites a not less pleasurable though different
feeling from the symmetry or pliable grace of other trees. The White
and Oven up ( )aks are notable examples of this. ThePost-Oak growing
in clumps and groves on the borders of Southern Illinois prairies, is a
pleasing obiect in the landscape. The T.aurel Oak sometimes shows
some fine specimens of a (onical gkjssy leaved tree, when growing singly ;
and the Swamp Spanish Oak, as it grows upon our creek bottoms in
Madison county, presents occasional specimens of a perfectly formed
tree. But 1 know very few oaks in cultivation.

The Chestnut is probably not native in our State, though Judge
Brown has seen some old trees at Caledonia, Pulaski Co., that are sup-
posed to have been planted by the Indians. T have already spoken of
it at sufficient length.

The Beech is native in the southern end of the State and probably
in Edgar county, on the eastern side, and in Vermillion, and is one of
the finest trees though difficult to transplant, and is restricted by nature
to a very limited area in our State.

The Red Birch is our only southern native Birch, and I have never
seen it planted, though I know a nice tree of it growing solitary, miles
from any other, on a farm adjoining my own on the upland. I do not
find in my experience or observation that the White or Black Birch is very
successful in the South. I think the climate is not favorable.

The Willows of course are found in considerable abundance, both
native and introduced, but none of natives seem to have attracted atten-
tion. I have seen one apparently native willow that seemed worthy of
ornamental ))l,nnting. but I do not know its botanical name. Of foreign
species the \\ ee[)ing Willow is sometimes found witii us a handson'-e tree ;
and Ciolden Willow is attractive in spring-time, as well as the Goat Wil-
low with its early catkins.

'i'here are said to be four native sjiccies of Foi)lar in our .Southern
District, of which the Cottonwood is chief. The White and I.ombardy
Poplar from Europe however are the species chiefly planted for ornament.
The I.ombardy is considerably planted by our Cicrman immigrants,
in memory, probably of tlie fatherland, where it is much planted along
the roadsides.

Of Pines we have no natives except that the \'ellow Pine has strayed
over from Missouri (there is a Pine Hill m Union county). The Scotch
Pine, though not one of the most handsome, is healthy and a rapid
grower wherever I have met it. The .Austrian is not so healthy, and
owing to its f)])en top is altac ked and bored by the saf)-sucker. The
Heavy-wooded Pine gnjws well, but may be liable to the same attacks.
A single specimen of the Red Pine does fairly with me, and I know spec-
imens of the White Pine thirty years old, in our countv, that thus far are
hale and thrifty. The Stone Pine of nearly an equal age is thrifty and
handsome, in its kind.

9g TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Of Spruces, the Norway, here as everywhere, grows finely, probably
the best of all the evergreens. I know specimens thirty years old that
are as handsome as ever, but sadly bored by the Sap-sucker. The Hem-
lock Spruce is less successful ; I know of more failures than successes
with it. vet I know of fine specimens, none however, have attained much
age. The Silver F-ir makes a handsome tree in many places that I have
seen it. The Southern Cypress grows vigorously and apparently health-
fully on our high lands; and has a very beautiful foliage. The Arbor-
Vitses are cultivated with varied success ; many of them seem handsome
and healthy— especially the Golden Chinese, which is one of the finest
colored evergreens that I know. The Red Cedar, our special native
evergreen tree of Egypt, I believe to have been unwarrantably criticised
and often neglected on account of supposed shabbiness in its old age.
It has not yet been proved that any other evergreen will do better, and
until then I shall plant the Cedar. The Cedar is our longest planted
tree ; more old specimens exist than of other species, and these have
generally not received as intelligent care as those planted later, so that
we must not expect perfect specimens in the old trees. Comparing trees
of the same age properly treated, I do not find the Red Cedar much if at all
inferior to Pine or Spruce.

All trees, nearly, I may add, seem to me more healthful in our
Southern Illinois soil than in the center and north. As I look upon the
somewhat unwholesome evergreens that I meet upon our great prairies
I sometimes fear that it will be many generations before the soil will be
fit for healthful growths of deeply rooting trees. Probably some of the
harder and less fastidious forest growths, such as the Willow, the Cot-
tonwood, and the Soft Maple must pioneer the way and fit the soil and
sub-soil for more delicate and valuable growths.

Our Illinois Egypt, according to Dr. Vasey, furnishes "perhaps a
larger variety of trees than is to be found in any other district of a like
extent in the northern or western states." Robert Ridgway. in the
American Naturalist for November eighteen seventy-two, gives some
" notes on the vegetation of the lower Wabash Valley," that impress us
with the variety and luxuriance of the forest growth about Mt. Carmel.
He mentions a specimen of the Sycamore one hundred sixty-eight feet
in height, and sixty-eight feet to a limb, with a circumference of thirty-
three and a third feet; of the-Tulip tree one hundred fifty-eight feet in
height, seventy-four feet in the trunk, and twenty-three feet in circum-
ference ; whilst the average height of nineteen trees was one hundred
forty-two and seven nineteenths feet. Three trees of the Pecan Hickory
averaged one hundred seventy feet in height, eighty-five feet to a limb,
and fifteen and two thirds feet in circumference, and two trees of the
White Ash one hundred forty and a half feet in height, seventy-nine and
a half feet to a limb, and fourteen feet in circumference. Two trees of
Black Walnut averaged one hundred twenty-five feet in height, fifty feet
to a limb, and eighteen and a third feet in circumference ; and six Span-
ish Oaks ( Qiienus coccinnea, var. ?) averaged one hundred twenty and

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 97

two-thirds feet in height, fifty-eight and four-fiftlis feet to a limb, and
seventeen and one half feet in circumference. Five Burr Oaks showed an
average height of one hundred nineteen and one-fifth feet, forty-two and
two-fifths feet of trunk, and seventeen and one-half feet in circumference ;
whilst six \V''hite Oaks averaged one hundred forty-two feet in height,
forty-eight and one-third feet of trunk, and fourteen and three-fourths
feet in circumference. Four Cottonwoods measured one hundred forty-
two and one-half feet in height, sixty-one and two-thirds feet to a limb,
and fifteen and one-third feet in circumference; seven trees of the Sweet-
gum, the tallest tree in proportion to its girth, averaged one hundred
seventeen and three sevenths feet, sixty-two and one-half feet to a limb,
and eleven and seven-eights feet in circumference ; whilst the Sassafras,
one of the underf^rowths, measured seventy-one and two-thirds feet in
height, fifty-two and-onc half feet to a limb, and seven and two-thirds
feet in circumference.

Such are the magnificent growths that our Prairie State contributes
to the sxlva of North America. The beautiful plains of the Rock River
Valley, the fair and fertile i)rairies of Central Illinois are fitly supple-
menied by the primeval forests of lower Egypt.

DISCUSSION ON ORNAMENTAL AND FOREST TREES.

Mr. Freeman — There is one variety of Persimmon which ripens
before frost, and four which seem to require frost to ripen them, as they
are not good till after frosts.

In answer to a question, fie said that the one ripening early is the
best in (piality.

Mr. Flagg — The early varieties of Persimmons will ripen before
the frost comes; but it has generally been supposed that the later sorts
required the frost to ripen them.

Perhaps Arthur Bryant, Jr., can tell us something about this.

Mr. Bryant Jr. — I have noticed that on the same tree, some of
the fruit is -good to eat before frost and some not till after frost.

Mr. Flagg — Which are the best.'

.Mr. Bryant — I don't know; they vary in different seasons; one
season, I remember, they did not get fit to eat at all.

Mk. Brown spoke of two trees, found in .Southern Illinois, which
are not mentioned in Mr. Flagg's report; one the Southern Buckthorn
{Bttmdia /vt/m/^'O, the other the deciduous Holly, (//<'a- deciiiiuc) which
is very beautiful and showy.

Mr. Scofielf) — I do not know that I understood Mr. Flagg rightly.
I understood him to say that the Conifers did not succeed well in the
northern and central portions of the State. ■ 8

9S TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Mr. P'lagg — Not exactly. My statement is this. I do not believe
that the prairie of central and northern Illinois is the natural habitation
of trees. The very existence of these prairie lands, shows an ori):^i-
//d/ unfitness for tree growth. I do not think that the prairie states are
going to be immediately fitted for all kinds of tree growths. I think
that such trees as the Cottonwood and White Elm must pioneer the
way for other growths.

My opinion is that the growth of such trees makes the soil fit for
other growths; my observation is that Evergreens are not as healthy in
the northern as in the south part of the State. There are exceptions
however to this.

Mr. Douglass — Don't you think the coal smoke in and about our
cities has an effect upon our evergreen trees .' I notice this in particu-
lar, about Springfield.

Mr. Flagg — Yes, I think it does have some influence.

Mr. Scofield — I live in the northern part of the State, and I con-
tend that Ave are not unfavorably located in this particular of tree growth ;
particularly in the growth of Conifers. Take such trees as the Norwav
Spruce, and Scotch Pine, and where do they grow better.' 1 am satis-
fied that coal smoke is detrimental to the healthfulness of our ever-

*

greens.

Mr. Flagg — I will state that the facts are against the gentleman,
as reported by Mr. Edwards. He then read that portion of his report
which refers to evergreens upon the prairies.

Mr. Douglass did not think 1\\r. Flagg right in stating that the
Cottonwood and other soft-wood deciduous trees are "pioneers."

Cottonwood will grow in wetter ground than most Conifers ; but
these will thrive in northern and central Illinois where the soil is not too
wet, and where not poisoned by coal smoke.

He had furnished Mr. Elliott — Industrial Agent for the Kansas Pa-
cific Railway company — with a quantity of European Larch, one third of
which were planted at Wilson in pleasant weather and lived well ; the
balance were taken on to Ellis and Pond Creek and planted in cold, wet
weather ; these did tolerably well, but a harlstorm killed many of them.
Some were planted in a " dip hole " or low place and did not, of course,
s'lcceed as well as those on higher land.

He thought we have the greatest encouragement to plant trees up-
on the prairies, and plant extensively.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 99

Mr. Baldwin — I wish to protest against the intimation that the
prairies of Northern Illinois will not produce as great a variety of trees
as Southern Illinois.

I know it was once the opinion that prairies were not ada])ted to
tree growth ; but 1 i)elieve that opinion has about exploded. The prairie
soil is especially adapted to the growth of White, Hard, and Ash-leaf
Maples. Black and White Walnuts, Tulip-tree, White Pine, (this will
grow sometimes three feet in a single season) White Elm, White, and
Blue Ash; nearly all the varieties of Oak grow faster on the prairie than
on timber soil. The only objection to prairie soil is that it gets too dry
in time of excessive drouth. There is little doubt that the prairies
would be covered with trees had the fires been kept from them.

Mr. Douglass — I used to think as Mr. Flagg does.

Mr. Flagg — I was brought up on the prairie. [Laughter.]

Mr. Douglass — I have cut nine cords of wood from one Burr Oak.
This was a big tree. It stood upon a sort of island, and the fires that
devastated the prairie around it could not reach it ; showing that it is not
for want of adaptation of soil that we have not trees, and large trees.

Mr. Edwards — In common with many of the members of this So-
ciety I once fell into the way of thinking that our prairies were not
adapted to timber growing, but facts have overthrown this theory. Now
let us not be misled in this matter. There are some facts that arc look-
ing us squarely in the face. The country is being devastated of its tim-
ber, and must we not replace it ?

I know that in my part of the State, since I first came there, thirty
years ago, there is not, now, one tenth the timber that there was then.
Indeed, there is not much more timber to cut. I learn that the same is
true elsewhere, and necessity is upon us, we must plant, and to say that
our country is not adapted to the growth of trees, is like saying it is not
adapted to the white man. No doubt some varieties of trees do better
in one place than in another — but trees grow freely in every part of the
State; and, I repeat, our influence should favor planting trees — and T do
not understand Mr. Flagg to have any different view in this regard.

Mr. M. I,. DuNLAP — I wish to say a word about the adaptation of our
prairies to timber growing. I think the difficulty is in the physical con-
dition of the country. You will find that where there are timber belts
there is water. .\nd these creeks and sloughs have kept off the fires.
The reason the Grand Prairie is so destitute of timber is, that it has no

100 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

water. Hence I say it is the physical condition of the country that has
prevented the prairies from being covered with timber. We find east of
the Wabash river a timbered country ; the fires coming from the west
being stopped by the river.

Mr. Wier — Mr. Flagg speaks of grafting the persimmon. I have
had that question asked me fifty times. Can it be done ?

Mr. Flagg — I have no experience, but I have the testimony of one
Mr. Balsiger of Madison County that he tried root-grafting and failed ; he
then tried top-grafting, using wax, and succeeded well.

Mr. Freeman — I would say in regard to the Jire theory^ we have

*

fires, and are as liable to fire in the southern part of of the State as in
any other. ' We have a fire there now. I have a letter, just received
from home, saying a fire has swept over the country.

Mr. Earle — Along the very wide breadth of country through which
the Illinois Central Railroad passes, there is no timber fit for railroad ties,
and the nearest point of supply in Southern Illinois, is forty miles away.

I think it is time this question of supply of timber was being agi-
tated. I do not think we can do the people of the State abetter service
than to wake them up on this subject, and I welcome all this talk. I
believe'that the discussions and published Transactions of this Society
have done more to call attention to this subject than all other influences
combined. Let the grand movement go forward.

Legislation may yet help us. Our legislatures, state and national,
should encourage this great enterprise of tree planting.

He referred to the statement of Mr. Mathews, of Iowa, that the Eu-
ropean Larch is not durable timber when grown upon the prairie, and
thought there was some mistake about it. He has hopes of this tree as
•'a timber tree.

Mr. Snedecker — ^I would suggest, that the Osage Orange is one of
bur best timber trees; the Larch I don't think is to be' compared with
it. It makes a good ffence ; there is nothing you can plant better for a
wind-break, and when grown for timber, it will last as a fence post equally
as long as Red Cedar; and for wagon timber it ranks number one. I
recommend it as one of the most valuable timber trees that we can
plant.

Mr. Bryan r, jr. — I would name the Catalpa as an excellent tim-
ber tree. It makes excellent posts, does not rot ; wc have nothing
better. •.

«;TATK horticultural society'. JQ]^

Mr. W'ltR — How large does it graw ?

Mr. Br V ant — Two feet in diameter. It is necessary to plant trees
close for timber purposes, so that tliey will grow up straigiit.

Mr. Esskx — I think well of the Chestnut. 1 planted some years
ago in Rock Island County, four rows of chestnut trees, so close that I
could not drive a wagon between them. For ten years they have borne
chestnuts, and are now growing annually from three to four feet. They
were planted for a wind-break ; and I find in cold weather with a west
wind the thermometer indicates two or three degrees warmer on the
east than on the west side of it.

Mr. Flalii; — How far from the Mississippi river .^

Mr. Essex — About one-half mile.

Mr. Freemax called the attention of the Society to a valuable
paper ujion this subject in the December number of Youmans's Scientific
xVlonthly.

Mr. Flagg — I would be glad to have the opinion of gentlL-nien iiji-
on the subject of the fitness of the European Larch for Southern Illi-
nois.

Mr. Earle — I have questioned Mr. Mathew's published statements
regarding this tree, and I would be glad to hear from Mr. Douglass, Mr.
Scofield, or Mr. Whitney upon the subject.

Mr. Douglass — Being very much interested in this tree, 1 have
tried to inform myself in regard to it. Knowing that a Mr. Hobbs in
St. Louis had some old Larch trees, 1 wrote to know about them, and I
learned that trees planted twenty years ago were now in healthy condi-
tion, and were about eighteen inches in thickness. There are some noble
trees in Shaw's Garden, St. Louis, showing that the tree is suited to that
climate.

Mr. Pearson — There is a tree in Godfrey, my town, that is thirty-
two years old, forty feet high, and say fifteen inches in diameter. It is
a beautiful tree. There are others in the neighborhood twenty feet high ;
and while I can recommend the tree, there is no such wonderful growth
as we hear.

Mr. Wier — I believe with Mr. Snedecker, that the Osage Orange is
the best tree for all purposes. The only objection is its thorns, but the
thorns go off as the tree grows older. I don't see why it is not more
generally grown for timber.

102 TRANSACTIONS OF THE tLLlKOtS

Mr. Nelson — I do believe it is one of our best timber trees. When
in Texas, some time since my attention was called to z. gate post — which
was a very old looking i)iece of timber — covered with moss. I asked
what kind of timber it was, and was told that it was '''' Bodark /"^^ — the
Texan name for Osage Orange. On being told that it had been stand-
ing thirty years, I procured a spade and dug around it and found it
perfectly sound; much to my surprise.

I also saw, while there, a wagon the wheels of which, the owner
assured me had been made three years before from green " Bodark "
timber ; thev were tight and in excellent order, though the tire had not
been reset.

Voice — How large trees have you seen .?

Mr. Nelson-— From three to three and a half feet in diameter. I
have seen them in Texas forty feet high before you came to a limb. It
is good timber for rails. There is another kind that branch out right at
the ground, like friend Wier's apple trees. [Laughter.]

Mr. WiER — They had lots of fruit, did they not .? jLaughter.]

Mr. Nelson — Just so. [Continued laughter.]

Mr. Flagg — Are there any conditions to expedite growth .'

Mr. Nelson — Where trees are planted thick they grow tall without
much branching.

Mr. Scofield — -I have every confidence in the success of the Euro-
pean Larch in this country. Mr. Mathews' failure was due to the fact
that he put his trees in wet soil, whereas they should be planted very
early and in dry soil, to succeed well.

Mr. Wier — I think we have made a mistake in recommending the
planting of the Larch everywhere ; I have not succeeded Avith it, but I
know one experiment does not settle the matter. Last year I planted a
lot of one thousand trees on the fourteenth of May, and also another
lot on the twenty-fourth day of May, none of which were leaved out, and
they lived.

As these plants were procured from Mr. Douglass, I will ask him
how they were kept back till that time.

Mr. Douglass — They were kept in an ice-house, that is all ; and
while 1 am up I will say, in regard to the durability of the wood, that

* This is a corruption of the words Bois d'Arc or Bow-wood, so called on account
of its elasticity. [Secretary.]

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 1Q3

while the wood is young and sappy, and growing rapidly, even the wood
of Red Cedar is not durable.

I read Mr. Mathews' account and explain it in tliis way : the sap-
wood of young trees is not durable; an oak sapling two inches through
has no real wood at all, and will soon rot in the ground. Just so with
his young larches — the sap-woo<l will soon rot.

The discussion was arrested at this point by an announcement by
the President that the time tor adjournment had arrived.

Mr. HA^rMO^•D moved that the subject of the Utilizing of Fruits
be made the order for the evening session ; which was agreed to.

On motion the Society adjourned.

SECOND DAY.

EVENING SESSION.

President Starr announced that the special order of business for
the evening was the report from Committee on the Utilization of Fruits.

Mr. ScoFiELD said that he had received a paper from Professor
McAfee, a member of the Committee, and requested that it be read by
the Secretary, as follows :

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON UTILIZING FRUITS— CHEMISTRY

OF DECAY.

BY H. H. M'AFEE.

No question of economy is of greater importance to the fruit pro-
ducer, than that of how to preserve fruits in their ripe condition, so that
their use may be e.xtended over the whole circle of the year, thus making
his products take on the character of a staple merchandise, rather than
that of a periodical commodity. And the interests involved not only
touch the professional i)roducer, but ecjually aflect the consumer who
produces his own supply, together with the purcha'ser in the general
market.

To arrest decay, — always impending decay, — and save for a season
the products of the orchard and garden ! What more desirable object .'
More especially since those products have grown in our domestic life,
from luxuries to conveniencies, and finally, since their healthfulness and
economy are so well pro\en, even to necessaries.

How shall we secure the noble apple for a season from the myriads
of spores, — active, deadly enemies, floating in every breeze, and ready
to lodge and grow whenever favorable conditions arise, and to send their
raycelia rioting among the luscious cells to disorganize, breakdown, and
destroy, transforming grateful juices, delicious flavors, delicately enticing
aroma, to the " gall of bitterness " and the " corruption of decay " .-'

104 TRANSACTIONS OF TItE ILtlNOlS

How can we save the cheap merchandise of the overloaded market
until the glut is over and the price remunerative? or how can we preserve
the goods, bought cheaply, so that they may serve us when the scarcity
and high prices arrive?

If there he any way, any process, it will ]jrobably be reached through
a correct knowledge of the laws of chemical combinations which govern
the changes of the decaying fruit, together >vith a better understanding
of the character and action of the organic destructive agents which
hasten disorganization.

What is this decay, then, in a chemical point of view? Wherein
does it differ from growth? Normally it is but a -step farther in the pro-
cess of ripening — e.\rt'ssk>e ripening — maturity beyond the point of use-
fulness. And it is just as much a logical sequence of ripening, as ripening
is of growth. But if diseased action supervene, as it is almost invariably
sure to do, then another element enters into the problem; an element
too, of exceeding complexity, which will likely ever continue to baflie a
full investigation, from the fact that a life-principle is involved in the ac-
tion. Normal decay, as I have called it, or decay not hastened or helped
by the action of the lower forms of the fungi, is probably very rare, per-
haps in the case of fruits never occurs ; and in that case we niust con-
sider decay as disease ; an action wholly or in part caused by a morbific
agent. Truly "in death there is life" when every death is the occasion
and support of myriads of lives, while the myriads of lives accomplish
the death that they may live.

The arbitrary lines which we please ourselves to draw between the
sciences and the branches of science do not exist in nature, and they
are only useful as a means to keep the complexity of a subject out of
sight so that our imperfect minds may better grasp its parts. So if we
investigate the chemical combinations and reactions in decay, apart from
the physiological action of the fungoid growth taking place in the decay-
ing substance, we are gaining but a partial insight into our subject; but
still we must so divide it to comprehend it.

Vegetative action is described sometimes as a process of deoxyda-
tion, because the plants which most engage our attention are, during
active growth, reducing carbonic acid, and restoring itsoxygen to the air.
This action is directly due to that force, so wonderful, and so hardly
comprehended, which we know of only by its action, and which we have
called life, or the vital force. Were all other things equal and the vital
force lacking, the carbonic acid might still exist free, or enter into com-
binations, but it could not be reduced to its elements. Not only so, but
let the vital force once be lacking in intensity, or at least not in action,
and the so recently divorced elements rush together and are again car-
bonic acid, and this action is decay. See how the plant, taking in car-
bonic acid and at the same time giving off oxygen during the day,
begins to undo its work, taking up oxygen and yielding carbonic 'acid,
at nightfall. So, too, when conditions unfavorable to growth occur to a
J>ar/ or to the whole of the plant, oxydation, decay at once commences.

State horticultural society. xq.*;

True, under the conditions unfavorable to oxydation, such as low
temperature and lack ot absorbing and excreting surface, the decay'is
so retarded as to be very much less discernible, but that it is takinj^
place even in our plants while hybernating, is well established.

But what then of the fungi which do not live and grow by a i)roress
of deoxydation, as do the others, but which do exactly the opposite,
namely, oxydize; which stand in the same relation to the other |)lants
that animals do, and which accom])lisl' the destruction of their so-called
more highly organized brethren, whenever they can. If it be the office
of i)lants, in the economy of Nature, to take unorganized substances and
organize them into food for animals which must have organic food or
die, then must the fungi be animal in their functions, for they feed upon
organic food already prepared for them by other plants. 'They are
oxydizers and plant destroyers, as are animals ; and the products of their
action and decay, (as is the case with animals) are finally inorganic.

But the strangest part of the mystery of the fungi is that their
presence^ simply, will induce chemical combinations the opposite of those
which would occur were they absent. They feed upon plants when
dead, but they do vastly more, to our sorrow; their intimate presence
kills tiiat they may feed. When the pheuogamous plant decays it does
just what the fungus does when it lives and thrives. '' Evil communica-
ions corrupting good manners " again. The history of the phenoga-
mous plant, is in stages and degrees, as follows :

First. A seed, in which the nature of its constitution, and the cir-
cumstances surrounding are such that decay is retarded. Especially is
lack of moisture the cause of its preservation. But decay does go on,
because it finally eats up — annihilates the life principle, and the seed
cannot grow.

Second. Seed growth. Supply moisture, oxygen, heat, and a part
of the seed begins to decay, and another part to grow by feeding upon
it. The young plantlet, acting like the maturer fungus, living upon or-
ganized food.

Third. Daily plant growth. While circumstances are favorable the
plant grows, deoxydizing carbonic acid, but when circumstances (nota-
bly the circumstance of light) are unfavorable the plant begins to lose
its vital force and its deoxydizing power, and decay — oxydation — begins
in turn to be arrested on the return of light.

Fourth. Hybernation. The loss (jf leafage not only curtails ab-
sorptive and excretive surface, but, the millions of laboratories, the
chlorophyll cells are gone. So the decay which sets in is not so rapid,
but then the temperature is lowered, and often the supply of moisture
is impaired by the frozen earth, so the decay of winter is but a minimum
cjuantity. But decay takes place, as is early proved in the |)roducts of
the tree at the end of its hybernation. Where was starch in autumn (as
in the maples) in spring there is sugar, and a little later a mucilaginous,
substance containing nitrogen which is food for the bursting buds now
feeding on organized food as the fungi do, and as the plantlet did in its
early history.

IQQ TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Fifth. Inflorescence. A process which is growth till the object of
the flower's life is completed, and from that point deca\', as is proven
from the fact that opening blooms exhale no oxygen, and those which
have been fertilized do.

Sixth. Fruitage. The growth of the fruit is all organization ; the
laying up of stores of food often, as in the apple, very excessive of any
apparent wants of the inclosed seed.

Seventh. Ripening. This is entirely a process of decay. Observe
a very sweet apple ; when of full size and not ripe its macerated pulp
yields much starch ; it has indeed a starchy taste ; but when ripe the
starch is gone, and glucose or sugar remains ; so the acids when green
lack an atom of oxygen as compared with the acids when ripe.

Here are the seven ages of the plant. Its last, the one which is to
be our reward for all our care of it. And now how are we to so prolong
this interesting and profitable stage that it shall most contribute to our
enjoyment and profit. What is the fruit doing.' Decaying. We must
arrest that process if we can, or as we cannot entirely arrest it, we must
retard it; to do which it is necessary to surround it with the circum-
stances most unfavorable to decay. Its nitrogen must be kept from the
union with hydrogen which it desires, by keeping the hydrogen closely
united with carbon and oxygen. Its carbon must be kept from the ox-
ygen which it desires, by excluding the free oxygen desiring to enter,
and by an unfavorable temperature. Its sugar must not be able to be-
come alcohol and then acetic acid.

How is all this to be done ? In many ways. First, by rapid desic-
cation. Abstract the water, and both chemical affinities and fungoid
influences are overcome. But the drying cannot be too quick, for the
high temperature and the access of air necessary, strongly favor chemical
changes. Such a process as the Alden, or one better still in which air
super-dried chemically will be used, must be far in advance of the old
style of drying fruit, so slowly that it was at least partly rotten before
dry.

Second. By sealing we may exclude a large portion of air having to
fill spaces caused by the contraction of the contents of the vessel, an at-
mosphere which soon becomes excessive in nitrogen and carbonic acid,
both of which are unfavorable to decay.

In such cases it often happens that the fungus mold helps preserve
for a time the fruit below, for it takes up all the oxygen presented, and
leaves little or none to pass into the fruit. But the changes which may
go on in the fruit by interchange of elements already there, simple re-
adjustment, are not arrested by the sealing, except the farther circumstan-
ces unfavorable to decay, of low temperature and darkness, are present.
And even then with every care flavor is lost, some decay goes on still.

Could we have a substance which by its presence would exclude
the possibility of oxydation, and yet be perfectly tasteless and not un-
healthful, we could set away our cans with perfect confidence in their
subsequent purity and flavor. But alas, there now appears to be no hope
for such a boon.

STATK HORTICULTURAI, SOCIETV^ 1(')7

Third. We may surround our fruit witli the circuriistances of low
temperature, darkness, and a confined atmosphere, and then decay must
be slow, for so soon as any oxygen is taken from that air, there is left an
excess of nitrogen which of all gases is most unfavorable to decay, es-
pecially if drv and unaffected by electric passages.

But where oxygen is absorbed, its place is supplied by carbonic acid
excreted ; and carbonic acid does not feed decay, any more than it will
feed flame, or suj)port resjjiration.

Here then seems to be a set of conditions which we may ap])ly at
so slight expense that our process may be economical, and the results
reached still be of great use.

We can readily confine fruit in the dark where it is cool. But may
we not do more .^ .Suppose we supply the atmosphere surrounding our
fruit with a substance hungry for oxygen, or with another substance both
hungry for oxygen and exerting a destructive influence upon the fungoid
growths. It seems as though, if we could find such substances cheap
and plenty, our fruit m'lght be cheaply and easily preserved long beyond
its usual time.

Chief among the substances which have a tendency to retard decay
is earth, — mother earth. The soil is, either wet or dry, an absorber of
oxygen, especially so when it holds certain salts of iron ; and the accounts
we see, together with experience, teach that many substances are pre-
served in earth where they would soon decay out of it. But ordinary
earth holds enough organic matter to give a good foothold to fungoid
growths whenever moisture and heat enough arc present. So it would
seem that pulverized and dried subsoil would better serve our purpose,
were it not that the very presence of the organic matter helps make the
top soil an absorber of oxygen.

We all remember the buried apples of our youth, how well they
kept, and how mouldy they tasted. Can we not keep them as well, and
avoid the mould ''

I believe we can, and that it will be done by the aid of dried earth
and a salt of iron, or some similar body which will put a veto upon the
fungi and still take up oxygen so that the air shall be able to spare none
to assist decay. How strange it is that substances that are oxydi/;ing
take up flavors and perfumes so rapidly ! A ripening apple, in an at-
mosphere smelling strongly of tobacco, in six hours will actually taste of
tobacco a half-inch under the skin. Cream will greedily suck up every
perfume presented, as will butter, and both are taking up oxygen. Per-
fumes and flavors really seem to accompany the atoms of oxygen. Who
knows but that they do.'' 1 had hoped when appointed upon your com-
mittee to be able to institute a series of experiments to gain light upon
this branch of my subject, liut unfavorable circumstances (the same
which generally deter private experimenters in pursuit of knowledge)
prevented it ; and as the knowledge was as yet undeveloped, 1 had no
place to go to get that which would adequately supply my own deficiency.
It may be that the German experiment stations might have given light

108 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILUNOtS

if accessible for, they are busy there niakinj^ — developing — knowledge ; but
we of America have not yet had the wit to profit fully by an example of
one of the greatest successes of the nineteenth century. Our experi-
ment stations are overshadowed by the mere business of teaching, and
their mark has not yet reached the point where the world can draw upon
them for new installments of knowledge in aid of husbandry. It is de-
sirable that thorough tests of the value of the earths, and combinations
with the earths, as preservative agents, be made. An interest which
reaches pecuniarilv into tlie millions calls for such tests, and it is too
much to require private shoulders to bear the whole burden of expense.
Hearken, Messrs. Agricultural Chemists who receive the bounty of
the nation for your salaries, tell us how to keep apples, grapes, pears
plums, peaches, yes, strawberries and raspberries ; if you can only tell,
us how to keep them one day longer, we will some of us bless you every
time we count our cash, while the rest Avill bless you all the same, when-
ever we count what we have saved, and how much more we have en-
joyed.

Mr. Periam from the same committee, reported upon

UTILIZING FRUITS— IN NATURAL STATE, DRYING, AND CANNING.

In treating this subject, it was agreed that the work should be
divided between the Committee, as follows :

Mr. Dunlap agreed to treat of the liquid products of fruits ;
Mr. McAfee, of the chemistry of fruits, and my share of the work was
to include the preservation of orchard fruits in their natural state ; pre-
servation by drying; and keeping of fruit by canning, etc. My under-
standing was that the committee would not go into a detailed account
of the various processes by which fruits are utilized, but simply to pre-
sent such data as would be of interest to the pomologist : or rather to
gather some facts that would elicit discussion, to be followed by addition-
al information as the facts could be gathered from season to season.

I have therefore concluded to divide the portion of work assigned
to me under three heads : Preserving fruits in their natural condition,
preservation by drying, and conservation in air-tight packages.

All that is necessary in order to keep fruits perfectly, in fresh or
natural state, is to place them in a dry, pure atmosphere, at a tempera-
ture of thirty-five to thirty-eight degrees. This has been accomplished
by the plan of Prof. Nyce, and also in Schooley's preservatory, the essen-
tial features differing in no great degree. 'I'he plan ado[)ted by Mr. Nyce
was to keep the temperature of the room at thirty-four degrees, and the
atmosphere dry by means of the refuse of salt works, chloride of calci-
um, commonly called ''bitterns." It is thus stated by Prof. Nyce:

" In a room or any confined vessel when filled with fruit in the grad-
ual processes of ripening, carbonic acid and water are constantly being
generated. Six pounds of carbon and one of hydrogen will take up all
the oxygen contained in one hundred and twenty pounds of air. The
oxygen, especially if the fruit be ripe and the room warm, will usually

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ]^(j9

be consumed in about forty-eight hours. The atmosphere is then made
up of the nitrogen of the air, and carbonic acid. The former is desti-
tute of all active properties, good or bad. The latter is not found to
have any ai tion on fruit immersed therein. Hydrogen and carbon then
cease to be evolved from the fruit, as there is no agent to unite with
them, in the same way that they cease to be evolved from a burning
candle when air is removed. Decomposition ceases in both cases, from
the same cause."

It is simply the application of a principle laid down by 1 jebig,
who says :

" Decay is much retarded by moisture, and by the substance being
surrounded with an atmosphere of carbonic acid, wliich prevents the
air from coming in contact with decaying mattter."

From this it would appear that the more perfectly the fruit is
ripened, the better it will keep, care being taken that it be not overripe ;.
the process of after ripening being a purely chemicalprocess. the starch
being gradually converted into sugar, for however much starch a green
fruit may contain, it is gradually changed during the process of ripening,
until not a trace of starch may l)e left; for again Liebig says, "The more
starch the green fruit contains, the more sugar will be evolved during
the process of ripening."

The same principle was used in the plan not long since promulga-
ted, the invention being to place the fruit in water-tight packages, and
fill the interstices "with carbonic acid gas, but as a matter of course, the
plan did not work except in theory.

The fruit houses of Mr. Nyce were two-story buildings, tlie upper
chamber containing ice, the sides and Moor being double, three feet
thick and filled in with some nonconductor, so that the fruit room should
be practically air-tight. The fruit was placed on shelves or racks, to the
depth of two or three feet. I have had tomatoes preserved for three
mon.'hs in the house in Chicago, which came out in perfect condition.
The Chicago house, however, did not pay, and it was soon, I believe,
abandoned.

'J"he elements, therefore, of a complete i;reser\ ing atmosphere are a
uniform temperature, just above the freezing point, dryness, purity, and
the exclusion as far as possible of the great agent of decomposition —
the oxygen of the atmos])here. Whoever can secure these conditions
most chea])ly will best succeed in keejoing apples,'pears, and grapes, and
with jdenty of these fruits out of their natural season, there is a for-
tune to wlionisoe\er succeeds in its accomplishment.

T think the best i)lace for keeping fruits in their natural stale is in
fruit-houses with double walls, secure at the same time from frost and the
constant "(hanges of the atmosphere; for however cheap dried or
canned fruits are in the market, first-class natural fruits will always
command a remunerative price. A curious fact in connection with sea-
sons of extreme plenty like the one just passed, is, that l)eing plenty, so
much fruit is wasted that a scarcity almost always follows.

ll{j TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Where the soil is perfectly dry to a* sufficient depth, or capable of
perfect drainage, a fruit-liouse may be readily built under a barn or car-
riage-house, provided no slock is kept in the barn. The walls should
be seven feet high, and if three sides are under the ground, the other
side may be exposed to the weather if the ventilators and windows arc
double.

To prevent frost entering through the upper floor, it will only be
necessary to have the beams one foot deep, the floor to be made of com-
mon two-inch plank, the joists or beams to be covered with matched
boards for the ceiling; if the inter-spaces are filled with sawdust, or
some material of like nature, frost a\ ill not enter. A trap-door should
be provided for taking out fruit, or entering the cellar in cold weather;
and a chimney also, for ventilation in extreme weather. If the whole
cellar is not wanted for fruit, it can be partitioned off and a part used
for storing vegetables. If the fruit in a cellar of this description be
kept in tight packages, the temperature may run down to twenty-eight
degrees for several days together, next the walls, without injury to the
fruit, provided the packages are tight; and as an index to the temper-
ature, a sufficient number of thermometers should be kept, at top and
bottom, to indicate the degree of cold, so that when the frost once gets
in the room, means may be taken to obviate it.

One of the principal reasons of failure in keeping fruit is that care
is not taken to keep it uniformly cool from the time of picking, and as
near the freezing point as possible. This may be measurably attained
by admitting the air at night, and closing it in the day-time until hard
weather comes on. It is the true secret of greatest success.

Before leaving this branch of the subject, I would say that all plans
for the preservation of fruits in their natural state aim at keeping them
just above freezing point ; as Nyce's, Schooley's, etc., are founded upon
principles only differing in the details. One other plan that may receive
a passing notice is .Smith's method of driving out the atmospheric air
from the packages containing the fruit, by means of the introduction of
carbonic acid and nitrogen through a tube ; this is effected by first pass-
ing a current of common air through a vessel of burning charcoal ; and,
although the plan is feasible, it has not resulted in profit.

We now come to preservation of fruits by drying. This plan has
been practiced from remote times by simple exposure to the air ; but
the fruit becomes so black from oxygenation and dust, that its market
value is slight. In order to be salable it most be dried by the applica-
tion of heat. This is performed in a variety of ways by the simple ra-
diation of heat, and by currents of hot air forced either up through the
prepared fruit, or down from above. The last is, we believe, the Rut-
tan system, and is used principally for drying grain.

The Alden process is performed by carrying to a certain point a
series of shelves automatically, and at such regular intervals in a hot-air
chamber, that when the fruit reaches this point it is cured. Thus when
one tray is taken out, another is put in. The erection of thcge works

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. m

requires the expenditure of ccjusidcrablc capital, and [irobahly skill; for
notwithstanding the lact that this plan has been in ojK'ration for several
years, the quantity exposed for sale in our cities is very limited, and ex-
ceedingly high in price. It must be said, however, that the fruit so pro-
duced is of the very higliest (piality, and leaves but little to be desired.
I have seen it staled that the royalty for this process is so excessive, that
it has prevented its adoption to a great extent. I ain fully convinced,
howe\'er, that the ])reserving of fruits by desiccation, bv means of a blast
of hot air, is the proper direction for us to look in the t'uture.

I learn through the California Agriculiurist, that a gentleman of San-
ta Clara, California, has perfected a process this season, for the perfect
preservation not only of fruits, but also of any other article capable of
lieing so treated, by this means; that he has erected a building, with
engine, blower, etc., and is prepared to fill small orders for such desicca-
ted fruits. Fruits, meats, fish, and vegetables are said to retain all the
richness and e.xcellence of natural flavor; and the process, although
simple, is said to be perfect. When Mr. Gould was east last year he
examined the .Vlden process, but owing to the cost of a royalty from
Mr. Alden, he set about inventing a way of his own. upon which he has
filed a caveat to protect himself against the possible patents of others.
But the A^^riculturist says he is willing that any one should adopt his
method, free of royalty. This is the spirit we feel like commending,
and it is to be hoped that those interested will inform themselves of the
facts, in order to profit by such self-sacrificing liberality ; a commodity not
much in vogue in these days.

It only remains for me now. Mr. President, to notice the other
principal n:ode of preserving fruit, which is, in the form of jellies, jams,
sauces, and the so-called " butters." There are many persons who con-
sider this the most economical manner of preservation. Unfortunately
with many varieties of fruits preserved, the cans represent a greater
value than the fruits so preserved, one of which may be mentioned, to-
matoes. Were it not for this, sealed fruits Mould always hold a close
competition with the best class of dried fruits. For many of the finer
fruits, as cherries, plums, apricots, nectarines, and perhaps peaches, will
always be sought, until the system of drying fruits is brought to a great-
er perfection than at present. There is one thing in favor of sealed
fruits. The packages once bought, the expense for fixtures is not great.
The process may be carried on in any village large enough to afford a
steam-engine to give the necessary heat, the other appliances being only
of moderate cost. A steam-box is needed for heaiing, capable of hold-
ing the water in which the steam is introduced, and a machine for press-
ing the corks into glass packages, and also implements for soldering tin.
.A good formula for making the sealing wax is one pound of rosin, one
and one-half ounces of tallow, and three ounces of beeswax. I am in-
formed, also, that pitch, as used for calking vessels, is admirable. It is
first prepared by boiling a few minutes, and then heated as wanted.
The jars, after the corks have been driven and pared, are inverted and

112 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

dipped into the pitch or sealing-wax, just to the rim or bulb, for if dipped
lower, it is apt to crack the glass. If there are blisters, they must be
rubbed out, using a little tallow to prevent sticking.

I have thus imperfectly performed the labor assigned mc, and can
only offer in excuse, that my time is so constantly taken up, that I have
not been able to give more attention to gathering facts relating to this
subject. In conclusion I unhesitatingly express the opinion that we
rely in a great measure on the first and second plans named in this
report — the preservation of fruits in their natural state, and desiccation.
The second I consider of far more importance than the first, since the
fruits are so largely reduced in weight thereby, that it makes the cost of
transportation a comparatively small item. When the processes for
drying shall be cheapened as they must be, the demand ior these fruits
will increase to an unlimited extent, and the profits of fruit growing
will be largely increased. In the meantime, recourse must be had to
the drying. of fruits by radiation; and this is so simple, that no orchard
distant from market, should be without an appliance for this purpose.
Any rough carpenter can build the house, and any rough workman can
put in the flues. It is simply to get the most radiating surface possible,
at the least cost, and so arrange the drawers upon which the fruit
is placed, as to make the handling economical. Thus the surplus of
fruit can be easily worked, and if quickly and cleanly performed, there
•is abundant sale for the product at remunerative prices.

The proper drying of fruits, or rather the most economical
appliances therefor, are in their infancy yet, and I would like to see this
society take measures to continue inquiry in this direction ; for thereby
I feel assured will be solved one of the problems : what to do with our
fruits in seasons like the present.

Mr. M. L. Dunlap, another member of the committee said that he
had no prepared, written report, but would make a {^y^ remarks upon
the subject.

MR. DUNLAP'S REPORT ON UTILIZING TRUITS.

Mr. President and Gentlemen :

There are several ways, in which the fruit grower may utilize his
fruits. As for example, by drying, canning, making cider and cider-
vinegar.

We have gentlemen here, like Mr. Huggins, Mr. Earle, and others
. who are posted in the drying methods of utilizing fruits, and others who
can tell us all about how to can our fruits.

I will therefore turn my attention, and make my remarks upon the
utilization of the apple by making cider, and cider-vinegar. But I do not
know where to begin, nor where to leave off. I have been in the orch-
ard ever since the thirteenth of July, and I have got so much cider, and
cider-vinegar in that time, that I do not know anything else muc/i. I do
claim to know how to make cider and cider-vinegar, and what I shall
say will be gathered from my own experience and practice.

vStatp: iroKTicuLTURAL society. ]J3

When your apples begin to drop from the tree, llien is the tune to
begin to gather them. You assort the perfect specimens for market, and
the remainder, which is sometimes the half of the < rop, are to he made
into cider, or cider-vinegar. The best cider is made from sound winter
fruit. Some varieties of apples often ripen their fruit prenuiturely, and
you must be prepared to utilize the product by putting tlic same into
cider or vineg.'ir. Ordinarily one h;df of the summer apples nuist go
into cider-vinegar, which will under j)voper treatment, be ready for the
market a year after.

1 was in an orchard this summer, where there were not less than
seven hundred bushels of apples that were allowed to drop from the
.trees, because the owner said it would not pay to ship them, and these
were fine, beautiful red-cheeked apples as any could wish, and would
have made from two thousand five hundred to two thousand eight hun-
dred gallons of the best cider, that could have been sold for twenty-five
cents per gallon.

The orchardist must be prepared to avail himself of every advantage
in his situation. He must be mdependent of the apple market. I say
to my customers, when you can pay me fifty cents per bushel for my ap-
ples you can have them. When the price falls below that I press them.
1 have cider made on the thirteenth day of August, that is sweet and
good. I know that if I can't make the a[>ples pay, I can make the cider
pay, and the refuse not fit for market at any time, is put into vinegar.

."^ome say rotten apples won't make good vinegar. This is a mis-
take. The Shaker vinegar, so much sought after and praised, is made
of rotten apples, exposed to the summer sun, and summer rnins. Cider
made in this way has sold for seventy-five cents and a dollar per gallon.
Rotten ajjples make good vinegar, but to make good cider we use sound
apples.

T am told that some make vinegar and can't sell it, and why can't
they sell it.' Because they do not have a clear, good article, instead
of racking the vinegar off, before stirring the barrel from its place, they
perhaps roll it into the wagon, and stir it all up, and then it is impossible
to settle it, and the grocery man will not have it.

There is another thing. T like to have my cider-vmcgar high ( olored,
and for this purpose, I let it stand in the \at twelve hours. We can or-
dinarily get about four gallons of juice out of a bushel of apples, in the
method we adopt. We pt-ess out about three gallons of cider from the
bushel, and in making vinegar we re-press this pomace, and get another
gallon, so that from a hundred bushels of apples we get four hundred
gallons of juice.

It is necessary to put into the grocers' hands sfiuwg vinegar, because,
among other reasons, the grocer finds it very convenient sometimes, to
put in four or five gallons of water. But if a customer comes and
says, " Here, I want vinegar for pickles," the honest (.'') grocer will be
careful and not give him the watered vinegar.

To make good cider and vinegar there is needed care, skill, experi-
ence, and — if done on a large scale — capital. So that it may be ques-

9

\l^ TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

tioned whether the man with a small orchard should attempt to be both
producer and manufacturer. Might it not l)e better for him to sell to
the manufacturer? It is not always that the small farmer can afford to
lie out of his money, even if he had the tact and business ability to
carry on a manufacturing establishment.

Another thing: to sell a manufactured article recjuires a previously
earned reputation. A man who is not known in the market, might not
be able to sell to advantage, but when a man has worked up a trade,
and it is known that he makes a good article, he has no trouble in selling.
There are gentlemen in this house who have thousands upon thousands
of gallons of cider; you do not hear much about it, they have their cus-
tomers, they come and take it and pay all that the man's cider is worth.

There was a time when it was difficult to get the grocery men to
take our cider and pay for it. They could buy sulphuric acid cheaper.
But when the people came to know the difference between this poisoned
stuff and pure cider-vinegar, they were not slow to choose the latter,
and pay what it was worth ; and Avhen grocery men refused to buy my
cider-vinegar, I sold direct to their customers until they were finally glad
to " try a few barrels," and they have been trying my cider-vinegar ever
since.

DISCUSSION ON UTILIZING FRUITS.

Mr. Hilliard — I have taken the a'der track, in the utilizing of the
fruits of my apple orchard, and I can sell more cider than Mr. Dunlap,
but he can sell more vinegar than I can. I have no secret in making my
cider. The world is wide enough for me, and for every body else too. I
think a full discussion of this subject will benefit all. As to the temper-
ance part of the question, I will say we make a cider that will not hurt
any body. We made three hundred barrels last year, and this year have
made four hundred barrels, and have orders already for one-half of it.
As to its keeping, I think that in drawing off into a barrel it would be-
come hard. It should be bottled.

Mr. Wier — If Mr. Hilliard will tell us how he refines his cider we
will have something practical.

Mr. Milliard — We have tried a great ■ many things for settling*
We have used sulphate of lime; it is the most villanous stuff that was
ever put into cider.

Voice-— T\\a.i is so.

Mr. Milliard — We once used isinglass; afterward we found -that
the raw material — that of which the isinglass is made — 'was better, and
also find that there is one particular kind that is worth four times as
much as all other kinds. There was a man in Ohio who had the patent?

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ] ]^5

and I went to see him, and told him that if he had anything better than
I had, I wanted it. I was pleased with what I learned and saw, and so
I bought hTs patent process, which I now use with great satisfai tion.

Mr. Fi.agg — I would like to ask Mr. Hilliard about tlie variety of
apples that make the best cider.

Mr. HrLi.tARD — The Janet and Little Rornanite arc among the best
cider apples. We prefer to mix the varieties.

Voice — What can you afford to pay for apples to make into cider?

Mr. Hili-iard — We bought a great many apples for fifty cents per
barrel this fall. I think the Janet is,'perhaps, the best cider apple.

Voice — I would like to hear from Mr. Holcomb upon this subject
of utilizing the orchard fruits.

Mr. Holcomb — I presume I am called upon because I happen to
be connected with a factory of the Alden process for drying fruits. I
do not think it will be necessary or wise for me to take up your time
Avith a detailed account of the process. It consists simply in passing
heated air through a tower, the green fruit being put in at the bottom,
and taken out at the top in a dried state.

Voice — How many pounds of dried apples do you get from a bushel ?

Mr. Holcomb — About si.x pounds. We have in this way utilized
hundreds and thousands of bushels of apples and other fruits that could
never in any other way have found a market. And what is more, the
work was done by those who would not otherwise have done fifty dollars
worth of labor in any other way.

Voice^-Wovf about the expense .'

Mr. Holcomb — The enterprise being new and untried, the expense
has been necessarily greater than it need be hereafter. I think thus far
it has cost us about twelve cents per pound. I think hereafter the expense
can be brought down to ten or eleven cents, and we sell for about twenty
cents per pound. But remember we are not proposing to sell </r/W/ai)ples
for twenty cents, but apples preserved in a fresh state — as if canned —
and when made into pies, might be mistaken for green-apple pies.

Mr. Si hi'vlrr — General agent at Chicago, for the Alden P>uit-dry-
ing Company, spoke at considerable length giving the excellences of
that system of utilizing fruits, and stating the plans upon which the com-
pany are ready to establish co-partnerships with truit growers in erecting
fruit-drying houses. He stated that the entire cost of one of these

]^1(3 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

establishments is about two thousand dollars ; but the company expected
to bring out a plan for smaller houses, which could be built for about
one thousand dollars each, but did not know as they would put it upon
the market, as the company wish to control the process and sale of the
fruit, until the price is established, and also to ])revent inferior fruit being
put upon the market by unskillful operators.

The uniform price at which the company sold its dried (or " desic-
cated") apples is twenty cents per pound, in (juantity. The cores and
skins are used for making jelly.

Mr. Wier said he had tried to organize a company to build and
equip an Alden fruit house. b\it failing in it had succeeded in getting
up a company and building and operating a dry-house upon the plan of
Smith's Baltimore house, which was less expensive and he thought made
about as good fruit; yet as cheap as fruit has been the past season it did
not pay expenses, and the company had closed out the business. He
did not believe that any factory for drying fruit had paid expenses.

Dr. Hooton exhibited a sample of fruit dried in a dry-house which
he had built at a cost of two hundred and fifty dollars. He could dry
sixty bushels of apples in ten hours at an expense of two cents per pound.
(?). He thought his dried apples as good as anybody's.

Mr. Huggins also said he had built a dry-house for twenty-five
dollars, which answered his purpose and he thought a good investment.
He dries his fruit in ten hours, with an ordinary furnace, can i)ut in twenty-
five bushels green fruit at once. He thought the expensive establish-
ments were beyond the reach of most of us. He sold his dried apples
for nine cents per pound, yet a St. Louis buyer assured him that they so
nearly resembled the Alden fruit that he could mi\ them witli the Alden
and there would be no cause for complaint by those who bought all
as Alden fruit.

Mr. Dl'nlap called attention to the propriety of taking measures

to secure the sale of green fruits by weight, and read a resolution

upon the subject, which he thought it would be proper for the Society to,

pass, viz :

SELLING FRUIT BY WEIGHT.

Whfre.AS — The selling of all farm, orchard, and garden products by weight is the
most just and fair to both seller and consumer, therefore

Resolved, That the Boards of Trade in the cities of Chicago and .St. Louis be
requested to adopt a rule for their members to sell all farm, orchard, and garden pro-
ducts by weight ; the time for inaugurating this change to be the firs^l day of January
next.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. H^J

Mr. Pearson — I have no objection to vote for the resolution if it
would do any good. The dealers will hear us, and treat us very cour-
teously, and then go about their business, and do as they please. We
have tried it. All thi' resolutions that we can pass will do no good.

Mr. Schuyler — They sell potatoes by weight in Chicago, why not
sell other vegetables and fruits by weight '

Mr. Robinson — For my part, I have often sold by weight. and that
by the car-load. My apples run about forty-seven to forty-nine pounds
to the bushel.

Mr. WiER — The Bellflower will weigh only forty-two pounds.

Mr. Earle — This discussion is very interesting to me but 1 want
to call the attention of this Society to the subject of camiing.

We have a company at our town, who have turned out one hundred
twenty thousand cans. They paid the growers from seventy-five cents
to one dollar and ten cents per bushel for peaches.

I think this canning interest is worth something to the producer
and will help us to utilize our fruits.

The time was when peaches were worth too much to can them, but
now we have them, in favorable seasons, in abundance, and many can
be utilized only in this way. If in Baltimore they can put up canned
fruits and sell them among us w ith profit, why can not we do it ?

Mr. Pearson — Mr. President: — I had, not long since, a conference
with a man at Baltimore who had experience in this business of canning.
1 went through his large establishment from top to bottom. He was
doing a large and profitable business. 1 told him we had often talked
about starting this canning business out west, but some who have started
this enterprise do not seem to get ahead, and asked him what is the
matter ?

The man laughed and said, " My engine never stops; when fruits
fail, we can vegetables, then oysters, and we have something doing all
the time." 1 think it would be well for gentlemen who think of going
into this business to go to Baltimore and see how they manage to make
it pay. They make the cans, and all the work from beginning to end is
performed by them. This firm have not less than five thousand dollars
invested in the business.

Mk. Earle — That is a \ery fair jKjiiU to raise, but it does not take
five thousand dollars to start a canning establishment in Southern Illinois.
I am not myself in this business, but I know the members of the firm at

]^|g tRA>fSACTlONS OF trfE ILLINOIS

«

our place have not spent so miu li money. The labor in Baltimore and
Philadelphia costs more than with us. We use labor that would not be
employed in any other way, and our expenses are much less. So I think
the objection that might exist in the East does not exist here.

Mr. Pearson — There is another way a man can use apples. He
can feed them to his cows. They are worth as much at any time as bran
used in this way, and you get something besides in the way of manure.

Mr. Galusha— Feeding to cows makes what you call " apple butter."
[Laughter.]

Mr. Pearson — Just so.

Mr. Wier — Speaking of vinegar, I want to put "di flea in Mr. Dun-
lap's ear. I found that there was a gnat that had attacked my vinegar.
I showed it to our entomologists, Mr. Riley and Dr. LeBaron, but they
knew nothing about it. I don't think Mr. Dunlap will make much vin-
egar, if he gets this gnat.

Mr. Dunlap — I told you you did not know how to make vinegar.
We do not make vinegar in that way [Laughter.]
Adjourned till to-morrow morning.

THIRD DAY.

MORNING SESSION.

Pres. Starr called the meeting to order at ten o'clock. Prayer
was offered by the Rev. C. Nash, of Centralia.

The Committee on Fruits reported through Mr. Vickroy :
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON FRUITS.
Mr. President :

Your Committee appointed to report on fruits have performed their
duty, and present the following report : We find the following fruit on
exhibition : —

Dr. M. M. Hooton, of Centralia — seven varieties of apples; among
them a long keeping sweet apple — unknown.

M. L. Dunlap and Sons, Champaign — eleven varieties, correctly
named — good specimens.

O. B. Galusha, Morris — one variety, the Fulton — fine specimens.

G. H. Baker, South Pass — seven varieties — very fine specimens,
particularly the White Winter Pearmain, which is large, smooth, and
free from scab ; one variety of Pear, Beurre Easter — good specimens.

E. Daggy, Tuscola — ten varieties — four for name; some fair speci-
mens of the Dutch Mignonne, a winter apple, mild, tart, and good for
cooking.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. Hi)

A. C. Hammond, Warsaw — three varieties and a seedling — medium
to large, resembling in size and shape the Hocking — very juicy, mild
acid — worthy of notice.

VV. C. Flagg, Moro — thirteen varieties; among them Peak's Fall —
identical with Hard's Limber Twig, of Bloomington, and probably Mag-
num or Carter, of N. C. All fine specimens.

Mr. Aldrich, of Tiskihva — one variety sent for name, which the
Committee pronounce Ladies Sweeting.

j. B. Essex, Dongola — four varieties.

W. T. Nelson, of Wilmington — four varieties, including the " Nel-
son," a sweet apple, and a long keeper.

C. A. Webster, Peotone — one variety — unknown.

From the Experimental orchards of the Illinois Industrial L'ni-
— eighteen varieties.

Mr. Detrich, ofCentralia — ten varieties of Apples, fine specimens —
three varieties of Pears.

D. Cram, Villa Ridge — one variety of Pear.

J. W. Robinson, Tremont — six varieties — fine specimens, especially
the Smith's Cider.

H. K. ViCKROY,

/or the Committee .

The Committee on Railroad Transportation, through its chairman,
Dr. Hooton, made the following report :

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION.

Whereas — Unequal and exorbitant charges for transportation tend to check pro-
duction and discourage enterprise, and

Whereas — The present rates for transportation by Railroad are so oppressive as
to make it doubtful whether the production of many articles now largely raised can
safely be continued, and

Whereas — On many Railroads the rates of transportation from the way stations
are much higher proportionately than on through freights, or on freights shipped from
stations where intersecting roads afford competition, and

Where.'VS — Railroads have been chartered in this State and the rights of eminent
domain have been extended to the companies building them, solely because of the
benefits the people should derive from them, and

Whereas — No legislative body of this State or of the United States has a right to
irretrievably cede the rights of the people or to make any law that may not be repealed
by a subsequent se::.oion of the same or another legislative body, therefore,

Rcsoh'ed ist. — That the policy now pursued by many of the Railroads leading from
the fruit regions of our State to the principal markets of the country is detrimental to
the public good, and will re^ult in driving many from the held of production to their
own injury and the ultimate detriment of the roads.

2d. — That it is not only good policy on the part of the Railroad companies, but it is
their duty to grant to way shippers the same rates proportionately as are charged on
through freights.

jd. — That equitable rates should be charged on ail articles transported, making no
unfavorable distinctions.

4/h. — That we believe the present rates to be too high, and that the transportation
companies would make more money at lower rates because of the increased shipments
aft'arding regular employment and relieving them of the expensive necessity of trans-
porting so many empty cars as they now do over their roads.

]20 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILUNOtS

jith — That \Nf heartily endorse the ilecision of judge Tipton, in the recent case
brou<jhl before iiini, and we hope his decision will he confirmed !))■ tlie Supreme
Couri.

6tk. — Thit we request the Kaihoad Companies of this State to jierforni the business
now done bv Express Companies, as far as relates to horticultural products.

M. M. HOOTON,
H. C. GRAVES,
L. K. SCOFIELD,
M. L. DUNLAP.

Committer.

On motion of Mr. Wier, the resolutions offered by the committee
were adopted.*

Mr. Flagg offered the following supplementary resolution, which

was adopted :

Resolved, That the exclusive letting to a single Express company on each railroad,
the privilege of sending freight by fast trairts is contrary to the Constitution of the State
of Illinois, which makes the railways public highways on which all have equal rights of
transportation ; and is a needless waste of capital in sustaining two sets of officers,
teams and other appliances of business where one would suffice.

RESOLUTION ON COMMUTATION OF FARES.

The following resolution was read, and unanimously adopted, viz :

Resolved, That we are fully satisfied that the interests of Horticulture would be
move rapidly advanced by cultivating a more general interest among all classes of hor-
ticulturists and agriculturists, and that this end could be best accomplished by bring-
ing togetiier at our winter meetings a larger number than heretofore, and thereby more
widely disseminate horticultural knowledge. And to this end we believe that the sev-
eral Railroad corporations of the State, by giving commutation rates to and from these
meetings, would not only materially advance those interests but also derive a much
larger revenue therefrom.

REPORT UPON THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

Mr. Earle, from the Committee on President's Address reported

the following:

The Committee to whom was referred the Address of the President
respectfully report, that we deem it desirable that in any movement of a
national character, relating to Horticulture, the State Society of Illinois
should have its representation; though this expression is given .some-
what qualifiedly, there not being information in our possession as to
how far the National organization, to meet at Indianapolis in May next,
can be relied upon as a means of con'solidating the general interests of
Horticulture.

We would call attention to the recommendation that measures be
taken to secure the needed aid from the State, and that it is desirable
lo increase the edition of our Transactions for wider distribution. Funds
should also be under control of this Society to meet expenses which
can not reasonably be expected to be defrayed by individual members

*This vote was afterwards reconsidered, and the resolutions so amended as to refer
only to horticultural products — see record.

STATE HORTICUr.TURAL SOCIETY. ^21

when acting as representatives of the Society abroad, and giving their
time freely in sucli cujiacity.

We do not concur with tlie President in tlic idea of striking from
the By-Laws the obligation of that officer to deliver an annual address
upon some horticultural subject, and think that any member accepting
the honor of that position, tan afford to render an equivalent in that
way.

As to the appointment of committees it seems best that it should
be done mainly by the Executive, but when local organizations have
preferences it should be the rule for them to make nominations for their
own districts, to be subject to confirmation by the Society.

Respectfully submitted,

H. C. Freeman, Chairman.

Mr. Francis read the following :

REPORT OF AUDITING COMMITTEE.

The Auditing Committee find the accounts of the Treasurer and
Secretary correct, and that a balance is due the Secretary — on all ac-
counts— of Forty Dollars and fifty cents ($40.50); for which amount we
recommend that a warrant be drawn on the Treasurer in his favor.

(Signed) L. C. Francis, Chairman.

The President announced that the regular order of business for
the morning was the election of officers.

Mr. Freeman asked and obtained consent to call up the sub-
ject of

METEOROLOGY AMD THE SIGNAL SERVICE.

Mr. Freeman — Before the election of officers takes place, I wish
to call up a little matter — and not so little either — that was overlooked
yesterday — on the subject of Meteorology. 1 think it is desirable that
this Society should take some action in regard to memorializing the
Signal Service Bureau of the United States to do for agriculture what
it is doing for the marine service and for commerce. Prof. Tice in his
address shows clearly how this can be done ; it only needs an extension
of this service, which can be had with a little additional expense, to ac-
complish all we ask for the agricultural interest.

1 therefore hope that some one will move a resolution to memor-
ialize Congress to extend this service.

Mk. Clavtun — I would like to add a suggestion, viz : — that a com-
mittee be appointed, at once, to draw up a memorial to Congress, upon
this subject, and solicit the signatures of the members of this Society
new present.

122 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

. 1 ha\e brought with \nc a inenioiial that was drawn up at the meet-
ing of the Jacksonville Horticultural Society, and adopted — It has al-
ready some signatures.

If the President will allow me, I would like to read this memorial.
The President — If there is no objection Mr. Clayton will read.
Mr. Flagg read the memorial which is in the following words ;

MEMORIAL.

TV Ml? Honorable Senate and House of Representatives in Congress as-
sembled :

The undersigned, citizens of the LTnited States, believing that the
interests of Agriculture demand a more complete system of crop reports
than the present limited appropriations will permit, and that the advant-
age of such a system would confer a benefit upon all classes of the peo-
ple in a greater or less degree, and that it is, therefore, a proper subject
of governmental action, do therefore respectfully ask that the appropri-
ations for the Signal Service be so increased as to allow the establish-
ment of Stations of Observation in the large agricultural districts, and
such extension of the warning signals, and other publications of results
and information as the Chief Signal Officer may find feasible and useful
to the. agricultural interests of the country.

And believing further that the science of Meteorology, as it is be-
coming developed, may be made available to the material advancement
of the national prosperity, we, your petitioners, do humbly pray that, in
accordance with the suggestions of Lieutenant M. F. Maurv, an invita-
tion be extended to the governments of the earth to meet in conference,
for the establishment of an International System of Crop and Weather
Reports, and that your honorable body will commission one or more
scientists of this country as members of said conference.

And they further pray that a sufficient appropriation be made to
carry out the purposes herein suggested, in such a manner as your wis-
dom may suggest, and with a degree of liberality which its great im-
portance may demand.

Respectfully submitted,

W. W. Clayton.
J. M. Gregory.
W. C. Flagg.

[Note by the Secretary : This memorial was afterwards signed by
sixty members of the Society.]

Mr. Clayton — I move that a committee of three be appointed who
shall be instructed to prepare, circulate, and forward to Congress a me-
morial upon the extension of the Signal Service.

Mr. Flagg — I want to say a word in reference to that matter. I

STATit HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. 123

have had some correspondence with the Signal Service Bureau at Wash-
ington, and 1 fuid Mr. Singleton, who is the official in this mat-
ter, zealously pushing his work, and ready to extend the Service in any
directibn desirable and practicable; but the Government is obliged to
work tlirough the private telegraph companies, and it is difficult to get
cheap enougii rates. If the (loxernment had possession of these lines,
it might be different.

Mr. Clayton — I believe it is contemplated in this memorial that
Government shall make such an arrangement that it will run the machine.
For one, I should feel proud of the United States to have her enter
upon this great work. Such an extension of this Service, as we con-
template, would place our government in the foreground, and fitly rep-
resent the progress and light of the nineteenth century. There may be
some difficulties to encounter, but they are not insurmountable.

Dr. Gregory said that this was a matter that had engaged his at-
tention, and he was glad that the subject was introduced here, and at
this time.

He spoke of the great service which Col. Maury was rendering to
the country, and especially to commerce. He regarded the move to
expend the Service, so as to benefit the agricultural interests of the
country, a step in the right direction.

He had conversed with the officers of the Signal Service Bureau,
and believed that they were ready to serve us ; he had suggested to the
proper authorities the propriety of making the State Agricultural Uni-
versity one of the signal stations. He hoped that the Society would
unite heartily in this memorial and that they would ask further that the
Industrial University may become one of the signal stations in the
State.

Mr. Flagg — I don't know that I am understood. I did not mean
to throw cold water upon this movement. I go for the memorial, heart
and soul — and I recognize the great service that is rendered the country
through this Bureau, and I shall be glad to know that the Service can
be extended.

The motion prevailed.

On motion of Dr. Hooton, the form of memorial, as read, was
adopted — and

The President announced the names of

Dr. J. M. Gregory, Rev. Wm. Clayton, and Hon. W. C. Flagg, as
the Committee.

124 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Mk. Earle — moved the appointment of a committee to confer with
the railroad companies upon the subjects embraceci in the resolutions
adopted, respecting railroad matters.

The motion carried, and the following Committee was appointed.

M. L. Dunlap, Parker Earle, L. K. Scofield, W. C. Flagg, and
B. Pullen,

Mr. Wier — I suggest that this committee include in " horticul-
tural products " frees in />oxes.

Judge Brown — It will be necessary for this committee to visit
Chicago, if they do anything. 1 therefore move that the Executive
Board of this Society be instructed to pay the necessary expenses of
the visit.

Mr. Scofield — Perhaps, we had better wait and see if they earn
their money — (laughter.)

The motion prevailed.

The Committee appointed to report upon Postal Matters, pre-
sented a report which was approved, and resolutions adopted asking
for the restoration of the former rates of postage upon seeds, plants, and
cions, which had been largely increased during the past year; but as the
old rates were ordered restored about this time, the report is omitted.

ELECTION, OF OFFICERS.
On motion the Society proceeded to elect officers for the year
eighteen seventy-three, and the follow ing persons were unanimously elect-
ed to the several offices.

President — M. L. Dunlap, Champaign.
Secretary — O. B. Galusha, Morris.
Treasurer — Jonathan Huggins, Woodburn.
Assistant Secretary — H. C. Dunlap, Champaign.
Vice Presidents . —

1st District — W. L. Nelson, Wilmington.

2d do — Samuel Edwards, La Moille.

3d do — A. G. Humphrey, Galesburg.

4th do — L. C. Francis, Springfield.

5th, do — J. C. Cooper, Centralia.

6th do - — Isaac Snedecker, Jerseyville.

7th do ^-Parker Earle, South Pass. ^^

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ]^25

LOCATION OF NEXT ANNUAL MEETING-
Prof. T. J. Burrii i — On behalf of the Champaign County Hor-
ticultural Society, invited the Society to Champaign.

Mk. Stkw art — Presented an invitation from the Adams County
Horticultural Society, to this Society to hold its next meeting in Quincy.

.After discussing the advantages of both places, and the probable
railroad facilities which may be afforded to members to reach each point,
the Society voted to hold the next meeting m C'hampaign, between the
first and fifteenth days of December — the precise time to be fixed by
the Executive Board.

On motion of Mr. Wier, Mr. Mark Miller of Iowa was elected an
honorary member of this Society.

REPORT OF THE FIFTH HORTICULTURAL DISTRICT.

Mr. Pullen — Vice President in the Fifth Horticultural District
reported as follows:

Mr. Prrsident and Gentlemen :

In reporting on the Condition of Horticulture in the Fifth District,
I find myself almost entirely thrown upon my own resources — only one
of the seventeen correspondents in my district having responded to the
circular letter sent out by your Secretary.

I am therefore unable to report intelligently for the whole district,
with many counties of which I am entirely nnacciuainted.

I shall endeavor to be brief and confine my report to the portion of
the district lying east of the Illinois C'entral Railroad and immediately
adjacent thereto, from Duquoin on the south to Vandalia on the main
line, and Neoga on the Chicago Branch, north. This embraces probably
three-fourths of the territory in the district, which is os])ccially devoted to
Horticulture.

It is l)elieved, also, that over the section above referred to, the re-
sults and conditions of the fruit rrop for eighteen seventy-two are much
the same: and that what applies to one locality will apply with equal
force, or nearly so, to all the rest.

The amount of fruit raised was immense — far exceeding any for-
mer year.

The Apple crop has been abundant, and uniformly of good ([uality,
notwithstanding the extreme heat and drouth of the season ; owing to
these causes, however, the winter varieties matured too early and are
not keeping as well as usual.

Varieties seemed to vie with each other in the perfection and
quality of their fruits — while many of these same varieties for three or
four years past have been comparatively worthless. Spur-blight was ob-
served to be more prevalent than last year, though there was less of the
common blight, than for two or three years past. A species of blight with

12Q TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

which I am not familiar, has caused the death of many bearing trees ;
the tree seems to be on the decline, and upon examination, the bark
around the tree at the collar is found to be dead, while the roots and
toj)S are apparently uninjured. Many trees are now struggling for ex-
istence, from the effects of damage sustained during the winter of
eighteen seventy and eighteen seventy-one, indicated at the the time
by the bursting of the bark, etc. Time has seemed to develope fully
the injury sustained. The bitter or bleak rot has made its appearane
in our orchards, and spreads with great rapidity ; I stopped its progress
in my own by picking off the affected fruit. So far as observed, it has
uniformly made its appearance on the White Bellflower variety. The
next in order seemed to be Willow Twig and Gilpin.

It is gratifying to be able to state that the apple has suffered less
from insect depredations than for some years past. Summ-er and fall
varieties are not profitable to raise here, except for home use and for
hogs. All things considered, the present season should encourage the
apple grower.

What has been said of the apple crop, may also be said of the Peach,
as to quantity and quality. Prices obtained for the fruit were probably
more satisfactory than for any of the larger fruits.

There seems to be no escape however from the Pear blight ; many
trees have suffered, and the disease is certainly not very choice as to
varieties.

Very little that is gratifying can be said of the Peach crop. Had
the fruit been uniformly good, it is believed that the supply was in ex-
cess of the demand ; for fully one-third in this section was left to care for
itself. Orchards were generally in good condition — better than usual —
but over-bearing, together with excess of drouth, could have but one re-
sult. Much discouragement is met with on the part of the growers, and
grave doubts expressed in regard to the future. It Avas observed that
peaches raised in timbered sections of the district, were much finer than
those grown on the prairie ; this result is an exception. The Curculio
was found to be so scarce that bugging was generally dispensed with ;
the result no doubt of the entire failure of the crop last year.

The Wild Goose Plum bids fair to become a valuable addition to
our collection of fruits that succeed here ; so far as seen or heard from,
the fruit raised Avas very fine, and free from insect injury; the trees come
into bearing early ; it should receive more attention from fruit growers.
Aside from this, no success has attended the cultivation of the plum in
this district so far as I learn. The Early May or Richmond Cherry
produced a fine fruit and was disposed of at good prices. The finer sorts
are byt little cultivated. The trees do not withstand our climate.

Small fruits were a light crop, but profitable to the producer on
account of high prices obtained. The canes of Blackberries and Rasp-
berries were badly damaged by the heat and drouth of eighteen seventy-
one — the injury being observed in the fall ; we must however except the
Kittatinny variety which escaped uninjured. This latter promised a fair

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 127

vield. but the drouth of the present season rendered the fruit almost
worthless. The l>a\vton and native sorts fared alike.

The Crown-borer is increasing ra])idly, and threatens the destruction
of our Strawberry fields; the dry seasons, prevailing for two or three
years past, seem to favor their depredations, and they are evidently
making the most of their opportunities. But few if any of our planta-
tions can be said to be free from them, and ,i nuinlM r have been entirely
destroyed. Nothwithstanding all these drawbacks of seasons and
Crown-borers, a fair crop was raised, a good share of which was fine in
■quality, and the net results to producer more satisfactory than any fruit
marketed during the year eighteen seventy-two.

C.i i].es yielded abundantly, and were of superior quality. Heard
but little complaint of rot, mildew, or insect depredations. Prices rul-
ing low, a large proportion of the crop was manufactured into wine.
But one sentiment seems to prevail as to varieties; the Concord being
the standard. Many otjier varieties are more or less cultivated, but not
enough of reliability attaches to them to render them desirable to culti-
vate for market purposes. Mr. William Rickcords of Hamilton
Countv writes :

" Our prospects for fruit in the spring were very flattertng. All trees were filled
with blossoms ; in April a species of blight affected the pear, apple, and quince — killing
many of the young branches ; rot has prevailed in a great number of our orchards
among the apples. Extreme drouth caused the fruit to be small, and in peaches very
many did not come to maturity— but fairly dried upon the trees ; so that on the whole
the crop is below the average. I ob.serv'ed the blight above mentioned in Missouri
orchards as far north as the Hannibal cV St. Joseph Railroad. I would much like to
see it accounted for, as I have inspected the injured branches but find no trace of in-
sects or other cause of damage. As yet we have no one in the business of growing
fruit for markets, so I am unable to give you a practical account of the capabilities of
our soil fortlie pioduclion of the finer sorts, but from my own observations and experi-
ence we can grow with the proper care as good fruit as any county in Southern Illinois.
Our soil is clay, ejisily worked, nicely rolling and well timbered. Our German popula-
tion raise fine'grapes for their own use, chiefly. As we have cheap lands and good
railroad facilities, we hope for a large immigration to cultivate our unoccupied lands and
cover them with orchards and grain."

I will conclude this report remarking that the aggregated result of the fruit crop for
1872, financially considered, has not been a success ; the unprecedented drouth extend-
ing over a period of two years has affected injuriously, either directly or indirectly, the
rjuality of nearly all our fruits : peaches were small and inferior in flavor, indeed many
did not reach maturity.

The value of the apples was reduced by too early maturity ; which in connection
with high winds at the time of gathering, caused many to fall, while many others had to
be disposed of too early to reali/;e the best prices.

Pears dropped more than usual. The average of small fruits was reduced from the
same cause, and the crop otherwise affected by the smaller size of stools and plants,
thereby diminishing their yield. Of wood growth on our trees, while it may seem to be
an anomaly, yet it may be said that there seems to have been no lack, and present indi-
cations arc favorable for a good crop next year, ^^any in the district have converted
their orchards into hog pastures, and it is believed thai good results follow. The prac-
tice is growing in favor.

The average culture is about medium. Much rliversity of opinion exisLs as to the
extent and kind of culture that should be practiced. Our people continue to be ex-
ercised about the charges for transportation, which under all the circumstances are felt

;[28 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

to be oppressive. Many have labored througlinut tlic season solely for the benefit of
transportation companies, with the odds against them at that ; for some, at the close of
the season have had to draw on their private purses to bring up arrearages. Facts like
these accord with another fact that a reduction of one-third in the rates could be made
in seasons like the past, with profits to the companies equal to, if not greater than that
on any other freight. Such a reduction \\cnild leave to the prtuluccr thousands of dol-
lars that he sorely stands in need of, stimulating at the same time to increased efificiencv
and thoroughness in his profession. This latter T unrlerstand to be the legitimate and
primary object f)f this Society — standing as it does — the representative head of Horti-
culture and horticultural interests in the State. Would it not then be proper for this
Society as such, to lend its influence and aid to correct this growing evil ? We know
not if there is any remedy out>ide of railroad companies themselves, but if there is none
we would like to know it.

AH of which is respectfully submitted,

B. PULLEN,
Vice President, ^th Distnct.

DISCUSSION ON MR. PULLEN'S REPORT.

Mr. Wier — I have a few words to say upon this report of Mr. Pul-
len's. He speaks of blight in the apple orchard and pear orchard. Now,
gentlemen, I have as large an orchard as there is in the West, and I have
no blight, and why.' I prune none. I consider pruning favors the blight,
and I wish to impress it upon the minds of gentlemen present that if
they never prune their trees they will not be likely to have blight in their
orchards.

Mr. Flagg^ — T do not think that is so. I think there are so many
causes of blight that this Society should not lay down the law and say
just what it is that causes blight, for none of us have sufficient knowl-
edge to speak definitely.

Mr. WiKR — 1 speak only of apple-tree blight.

Mr. Flagg — I have known blight to come from various causes, and
I think we err in ascribing blight to one cause alone.

Mr. Phenix — Please name some of these causes.

Mr. Fi.agg — 1 do not deny that excessive pruning will cause blight ;
I think it will. I think also planting in soil excessively rich will cause
blight — or any other treatment that will prevent the full ripening of the
wood. Late rains and a warm fall exciting a second growth which can-
not ripen, is productive of blight.

Mr Stewart. — I have noticed trees not pruned to blight, and trees
pruned with no blight.

Mr. Wier — You cultivate your trees.

Mr. Stewart — Yes, I do. Late cultivation caused blight — prun-
ing did not. •

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ] 29

Mr. Miller — In reference to this blight matter, I will say, I have
given it a great deal of attention, and do not think that judicious prun-
ing is in any way injurious. In eighteen sixty-thiee I ])ut out an orchard
of one thousand trees which I have cultivated well, and had no blight.
I never shorten in the shoots, but prune out a few each year, between
the fifteenth of May and first of July. These trees have borne fruit for
three years.

The President — I wuuld be glad to know if we can get along
without pruning. I prune and have no blight. I would prune nursery
stock sparingly.

Mr. Scofield — I am of the same opinion about pruning nursery
stock.

Mr. Wier — I have often made up my mind not to say another word
upon this matter of pruning orchards. There seems tf) be a question
whether we can grow apples without pruning the trees. I say to gen-
tlemen, "come and see." I gave the invitation last summer, and I re-
ceived some visits from gentlemen who are here present, and they can
tell you what they .saw-. 'IMiey e\|)rcsfsed tluinseh cs entirely satisfied
with the appearance o\ iin' or< hard. I never ( ul a linih tioin llic inside
of the trees.

Mr. Miller — Would you not cut limbs that crossed each other.'
Mr. Wier— Not at all.

After some further desultory remarks, the Societv adjourned to two
o'clock.

THIRD DAY.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

The Society met .md resumed Ijusiucss .d iwo ii'< lock.

.Mr. Dunl.ap called up tlie subject of selling Iruils by weight, and
requested that the preamble and resolution relative to recommending to
the Boards of Trade of Chicago and St. Louis, the selling of fruits and
vegetables by weight, be read. ^

The resolution * was read, and adopted by vole of the .Society.

SIGNAL STATIONS.

Mr. Clayton, from Committee on Memorializing Congress for the
extension of the Signal Service, reported the petition, with the names of
sixtv members of the Society attached, and the C'ommittcc was instructed
to forward the same to menTbers of Congress. !•>

* For this resolution see p.^gc 116.

130 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Mr. Flago presented the following preambles and resolution, which
were adopted.

Whereas, — Tlie appropriation for the Signal Service of the Way Dejjarlment is
declared to be in the interest of Agriculture and Coniniere ; and

WnEKKAS, — The location of the Illinois Industrial University near the center of a
large agricultural region, is also nearly equi-distant froTU the stations now established at
Chicago, Indianapolis, and St. Louis, and

Whereas, — These stations are too remote from eacii other, to cover adequately the
region in question. Therefore

Risoh'dii, That our members of Congress be requested to secure the establishment
of a regular Signal Station at the Industrial University, and to favor such increase of the
appropriations for the Signal Service, as may be necessary to extend such service to the
large agricultural regions not yet sufficiently supplied by such Service.

On motion of Dr. Gregory, the Secretary was instructed to send a

copy of these resolutions to our members of Congress.

Mr. Flagg read the following, and moved its adoption :
Resolved, That the Executive Board of this Society be instructed to ascertain the
weight of a bushel of the various horticultural products commonly sold by the bushel,
and to ask the General Assembly to so amend the laws in relation 1o the legal weights of
measures, as to include such weights as are not already provided for by law.

Mr. Dunlap— I was in the House of Representatives in the year
eighteen fifty-five, and I helped to pass the law that we now have ; and
I would like to see that law extended. I remember the objections that
were then urged against it. It makes no difference what you call a bushel
of corn, or a bushel of ap[)les, but let the nimiber of ])oiinds be fixed
and determined.

Mr. Flagg — I think Iowa has fixed weights and measures; has she
not, Mr. Miller.'

Mr. Miller — I think our weights and measures are fixed. I can-
not recall the figilres but will send them to the Secretary, if it is desired.

Mr. Galusha — It seems tome, Mr. President, that we are progress-
ing slowly by adopting such resolutions ; I do not know that we can do
any better than to recommend the regulation of selling by the pound.
What we want is to have fruit sold by the weight, and if we recognize a
bushel, half-l)ushcl, or a ])e(k, we are not selling by weight. I think we
should sell by the pound, without regard to measure.

Mr. Bonhaw — We sell wheat by the pound, why not fruit also.'

Mr. Wilcox — It strikes me that if we ask the I-egislature to tell us
how many pounds make a bushel, we shall still continue to sell by the
bushel, and not by the pound.

Mr. Clayton — I think to ask how many poimds make a bushel is
to complicate the matter: Let us drop the term bushel, and substitute

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ] 3]^

the poiinil. And let the price be applied to the pound unit, and nut to
the bushel unit.

Mr. Robinson — A bushel is one thing in one place, and something
else in another. In Peoria it takes thirty-six jjounds of oats to make a
bushel. In the Chicago Board of Trade thirty-two pounds make a bushel
of oats. Still it is a convenient term to use often, and helps_men in their
contracts.

Mr. Clayton — Yet the term bushel is meaningless as applied to
fruit. It does not mean any number of pounds. You may as well use
the term "heap." [l,aughter. |

.Mr. Bonham — It takes in the country sixty pounds of rye to make
a bushel. In Chicago fifty-six pounds is a bushel.

Mr. Phenix — After all, the term bushel is a handy thing. We do
not ,vant to say, for a dollar, " one hundred cents ; " it is convenient to
use the idea, or form of condensation, and I do not see how we are go-
ing to get along without it.

The resolution was adopted.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES ON

EXHIBITION.

Mr. Pearson reported as follows:

Mr. Presuicnt <///</ Gcntleiiun :

W)\\\ Connnittee appointed to examine miscellaneous articles find
the work assigned to them to be no sinecure. Our instructions are to
include everything on exhibition not properly referred to the fruit com-
mittee. If in the multitude of articles any are found to have been^
omitted, we can only say that tiie omission was probably intentional.

The largest show of any article is that of potatoes, embracing
seventy-three varieties grown at the Illinois Industrial University — many
t)f thtse are old and well known varieties, while others are new and but
little known. 'J'he importance of these exj)eriments is evident to all ; as
many of our old varieties are running out, and we must replace them or
do without potatoes. The particulars of culture and comparative yield
will be given by Mr. Flagg, who has had this matter in < iiargc on the
Exjjcrimental Kami of the Industrial University. He says he is in doubt
in regard to the nomenclature of some of these, and will be glad to re-
ceive any information respecting the identity of varieties from members
in attendance.

The University also shows thirty-four varieties of corn : this not
being a "horticultural product " we are not supposed to know anything
about it, but are told that it is a very useful thing to feed domestic an-
imals, and to make into wine, cider, and vinegar. [Laughter.]

1^2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Mr. Flagg also informs your committee that the University is in-
debted to J. B. Phinney Esq., of Chamjiaign, for the seed of most of
these varieties of corn, by vvhom they were collected with great care,
and who has made very careful experiments in this direction.

Mr. A. A. Hilliard, of Brighton, shows two samples of cider clarified
by a new process, which renders it very clear, and not bad to drink.
Still your committee think that the cider made by Mr. Hilliard in the
old way is equally good.

Mr. J. B. Curren, of Mattoon. shows three samples of Concord
wine ; the first, pure juice, clear and fine, from this year's crop, will,
in a few months, be a good article ; the second had sugar added, was
not as good, and we cannot commend it ; the third a very fair article.

Arthur Bryant, Jr., shows a fine collection of forest and fruit-tree
seeds, such as he sells and propagates from.

We also find a lot of samples of dried fruit, from the Alden Fruit-
Preserving Company, at Fowler, Adams Co. This seems to be a suc-
cessful way of marketing fruit, and we are informed has been found
profitable.

We also find samples of fruit dried by "Post's Steam Evaporator.;'
Each of these processes has its advantages, and experience can alone
determine which is the better.

Quite a collection of cions were donated bv Mr. for distri-
bution, which the members of the Society will find upon the fruit tables.

Mr. B. Hathaway, of Little Prairie Ronde, Mich., shows wooden
bands, for placing around fruit trees to entrap the larv;e of the codling
moth. These are very cheap — no patent fee — and they shoAv by their
appearance that they have done good work.

Respectfully submitted.

Jno. M. Pearson. )

M. L. DuNLAP. r Committee.

H. W. HUBHARD )
REPORT OF THE SIXTH HORTICULTURAL DISTRICT.
Mr. Pearson, Vice-President in the Sixth fJistrict, reported, re-
marking as he rose that " The sixth district, this year consists of Alton
and vicinity."

Mr. President and Gentlemen :

As Vice-J'resident of the Sixth District, I have been able to learn
very little from the long list of correspondents printed in the reports ; —
Isaac Snedecker of Jersey county, and W. NI. Jeffries of Randolph
county being the only persons who have sent answers to the circular
issued by our Secretary.

From these and frt)m my own observations, I offer the following
report :

As a general thing, our orchards, vineyards, and berry patches were
not thought to be in very good condition last fall, owing to the exceed-

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ]^33

ingly dry weatlier. Many predicted short crops; which was fulfilled in
regard to the berry crops, and particularly in regard to vineyards.

The .S'//<r7<'/'^/v r crop, in particular, was very short, and consequently
prices were very high, and those i)lanlers who look good care of their
grounds, mulching early, or by frequent surface cultivation, or by use of
fertilizers overcame the natural difficulties, secured good crops and
better profits

The Apple crop was, so far as I can learn, only fair, and prices have
been generally good ; the fall apples were sold low, but early apples and
late keepers have been well sold.

The Peach crop was large, very large, and the peaches were small,
very small, and the prices were beautifully less. 'I'liat generally large
peach crop, so feared and deprecated by Judge Brown, came upon us
last year in full force. Ordinary culture or neglect of trees, and a free
field left for the insects relieved the owner from the labor of harvesting
and marketing, yet our best peach-growers, in the vicinity of Alton, ex-
press themselves well satisfied with the crop. They are getting to un-
derstand that " eternal vigilance is tlie price of" good i)eaches. The gen-
eral tendency is this, in our district. Raising fruit for market is gradually
getting into the hands of those men who will attend to it properly. The
average Illinois farmer cannot raise fruit for market at any advantage in
our district. I'he vinevards were injured, and did not do as well as
usual, yet there was a great crop, and notwithstanding all, they are better
paying crops than farm crops, and as good as any of the garden.

Vegetable growing for market, has paid well, is getting to be a
specialty with some of our members, and has great claims trom the fact
that it gives rapid returns, and enables a poor man to live while his trees
are grow ing.

We are not discouraged ; if we find new obstacles each year, we also
find new facilities. Respectfully submitted,

J NO. M. Pe.'VRSON, Vice-Pres.

REPORT OF THE SEVENTH HORTICULTURAL DISTRICT.

On motion of Mr. Flagg the regular order of business was suspen-
ded, and Judge Brown requested to present his report of the Seventh
District, which he did — reading as follows :

Mr. President :

The correspondents selected by the Secretary for the several counties
in my district have, with remarkable unanimity, failed to respond to my
call for information as to 'die state of Horticulture in their respective
localities. 1 am, therefore, restricted to my own limited knowledge of
facts.

The fruit crop was a general one throughout the south-western por-
tion of the State.

Strawberries — The yield was uuu h smaller, in the aggregate, than
for any of several preceding years, chiefly on account of the destruction

2^34 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

of plants by the drouth of the previous year, and by an insect known as the
Crown-borer, which is becoming very troublesome in some parts of the
district. Plantations set last spring have generally failed for the same
reasons — as the past season had been much drier than that of eighteen
seventy-one.

There are some who believe that the Wilson's Albany plant is
degenerating, or losing much of the vigor which enabled it, for some
years after its introduction, to grow and bear abundant crops of fruit
with but very little attention. Whether this be so or not, or whether it
is the result of bad seasons, the fact seems to be that it is more difficult
than formerly, to secure a stand of plants and that they do not yield
those great crops of fruit to which we were formerly accustomed.

As a result of the small supply, prices were good through the
season.

Jiaspbernes—T\\exe was a good yield of fruit where good cultivation,
had been given, and prices were satisfactory.

Blackberries are not largely grown in my district, but those who had
the bushes gathered abundant crops of very fine fruit, and obtained good
prices for it.

Cherries — There was a fine crop of Early Richmonds — the finer
sorts do not succeed with us.

Grapes — I have no information except as to my own neighborhood
and Massac County. The crop was very fine, especially when good cul-
tivation and care had been given to the vineyard. There was but little
rot. One vineyard of some two thousand vines in my neighborhood,
which had for two years before yielded good crops, was seeded to clover
a year ago, and the fruit this season nearly all rotted.

Those who marketed their fruit early, that is, as soon as it was fair-
ly colored, made it quite profitable, but later in the season prices were
low. The variety most popular with us now is Ives' Seedling. The
vine is viogrous, healthy, and prolific, while the fruit seems to resist rot
more perfectly than any other sort. It is also an admirable shipping
grape, adhering well to the stem and having a tough skin which does
not break easily in packing.

Fears — The Pear crop was a good one both in cjuality and quantity.
Prices, except for the very earliest, were very low, on account of the
large amount of the fruit on the market.

Peaches — In my report from the Committee ad interitn a year ago,
I expressed the opinion that, if all the peach orchards in the State
should concur in producing u full crop, the fruit could not be disposed
of at a profit to the growers. This contingency happened the past sea-
son, and the residt ])roved the correctness of my judgment. The
markets were absolutely glutted, and a large proportion of the crop, in
some localities, was not sent to market at all, but allowed to perish on
the trees or was fed to the hogs. Besides this it is probable that half
the crop in my district, was destroyed by insects and rot. But there
was another cause for the low price of this fruit be sides. the excessive

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ;[35

supply — namely, the i)oor (4uality of much of it. There is the best au-
thority for the assertion tliat at least one-third of all the peaches sent to
Chicago from Southern Illinois, were absjolutejy worthless, — green, knotty,
wormy, and utterly unfit to eat ; and what was worse, in some instances,
the bo.\es containing thi< worthless stuff, were faced at the cracks with
good fruit, thus showing the fraudulent intent of the shippers.

Much has been said, and sometimes truly, of the dishonesty of
Chicago commission men, but it must be allowed that all the dishonest
men do not do business in Chicago.

The natural effect of filling the market with worthless or indifferent
fruit, and especially with fruit thus dishonestly packed, was to depreciate
the value of that which was really good. Purchasers, after having been
cheated two or three times, would not be eager to buy any more.

It may be remarked that, even during the worst glut in the market,
really good peaches, under the lirand of growers of good reputation,
sold readily at paying prices.

With the present method of jjeach-growing, as it is generally pur-
sued, when the trees are allowed to grow unpruned and often uncultiva-
ted, and permitted to bear all the fruit that sets, and when tne Curculio
is suffered to have full swing, the result is inevitable that much the
largest portion of the crop will be entirely unfit to go to any decent
niarket.

Apples — The Apple crop in my district was a pretty full one the early
sorts brought good prices ; fall and winter varieties rotted and fell from
the trees, just before maturity, to a greater extent than ever before ; of
some kinds, all went in this way, so that when gathering-time came
there was very little to be harvested, in proportion to the promise the
trees had given.

This premature decay is generally attributed to the remarkable
drouth and heat of the latter half of the summer, and the autumn.

There has been little planting done in my district during the present
year, for people have began to understand and appreciate the fact that
the business of planting fruit trees has already been greatly overdone,
and there is no disjjosition to push it any further. Indeed, not to put
too fine a point on it, there is a general feeling of discouragement
amongst orchardists, growing out of the many difficulties that beset
their calling; among which the most important are excessive produc-
tion, and consequent low prices in favorable seasons — loss of crops by
frost — destruction by insects — the amount of intelligent labor required
under any circumstances and, last, but not least, the onerous cost of
transportation to the j^laces of sale.

A. M. Brown.

DISCUSSION ON THE PEACH.

Mr. Flagg — I would like to bring up one point, in order to solicit
the experience of others. In talking with Captain Hollister of Alton.
I was taking ground in defence of i.*r. Mull's practice of severe thinning ;

]^30 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

the Captain said, he thought 1u' would not thin to the extent of Dr. Hull's
practice, but tliat hi- would manure heavily so as to stimulate the tree,
and thus enable it to carry a heavier crop. What is the experience of
peach growers in this respect.

Mr. Phenix — What kind of manure would he apply — and when
apply it }

Mr. Flagg — I suppose stable manure, applied early in spring.

Mr. Earle — To what extent is it advisable to thin ?

Mr. Flagg — Dr. Hull's idea is, — about five hundred peaches to a
full grown tree.

Mr. Brown — A gentleman at South Pass told me he stimulated
his trees with special manures, and his fruit is very fine. I am inclined
to think that Dr. Hull pushes thinning to an extreme. I am not sure.
It seems to me tiial this is the case. But his trees being root-pruned
would not carry as much fruit.

That Dr. Hull's system is necessary to the production of market
peaches, I have no doubt. It is just as necessary to prune the peach
tree as to prune the grape vine, and for the same reason; but I have
talked so much, and written so much upon this subject, that I don't
want to think much more about it.

The President — I would ask if gentlemen are familiar with
Dr. Hull's new Curculio catcher.

All peach growers know that unless some plan is adopted to destroy
the Curculio, their "occupation is gone." It is known also that
Dr. Hull has been one of our foremost men, in the measures adopted in
destroying this insect. His original wheelbarrow machine was cumber-
some, but this season he has so simplified and improved it, that he can
easily go over three hundred trees before breakfast. — (laughter).

Mr. Earle — What time does he take breakfast ? (renewed laughter.)

The President continued his remarks, giving a minute description
of the machine, and of the manner and ease and despatch with which it
is worked.

The machine is carried on the shoulders, and weighs from four to
seven pounds. It is understood that the Doctor has a patent upon
his improved machine.

Mr. Brown — There were serious objections to the old machine.
It injured the tree, and then when the stem of the tree became large and

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. J37

stiff, you could not by bu//i/>i/ii^, shake ii. W'itli this improved machiiic,
you can with your mallet tap the limbs effectually and without injury —
the work is about as hard as with the old machine, but a great improve-
ment upon it.

Mr. Earle — How high must the trees be trimmed, in order to
work under them with tiie L"ui< ulio i:atcher?

Thk I'rksiukn f — i would say, two or three feet high, not more.

Mr. Klagg — The Doctor took me around through his orchard, and
showed me his manner of workiii;.f it. 1 consider the new machine a
great improvement.

Mk. Phknix — Why can't you use it upon low trees.'*

Mr. Hears(^n — You can, 1 have used it upon trees trimmed
"boot-leg high," and so can any man who is not afraid nor ashamed to
get down upon his knees.

l-'oice — But in going out before breakfast, do you not get wet with
the falling dew .'

Mr. Pearson— What of that. It will make cabbage heads grow,
and ot/ur /uai/s too — (laughter).

Tut President — I wish to say lluit I, with others visited Dr. Hull's
place in July last, when the Alton Horticultural Society met at his house,
and I must say I was very much pleased with what I saw ; — his peach
orchard was a model for clean culture, and good treatment.

Mr. WiER recommended Holbrook's Plow —" the only one-horse
plow that you can run \ery close to trees without injuring them."

DISCUSSION ON THE DISEASES OF THE PEACH.

Mr. BuRRiLi. — 1 have been very much interested in looking up the
cause of the rot in the peach, and that it is caused by a fungus,
which is readily disseminated from one peach to another. 1 hnd that
where this fungus is spread upon the dry surface of the peach, no harm
is done; \n\{ where it comes in contact with the wet surface of the
peach, or if tlie peach is bruised, the disease at once attacks the fruit
and in a few hours will show itself. 1 speak quite positively about this,
for we can see the operation.

Mr. Wier — 1 have examined this rot, and find that the same causes
rot both the apple and the peach. We know what will destroy the fungus —
lime and sulphur. Lime is sometimes used to keep apples from decay —
Why not use the same in the orchard, and for the same purpose ? Mix

]^38 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

one-third sulphur and Iwo-Uiirds lime — in lumps ; slake it and you
have a liquid sulphite of lime, which may be applied with a syringe.

Mr. Burrill — No doubt sulphur will destroy fungus if you can get
it upon it. In regard to the fungus upon the apple causing rot, I con-
sider it different from that on the peach ; it is on the apple in form of a
scab. The best living authority upon the subject recommend sulphur
and lime, mixed, as the best cure.

m

Mr. Earle — I want to ask a question — I understood the gentle-
men to say that the fungus is the cause of the rot. I wish to know if I
would not be correct in saying that the fungus is the ?-ot, and that the
fungus was caused by the Curculio .'' Is not the damage done by
this insect the immediate cause of the rot ? This is my own opinion ;
am I wrong } As peach growers, we ought to understand this thing. If
the surface of the peach is in any way damaged, it must rot.

I think we may not be discouraged in peach growing, if we can only
circumvent the dread Curculio.

Mr. Burrill — The fungus h the rot ; for as I have intimated if the
spores of the fungus are placed upon the moist surface of a healthy
peach, under favorable conditions, they will germinate, and in ten or
twelve hours the fungi will penetrate the peach and reveal themselves
in the form of " rot."

Peaches situated immediately below the rotting peaches are more
likely to be affected than others, because more exposed ; the rains wash
the spores down upon them.

It is not necessary to the propagation of this fungus, that the sur-
face of the fruit be ruptured, by Curculio or other cause.

Mr. Flagg — We may partially prevent the rot by keeping up a cir-
culation in the orchard — letting in air and sunshine.

DISCUSSION UPON VARIETIES.

Mr Flagg — I would call attention to two very early varieties of
peaches that are new, and that promise well, originating in this state.

The first is the Alexander peach, grown by one Mr. Capps in Logan
County, it is a very beautiful peach, resembling the Early York, and
ripening — Mr. Capps says — three weeks ahead of all others. I think
perhaps, he over estimates it, although I am inclined to think it will
prove a very valuable peach.

The other peach of which I speak is one grown by a Mr. Lightfoot
of Springfield, and was dead ripe on the twenty-third day of July. I

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. ^39

know but little about the jjcach, except that il comes well recommended
Perhaps Mr. Francis, of Springfield, can tell us something.

Dr. Hooton — 1 don't think we ought to go very fast in recommend-
ing these early peaches.

Mr. Galbraith — This early ripening migtit have been caused by
the yellows.

Mr. Flac.g — T can hardly think there could be any mistake in de-
ciding whether a tree had the yellows; possibly this first peach might
have l)ecn from a tree affected in this may. 7'he color of this Alexander
peach, so very red, is a little suspicious. It is known that trees affected
with the yellows give to their fruit an unhealthy red.

Mr. Hilliard — I would like to ask Mr. plagg if he has seen any-
thing in the Alton district that may be properly called the yellows.

Mr. Flagg — I don't know that I have.

Mr. Hilliard — I have never seen any thing that I thought was the
Xxnt yelioivs in the Alton district. I have seen something that resembles
it, but it is not the true yellows.

Mr. Phenix — I think it very probable that these peaches were pre-
maturely ripened.

Mr. Huggins — I think it is well to make haste slowly in adopting
new kinds of fruit; in my grounds this season, I have had Early Yorks
ripen before Hale's Early, and some Hale's Early ripened three weeks
later than others. More than one year is necessary to test a peach. Some
of you will remember that some years ago my neighbor, Mr. Pettingill,
thought lie IkkI a ver\ early and desirable peach, which afterward proved
to be from a diseased tree.

Mr. Robinson — 1 have seen this peach of Mr. Capps' growing at
Mr. G. \V. Minier's; it seems very strange that we should originate three
earlier peaches than any known, in one year. This leads me to suspect
that these peaches are from trees that have the yellows. 1 do not know
the disease when 1 see il.

Mr. Galusha — The colui of a peui h prematurely ripened 1)> tlie
yellows has an unnatural, bright, mottled appearance; I will ask Mr.
Robinson if the peaches seen by him had this appearance.

Mr. Robinson — The color did not look natural, was bright, but 1
thought not a healthy color.

;[40 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLLNOIS '

Mr. Freeman — It takes five years to lest new varieties, before we
can recommend them.

Mr. Flagg — We do not recommend any thing. We only discuss
their merits as they are known.

Mr. Daggy — To change the subject somewhat, 1 wish to say, I
think it would be well, if* peach growers would put the indifferent fruit
upon the cracks of the boxes, so as to protect the good ones inside.
The railroad men will, you know, sometimes get their fingers in. (Laugh-
ter )

Mr. Galusha — Pack them the same way that Mr. Daggy does his
apples. (Laughter.)

Mr. Wier — I am very fond of peaches myself. But I only bought
two or three boxes the past season, for the reason that I could not get
peaches that were fit to eat. Another year, I think I shall order from
headquarters. (From Alton .-* Reporter^

I can buy peaches upon the market, such as they are, but they are
not worth a cent. They look well on the outside, many of them, but
within is rottemiess.

Mr. Raymond — In Springfield I know the Alton peaches have a
good reputation ; if the box has on it the Alton brand, it will pass. (Cheers.)

Mr. ScoFiELD — I think we had alrnost no good box of peaches last
year. When I can get good peaches 1 buy one box a day for family use ;
as it was this year I did not get but two boxes that were fit to eat.

Voice — Send to Alton for your peaches.

Dr. Hooton scored that class of shippers who " make clean only
the outside," as well as those buyers who don't know a good peach and
judge only by the color of the tarlatan cover. He believed that in this
matter of packing fruit for market, " honesty is the best policy."

Mr. Daggy followed in the same strain and declared that if ship-
pers did not send better peaches, they would after a while get no sale
for any.

Mr. Wier — Some four years ago I helped this Society to perpetrate
the grandest /rawrt' of the season. We recommended to gentlemen that
they put their name on the packages of fruit that were shipped by them.

Mr. Earle — I don't see how that was fraud.

Mr. Wier — In this way. It went out that any box bearing the
shipper's name was guaranteed. I bought peaches thus branded, in good

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 14\

faith, but on opening the boxes found one-fourth good, and three-fourths
bad. Just what would cover the cracks were good.

Mr. Dunlap — You have his name.

Mr. ^^'TF.R — What can I do with his name.'

Mr. Dunlap — You can Xvr/i it. (Laughter.)

Mr. Clayton — Another year [ think T shall send to Dr. Hull for
mv peaches.

The President — I make it a rule to put my name on every box
that I ship, and I see no disadvantage or objection to it.

Mr. Brown — I think this is the right way to do; it is my practice.

Mr. Earle — I am really glad that I am not a peach grower, for if
I was I should feel that I had been abused. I will admit all that has been
said is done, and a great deal more might be said ; but that t/iese men, mem-
bers of this Society, belong to this " unwashed crowd," I don't believe.
Because we have men in our midst who have no good principles in the
matter of packing fruit, and who act dishonestly, are we to be abused
and cursed for that .' We in Southern Illinois grow and ship as good
peaches as come from Alton, or any other place. Let those who have
earned a good name brand it upon the packages of fruit that they ship,
and It will sell to disappoint nobody.

Mr. Robinson — It would seem that the greatest amount of fruit
was grown outside of this Society.

yoiii' — Whif h is true.

Mr. RijHiN'SON — I think shippers would do better if they would
send a portion of their shipments to the smaller towns, and not send so
much to Chicago; much of it after going to Chicago finds its way to the
country lt)wns.

Mr. Earle — 'I'his has been done this year a great deal.

Mr. Freeman — I believe in putting your name on your box. I
have done this for six years, and have nev«r yet sent a box that did not
bring some return.

Mr. Freeman, of South Pass, from Standing Committee on Geolo-
gy and Soils, rei)orted as follows :

NOTES 0\ THE ORIGIN AM) DIFFERENCE OF SOILS IN ILLINOIS.

l'.\ II. C. Freeman.
In general terms we say the surface of Illinois is northern drift.
This, although correct, fails to convey much information as to the
soil.

l_^2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

While it is not my purpose to go into an elaborate analysis of the
subject, which is too great an undertaking for an essay adapted to the
present location, T shall aim to present certain salient features of note-
worthy interest, and direct attention to their practical bearing upon the
subject that calls us together in annual convention — Horticullurc — inci-
dentally, before leaving it, referring to an external agency as affecting
results that might otherwise follow as general conclusions.

The Topography of the State is so nearly a plane that it is com-
monly so considered. Some data u})on this jloint will be interesting.
The Mississippi river at Dunleith is three hundred fifty feet above its
level at Cairo, and twenty-three feet above lake Michigan. Between
lake Michigan and the Mississippi river at Dunleith, the country grad-
ually rises to the westward, until in the vicinity of Scales Mound, which
is the most elevated point in the State, except the adjacent mounds.
The Illinois Central railroad, at one point there reaches an elevation of
eight hundred five feet above low water mark at Cairo, and Scales
Mound two hundred eleven feet higher, or one thousand sixteen feet
above the Cairo datum ; making it about one thousand, two hundred
ninety feet above sea level.

The mounds of this portion of the State are elevations of the orig-
inal strata of Niagara and the Cincinnati group left remaining after the
drift movement had carried away a corresponding thickness of the same
formations over a large area of territory. Mounds corresponding with
these are found in what is almost the lowest part of the State — the region
of Big Muddy river, in Franklin and Williamson counties, formed in
the same way, being elevations that resisted the erosion of the drift
movement, but totally unlike those of the north, as ihey are sandstones,
shales, and clays of the coal measures.

To represent the surface of the State by a profile, from North to
south, if the vertical and horizontal scale were alike, it would be simply
drawing a straight line slightly descending from the Wisconsin state
line to Cairo, with a slight flexure upward from a point sixty miles north
of Cairo for the next forty miles South, and then continuing the direc-
tion of the first line ; and yet so much and constant is the deviation
from a plane to a direct line of descent that grades of forty feet per
mile are common on our railroads north and south as well as east and
west. Even then considerable excavation has been done to avoid
higher grades.

Ridges that are of considerable elevation, and many miles in length,
cross the prairie region and have a local influence.

The mounds referred to, in northwestern Illinois, are a part of a
great Silurian upheaval, forming a ridge that runs in a southeasterly
course in a very direct line from Minnesota nearly across Illinois; the
central line of which runs near Scales Mound, Grand Detour, Utica,
and Urbana, at which point it has so far faded out as fo be only trace-
able by a slight disturbance of the coal measures.

Throughout most of its course it would not be noticed by any dif-

STATi; IIOR'I'ICULTURAL SOCIETY. ^43

ferencc of (.•Icvalion uf llic siirhicc hum ihc adjat cnt level of the

country.

At Rock Island is the point of crossing of another similar though
lesser axis; at the mouth of Illinois river is another; in Monroe county —
at Grand Tower and at Thebes are others; all of which cross the State
in a southeasterly direction. Besides these principal ones are lesser un-
dulations lying between them.

All these axes have left tilled up more or less the strata of the Si-
lurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous ibrmations, bringing various quali-
ties of sandstones, limestones, and clays above the previous general level.
This was prior to the drift period, and it is very apparent that the area
of the State of Illinois did not then present as even a surface as now. The
drift period was not one continued o\ erwhelming movement of a great
mass of material, l)ut the evidences afforded by its depositions are that
it was long continued and of varying action, sometimes with great force
like a glacier, moving everything before it, and denuding the surface
under it, plowing down the elevated portions, then with long periods of
o]jen water and (|uiet depositions of clayey matter in water almost clear,
willi movements of icebergs in the same manner as now noticed in the
ocean, dropping the solid matter carried along in the form of boulders,
gravel, and <Tay as the ice melted.

The effect of all this was the leveling down of the elevated por-
tions and moving them forward in a southerly direction, mixing the
fragments of the Laureniian clay slates of British America, the boulders
of granite and other hard rocks of the lake origin with the Silurian
limestones, clays, and silicious rocks of Wisconsin and Northern Illinois,
the carboniferous limestones, clays, and sandstones of Northern and
Central Illinois, all ground together as in a mortar, llien again mixed
with the erosions of Devonian and Carboniferous formations ol Central
and Southern Illinois. Much of the material seems to have been taken
u]} and moved forward many times. As we go south examining all that
belongs to the drift we lincl the boulders decrease in size, then in num-
ber, and tile gravel beds are finer and fewer, with a general tendency
of the soil to a finer state of division.

It was formerly considered that the ridge on which Pana stands was
the southern limit of granite boulders; 1 have found them on the toj)
of the high ridge of Southern Illinois — the Cobden and Makanda hill —
though never larger than three or four inches in diameter.

While in this general way the origin of the great mass has been
accounted for, let us look at some of the local differences.

Near the northern line of the State considerable gravelly soil is
found east of the more elevated region. One hundred to one hundred
and fifty miles south, gravel beds are interstrali-fied in the blue clays, af-
fording reliable water-beds for wells. Sometimes large areas are sandy,
as in the vicinity of Morris, Onarga, and Hennepin. I'his is from the
adjacent outcropping sandstones of the coal measures and the St. Pe-
ter's sandstone. In the case of the Onarga region it is associated with

144 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

considerable water; going southward it disappears under the surface,
and the quicksand found at Champaign eightv feet below the surface is
probably the same bed.

Large quantities of limestone in the surface soil of parts of Living-
ston and La Salle counties, by their lithological character and occasional
pines and fossils are traced to the Niagara rocks in the adjacent coun-
ties to the north, as the place of their departure, and that they have not
traveled froin further shows by the fact that they are to a large extent
quite angular andnot much worn by attrition. Farther north they di-
minish in quantity and finally disappear. The surface soil will be free,
for long distances, of any local rocks until some new point of departure
is passed, when occurs a like repetition of the southward movement of
the neighboring rocks from some one of the axes before described.

In portions of Southern Illinois, spots of whitish clay, bare of veg-
etation, are found ; sometimes a thin covering of soil is over them.
An examination of this shows it to be a subsoil of wide extent, inasmuch
as it can be traced from the vicinity of Neoga, on the Illinois Central
railroad as far south as Dongola. In the southern hill portion of Illi-
nois it is the first stratum immediately overlaying the rocks and has
fifteen to twenty feet of soil over it. In portions of the prairie further
north where not bare it has so little covering of good soil as to seriously
affect success in horticultural labors.

The indications are that in the final drainage of the drift period,
these places were exposed by considerable currents of water washing
away the clay which seems to have been quite evenly distributed, and
which forms the now fertile soil above this stratum. After passing Big
]Muddy river in a southerly direction the country ascends rapidly until
at South Pass ridge an elevation is attained of about six hundred feet
above the Mississippi river at Cairo, while Big Muddy, near Carbondale
is only sixty^feet above same datum, and the river banks seldom more
than twenty feet above low water, with the adjacent country,! think, not
more than a hundred feet above the stream.

A careful examination shows that the very broken character of the
country for forty miles south of Big Muddy, or from Carbondale to
Dongola, was formed, or fixed, prior to the dejoosition of the soil over
it. The most conclusive evidence of this is the presence of the whitish
day referred to, and the identical stratum following the undulations of
the country, and the generally even deposit of the heavy body of soil
over it, remaining not much disturbed on the hills, but generally washed
out in the bottoms of the valleys.

The only difference between the soil of these hills and that of the
prairie appears to be the greater fineness of that on the hills, as though it
had been more levigated.

From the general survey thus given it will be apparent that while
' there may be a general resemblance, there must be much local differ-
ence in the soils of the prairie in their original composition. Added to
this is the fact that the little elevations of the prairie have been slowly

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ] 45

washing down, and the sloughs accumulating what the elevations, a few
feet higher, have lost ; hence another cause of loc al difference is plain,
for much land that was formerly slough is now in cultivation.

The dryer elevations are now in condition to grow fruit trees
and wheat, while the adjacent swales are better adapted to grass and
.corn until drainage and cultivation has reduced them, after a long period,
to the condition of the lands first reclaimed. The natural progress of
change is going on slowly on the prairie even when culture is not
hastening it.

Another soil to he noticed is Loess, having its origin far away from
its present position, having been brought down the valleys by the great
rivers, and having tlie appearance of a deposit from almost still water.
This is most noticeable after leaving the bottom lands of the Missis-
sippi, near ('airo — of which Villa Ridge and vicinity are an example. It
is traced up the river far above Alton, followmg the indentations made
by the streams and thmning out on approaching the prairie.

P>om the prairie, descending to the valleys of the rivers we find
terraces above the bottom lands which are deposits of the same material
as the prairie that have been moved again and deposited by the rivers
when much greater volumes of water flowed in these valleys than are
ever found in modern times. These terraces will differ in composition
according to the amount of washing received at the time of their for-
mation, as well as from the changes vegetation may have since caused
near the surface. From the manner in which the terraces have been
formed, we would expert 1o find them generally of coarser material than
the prairie ; which is tiie c ase.

T>ower still is the alluvium or bottom lands, of more recent origin
and generally yet liable to periodical overflow, with changes of surface
resulting.

Our Society recognizes three grand divisions of the State formed by
latitude, and 1 am expected to give some s])ecial notes of the Southern
division.

Whdt I have said of itic origin o( soils, in a general way, applies
throughout the State ; as before remarked, it is noticejible that, as wc go
southward in the State the general tendency of the soil is to a finer slate of
division. .\ person examining the soil from the high ridges of Union and
Johnson counties with a sample from the prairie one hundred miles north
would note a difference without a chemical analysis. Let him traverse
the distance between the two points, omitting the Big Muddy region,
and the change from one to the other is ahuost if not (|uite insensible.
Compare again the South Pass ridge with the soil of the second ridge,
two miles south, and he can see no difference; then with that of Villa
Ridge, thirty miles -south, and but little differenc.e is discernible unless
with the aid of ( hemistry. (.^ompare the growth of the same kinds o(
vegetation at the several places, and a wonderful difference is observed.
Whence is this.' Here we have to take some note of the difference of
the difference oi climate as affected by latitude, and again as affected by
11

-[46 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

elevation. The men growing pears at Centralia, South Pass, and Villa
Ridge give very conlradiclory results from the same kinds, and not
widely diflerent treatment.

At some other points the Yellow Bellflower a])ples are highly
prized and give satisfactory crops in the prairie region, while in adjoin-
ing places, trees twenty-the years old may not have ])roduced a single
good crop, and the general voice of fruit growers upon the prairie at the
north is rather against this apple on account of unproductiveness.

Some think it not safe to cultivate the Chestnut in the prairie, others
show success. The cultivation of the sugar-beet for the production of
sugar as a source of profit has been a complete failure in one locality in
the prairie, but successful in another. Corn crops are rather uncertain
in one portion of Southern Illinois, but may be considered as never fail-
ing in another.

I have referred to the whitish clay that occasionally appears from
Neoga southward, and known in the vicinity of the Ohio and Mississippi
Railroad as "scalds." There is another whitish clay of similar appear-
ance that forms a considerable extent of the surface in the region of
Big Muddy, but this is a stratum of much more recent origin and is
often under culture. If the season is dry enough to permit of early
plowing and planting, this clay land produces a fine crop of corn, but
if the spring is wet, making the planting late, the drouth of summer
comes too soon and the yield is small.

In sections where the scalds are near the surface there is an excess
of moisture in the spring and a lack of it in the summer, and fruit trees
of some kinds are more liable to suffer than where a few more feet of
soil, of the general composition of the prairie, covers it.

The failure of beet culture for sugar was remedied by removing from
a soil highly nitrogenous and much like a partially drained slough, to a
sandy or gravelly soil less rich in humus.

The discussions in this Society in former years show, after analyz-
ing the results, that Yellow Bellflower apples must be grown in sandy
lands to get much fruit ; or at least on dry knolls, and not in rich SAvales
of black muck or in the vicinity of barnyards.

The same distinction applies to the Chestnut grown as timber.
Observing this, it is probable that both trees can be grown successfully
in nearly every county in the State, with a little shelter for the apple trees
in the northwestern part of the State; and so likewise of other varieties
of trees which show decided preferences in adaptation to soils.

Great differences in results have been observed, in growing certain
varieties of pears, between South Pass and Villa Ridge, points thirty
miles apart. A careful examination of the subject shows a difference at-
tributable to soil and another that is due to climate.- The pears at Villa
Ridge incline to rusty coats.

The difference in elevation of these two points has been noticed.
The difference in soil is that the soil of ViUn Ridge is a fine, deep loess,
resting on a coarse gravel, giving excellent drauiage, while that of South

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ] 47

Pass ridge is the same as the prairie a hundred miles north, thongli in a
finer state of division. At the hitter point, a good < rop of corn can
usuallv l)c only secured — except on land fresh cleared of timber — by very
early planting and promj)! cultivation, otherwise the summer's drouth
will seriouslv damage it; while at the former location, an excellent yield
maybe obtained by i)lanting as late as the first of July; the difference
being due to soil and atmospheric tonditions.

The climate of Villa Ridge is always mc»ist, from its low elevation
and its proximity to the Mississip[)i river, and the '^oil. (jwing to its ex-
ceeding fineness, is in condition to appropriate tiie moisture. The hills
two miles south of South Pass, being two hundred feet lower, and but
three hundred feet above 1<jw water at Cairo, show a difference of growth
that I think is entirely referable to a moister atmosphere than that of
the South Pass ridges, which is due to lower elevation. At Villa Ridge
the rusty coating upon the pears is probably caused by the moist, warm
temperature; the soil and climate together prevent the White Doyenne
from cracking as this variety does elsewere.

In confirmation of statements just made, an illustration can be given
from Big Muddy; a little band of loess reaches far up this stream over-
laid by the Big Muddy — white-clay soil — the gentle slopes often make
this band of loess the surface soil, which can be traced, in the month of
July, through acorn-field by the lively green and fresh ai)|)earance of the
corn grcnving in it, while the rest of the field will be drooping or of in-
diflerent growth.

A long, dry summer is the regular order of the season in Lower
Pvgypt ; as a consequence fruit trees come into bearing early and bear
with great regularity unless allowed to exhaust themselves too much.

In the counties bordering the upper portion of the Illinois river — say
from Hennepin eastward — there has been a fine apple crop this year, and
was a fair one last year. There have been three successive years of dry
seasons and above an a\erage in sunnner lem])erature. This has had
the very natural result of making the orchards fruitful like those uf)on the
hills of Egypt; it is also noticed that the apples in the region named
are so fidly matured this autunui that their keeping ipiality is imijaired.

From these remarks it will be seen how )iuu h mllucnce climate ex-
erts in mo(lif\ ing the products of the soils; and in cduiparing soils either
by general ai)pearance,cheniical analysis, or their produc lions, no comi)ari ■
son can be a fair one without a proper exhibit, in ( onnection therewith,
of the difference of meteorological condition.

Mr. M. 1.. DuNi.AP, another member of the committee, had no
written report, but he was ready to make a few remarks in relation to the
subject :

" The soil in the north y)art of the State, about (lalena, has a
tenacious clay sub-soil, but more ])orous as we come south. All such
soils need under-draining, or to be so managed that the water shall pass
down through them. It is found that throwing the land in ridges an-

148 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

swers a verv good purpose, for this deepens the tillage, and allows the
rain to fall, and the melting snow to percolate and pass down through its
substance, and as the soil has a greater affinity for plant food than the
water, the plant food is given up to the soil and the water passes off.
But when the water cannot pass downward but is arrested by the subsoil,
it must be evaporated, and in this operation the gases that hold the plant
food must be evaporated also with the water. Thus our first study is to
put the soil in such a mechanical condition that it shall be a plant-food
holder.

It is not so much in the geological features of the soil, as in its me-
chanical texture, as nearly all soils contain about eighty per cent, of
sand, whether formed from the azoic or carboniferous rocks.

We talk less than formerly of tile-draining for the orchard, as ex-
perience has proved that the ridging up of the orchard rows in the di-
rection of the drainage, has accomplished the desired purpose. No
matter if we throw a foot of "earth along the rows and against the trees,
for we give the roots, which are the feeders, access to the air, moisture,
and a supply of the plant food that the great storehouse of nature, the
atmosphere, has sent down with the air, the rain, the gentle dews, and
the melting snow to minister to the plant.

For these reasons we must have not only clean culture, but must
keep the surface in a finely comminuted condition to enable it to absorb
the rain, the dew, the melting snow, and the air, for if we exclude
these, we cut off the supply of plant food to the >foots of the plants,
and they cease to grow, and sicken and die.

AVhen we come south, into this basin of Egypt where we now sit in
council, we meet another condition of soil. The "scalds" are an inci-
dent to the soil that has ])erple\ed the |)eoplc, and given them great dis-
couragement. It is but a thin stratum of clay four or five inches in
thickness, and near the surface, and seldom more than two feet below.
When this part of the State was covered with water, this thin layer of
clay was deposited over the bottom of the lake, and being very tenacious
is not permeable to moisture; hence it prevents the moisture below
from following the laws of capillary attraction, and thus subjects ihe
soil to suffer from drouth. The remedy for tiiis is Ule-draining or the
ridging bei'ore spoken of, and thus exposing this thin layer to the action
of frosts and other climatic changes, and in tiie end destroying its ad-
hesive properties.

Along the Orand Chain where the soil is a modified /orss or derived
from the weathering down of the limestones and conglomerate rocks, it
needs the decaying roots of trees and plants lo separate its close texture,
and so prepare it for its (piola of atmosjjheric [)lant-food.

Then again, climate has much to do in determining the crops. For
while tlie banks of the Mississippi, from St. "Caul to Villa Ridge, are
thick spread with the rich /ocss, it does not follow that the peach and the
sweet potatoes alike flourish along this ri\er-l)ell, as it traverses degree
after degree of latitude."

Adjourned until seven o'clock this evening.

STATK nomicin.TUKAi. soriEtv. ^49

THURSDAY EVENINC;.

The Society convened al the regular hour.

Dk. Hi Mi'iikKN |)iesented the following preamble and resolution —
moving their adoption.

\\ IIKRKAS, — For several years very few of the Correspuiidents in'lhe seven horticul-
tural districts have made any reports to the Vice-Presidents, notwithstanding the urgent
retjuests made by our Secretary for them lo do so, thus throwing each vice-president
mainly on his own resources ; ami

Wni'KKAs, — This Societv has dispensed witli its Ad-intcrim ("ommittee, therefore
A'fsolv^ii — That each Vice-President l)c empowered with the functions of the ad-in-
terim c(juimittee for his district, anil that an appropriation he made to ilefray traveling
expenses to an amount not exceeding two dollars for each county in such district.

Mr. I)a(J(;v stipported tlic resolution,

Mk. ScoKiKi.iJ said, with some hesitancy, that he had no oljjection
to the Vice-Presidents' actijig as Ad-interim Committee, but didn't know
just where the money was tf) come from to piy their expenses.

Mk. G.'VLiiSHA showed that the money was not in the treasury.

Mr. WiER opposed the resolution.

Mr. Fl.agg thought that, owing to the lack of funds, the motion
should not prevail.

Mr. Brow n moved that the sul»ject be referred to the Executive
Board, with power to act, which was adopted.

Mr. Clayton — I offer the following resolutions in reference to the

introduction in our schools, of studies on natural science.

1. Resolved — That we as Horticulturists look with great favor and hope upon the
action of the last Legislature of Illinois in ])rescribing the elements of the Natural Sci-
ences as studies in the common school of the Slate.

2. Resolzed — That we urge upon teachers of our public schools the necessity of
studying nature from the objects of nature themselves, and ol seeuring such study on the
part of their pupils, rather than basing their instruction on the statements of text-books ;
and that we assure them of the hearty co-operation of this body in all earnest and
well-directed cftbrts to imparl to their pupils the knowledge of subjects pertaining to
the practical industries of the Stale.

3. Rcsvlied — That we recommend to ilorticulturisls throughtiut the State lo take
an interest in securing attention to the subjects of practical and scientific tree and
fruit culture in the schools of their resjiective districts.

NATURAL SCIENCES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Mr. Fl.auc; — I was informed that natural science has been intro-
duced into the common schools at our place.

Mr. Edwards — I ^m very thankful for this suggestion. The boys
are scattered over this western country, and do not let us permit them
to grow up as ignorant as we are, of Nature's works.

Resolutions adopted.

150 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLlNOlfi

DECIMAL WEICHTS AND MEASURES.

Dr. (iREfioRV — Mr. President, 1 ha\e some resolutions that I have
prepared, at first, with some l^esitancy. After writing them I sliowed
them to a few gentlemen here, and they said, "by all means let them be
offered." The resolutions were suggested to me by some discussion that
was had on weights and measures. They do not concern us particularly
as horticulturists, but they concern all as citizens.

He then read as follows :

Where.AS, — The inl induction of, our present deciuial Lurrency lias demonstrated
the practicability of iiiti(nlucin<^, by law, such reforms in our system of weights and
measures ; and

Whereas, — The adoption of the decimal system of weights and measures, by its
simplicity and case in use, would effect an immense saving in time, care, anil mental
labor to the entire population of the country, and would especially avoid an incalculable
waste of time and toil in the education of our children; and

Whereas,— The adojition of a uniform decimal system, resting on a scientific and
invariable basis, by all the governments of the world, would greatly facilitate inter-
national trade and commerce, ever increasing in extent, and in blessed import of human
sympathy and fraternity ; therefore

Resolved — That in the opinion of this Society it is the duty of our national Govern-
ment, in concurrence with other governments, to adopt and promulgate, at the earliest
practicable day, a decimal system of weights, measures, and money, such as that now ex-
isting in France.

Resolved — That we earnestly invite the co-operation of all Industrial and other as-
sociations of the people, and all good citizens, and especially of the Press of the
country to agitate this question till this great and beneficent end is finally accomplished.

MEETING OF AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

Mr. Flagg offered the following resolution which was adopted, viz :

Resolved— That the Executive Board be authorized to take such action as they may
find best, in reference to the meeting of the American Pomological Society — on its
twenty-fifth anniversary, with the Massachusetts Horticultural Society at Boston — by
appointing delegates thereto, making collections of fruits for exhibition, and doing
such other acts as may cause this .Society to be adequately represented.

On motion of Judge Brown, the President elect was requested to
co-operate with delegates from other Western State Horticultural soci-
eties, in securing commutation rates on railroads, to enable the Execu-
tive Board to carry out the instructions in Mr. Flagg's resolution, just
adopted.

The regular business for the evening was entered upon, by a call
from the President for the report of committee on Botany and Vegetable
Physiology.

One member of the committee only, Mr. Earle, was in attendance
at the meeting, and he had not prepared a report.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. 151

REPORT ON ENTOMOLOGY.

Thk Presipent announced that reports from members of the
Standing Committee on Entomology were next in order, and Dr. \\'\\-
liani LeBaron, State entomologist, presented his report, as member of
said rommittee, as tollous •

A good deal is being said, at the i)resent day, upon the subject of
progress and improvement in the education of the young, both as
resjjects its objects and its methods. A great reaction is evidently taking
place in these respects. There seems to be a pervading feeling that the
methods of education heretofore pursued have been too abstract, and too
far removed from the every-day business and necessities of life. The
plan now being agitated and pursued is to discard for the most part the
study of dead languages and abstract mathematics, and to fix the atten-
tion of the rising generation upon things present, tangible, and practical.

Amongst other things which it has been proposed to introduce into
our systems of education, in jjlace of some of the discarded matters, is
the study of natural history; and indeed it is now one of the laws of
this State, that those who present themselves as teachers in our public
schools shall be able to pass a satisfactory examination in some of the
leading branches of this science.

The introduction of such subjects into common schools being a new
experiment, and the science of natural history being so little understood
by people in general, it may be fairly jjresumed that the ideas of educa-
tors themselves upon this subject are, as yet, crude and unsettled. There
is yet a vague feeling that something of the kind ought to enter into
the education of the young, without knowing exactly what it is, or
how it can be best accomplished.

It has seemed to me that some thoughts upon this subject which
my own course of study in these branches has suggested, wuuid not be
inappropriate at this time, and upon this occasion, lor I believe that no
person, has taken a more active interest in this matter of an improved sys-
tem of education, than some of the more intelligent farmers and hor-
ticulturists of this State.

The ideas of most people, as to what constitutes the most desirable
kind of education, are extremely vague. Perhaps if we should put in-
to words, the aggregate sentiment of people in this busy and practical age,
we should define education to be the acquisition of such knowledge as
will enable them to make money; and the definition is a very plausible
one. For what is there we want that money will not buy ? Money
represents houses and land, equipage and servants, and all kinds of ma-
terial possessions. And yet the definition does not altogether satisfy us,
and for the simple reason that we find, when we come to analyze the
matter, that tliere are some things of the highest value which money
can not Iniy. A man may set his table with the most luxurious viands,
he may build for himself a marble palace, he may clothe hinisell in pur-
ple and fine linen; but if he have, a rude and uncultured mind, il he

J52 TKANSArriOX^ OF TIJK H.I.iN'OfS

knows notliing, and cares to know nothing outside of his material pos-
session; if the costly vohuiies, laden with the lore of ancient and modern
times, which he may have purchased, as some people do, for the sake of
show, are to him sealed books, which he only takes from their shelves once
or twice a year, to have them dusted and replaced ; the most uneduca-
ted of us feel that this man's life is little better than a splendid
mockery. The higher or intellectual part of his nature, either from
necessity or choice, has been left uncultured. It is an old saying that
there is no royal road to learning; and we might vary it by saying
that there is no golden road, or modernize it by saying that there is no
railroad to learning or knowledge. It is true that wealth may enable
the man of whom we have been speaking, to obtain for his children the
most approved means of education ; but in so doing, he sends them
away from his own splendid mansion, to obtain that which he himself,
with all his riches, does not possess.

F^ducation means the development of the human faculties, and these
faculties are so numerous and so complex,that the determination of the best
means and methods of accomplishing this end is the most important
and the most difficult problem which can present itself for our solution.
This difficulty is greatly enhanced by the diverse pursuits of mankind,
and the diverse conditions of human society, so that what is a suitable
and sufficient education for one man, is not so for another. The ne-
cessities of society require, as a general rule, that every man shall
devote himself to some one trade or profession. x\nd as population be-
comes more dense, the range of a man's education becomes more
specialized and consequently more contracted ; and most men have but
little time and little inclination to learn much outside of their special vo-
cation. The preparation or training for these various tiseful occupations,
constitutes, in the aggregate, what is usually understood as a practical
education ; that education by which a man is enabled to procure food
and raiment and shelter for himself and his family ; and the better ed-
ucated, or the more expert he is in his special calling, the better will he
fare in these respects.

But the question arises, whether there is nothing else which a man
can and and ought to learn, in case he does have the time and opportu-
nity; or if he have not the time himself, is there nothing else which he would
wish his children to know. If we suppose the uncultured rich man
we described above to have a bright and active child, it is very certain
that the child will not be satisfied with his father's small stock of knowl-
edge. J lis active mind will be reaching out after new light, new facts,
new thoughts; and it will make no difference in his estimation, whether
the knowledge which he may thus acquire have any practical applica-
tion or not. The fields of investigation which will open to this child
are boundless on every side ; so varied and so extensive, that the longer
and the farther we traverse them, the more conscious we become of
their limitless extent. You recollect the anecdote of Newton, that when
some one expressed a wonder at the extent of his knowledge, he replied,

S'l'AI K Ilf^in Kl'l.'l rUAI. SOCIETY'. J.^J*

thai he seemed lo liiiu.-,cir li> I'c hul u ( hild gathering a few pebbles
on tlie shore of tlie ocean.

Now all this diversity of knowledge, so far as it can not be applied
directly to our own business, may be said to be unpractical; and yet the
possession of it is what makes the difference between the ignorant day-
laborer and the mai\ of ( ulture and intelligence. Its utility is not spe-
cial but general. It opcMMles l)\ stimulating and enlarging, — in a word
educating the mind, and thus filling it the belter to coi)e with the
complicated questions of life, whether of the individual or of the state.
An ancient king of Sjxirta, when asked what is the best education
for a child, replied, " That which he will have to practise when he becomes
a man." We sometimes hear this saying quoted as if it solved the whole
difhculty, and left nothing more lo be saicl. Hut I fear we shall not be
able to dispose of this vexed and comjilicated (piestion by any such
short cut, or by any single comprehensi\e ajihorism. If the old philos-
opher meant to say that the most urgent and the most necessary educa-
tion, is that which will enable a man to become an expert in that trade
or calling by which he is to get his living, no one will dispute its truth.
But if he intended to say that this is all that a man needs to know,
or all that it is desirable to know, his dehnition was very contracted and
utisatist'actory.

1 thmk we can get a clearer view of this disputed matter of educi-
tion by classifying it. Education may be described as being of three
kinds, essenfial, special, and general. Essential education, is that which
evcrv one puts in practice in the affairs of civilized life. Special educa-
tion is instruction in the particular business, trade, or profession which
ai^y one may select whereby to get a livelihood. And general education
embraces the acquisition of all the knowledge that is not included in the
other two.

Essential education, nr that which every man in business absolute-
ly needs, is extremely little. It is limited to knowing how to read, write,
and cipher so far as to include the four elementary rules of arithmetic,
with a smattering of vulgar fractions; as special education, or instruction
in anv particular trade or profession, does not come within the limits of
a common-school education, it follows that all such education beyond
the above meager catalogue, will under the head of general education,
and we can all form some idea what judgment and far-seeing wisdom it
must re(|uire, to make the selection from this wide and diversified field.
In doing this, there appear to me to be two opposite errors, against whidi
we must guard.

In the first place we .must not occupy the time of the scholar with
studies which are very remote from that class of pursuits which he will
be most likely to follow, or that position in society, which he will be
most likely to occupy; especially if, at the same time, they are studies a
tolerable knowledge of which it will require much time to obtain. Both of
these objections apply very forcibly to the study of Latin and Greek
languages in common schools. A knowledge of these languages is of

;[54 TRANSACTIONS OF THK ILLINOIS

great importance to the mail engaged in literary or scientific pursuits,
especially in their higher brandies; but comparatively few are thus en-
gaged, and the great objection to these languages, as ordinary branches
of education, is that it reipiires many years' assiduous study to master
them.

On the other hand, there is perhaps an equal danger, especially in
this rushing, practical, and money-making age, that we shall take too
narrow a view of education, and that we shall overlook the great truth
that knowledge may be very useful in a general way which is not di-
rectly practical.

But it is not my intention to discuss the question of general educa-
tion, and 1 have thus stated briefly a few of the leading principles which
seem to me to underlie all education, for the purpose of making more in-
telligible the subsequent treatment of my special department.

Natural history, in the common acceptation of the phrase, means
the history of the animal creation, comprising quadrupeds, birds, fishes,
and insects. If we look at this subject from an exclusively practical
point of view, it is difficult to say wherein its utility consists. Almost
the only quadrupeds and birds which are of direct utility to mankind,
are those which he has in a state of domestication, and it is not to be sup-
posed that a general knowledge of natural history is going to aid him
much in the rearing of these. The injurious quadrupeds and birds are
so very few, that all of any consequence can be counted on the fingers
of one hand; and it does not require much knowledge of natural history
to tell us how to poison a wolf, or entrap a mink, or shoot a blackbird.

Fishes, living as they do, in a different element, never come direct-
ly in conflict with human interests ; and, in the way of capturing them
as articles of food, I have no doubt that Agassiz himself would often
stand a poor chance alongside of some ragged urchin, who has had the
fortune to be born within a stone's-throw of some running brook.

With insects the case is somewhat different. Though very few of
them are of direct utility to mankind, many of them are injurious, and
often disastrously injurious to human interests, by depredating upon the
most valuable crops. In a merely practical point of view, therefore, in-
sects would seem to be the only class of animals that there is much use
in studying, and these only so far as will enable us to destroy them, or
prevent their ravages.

The questign then recurs, what benefit is to accrue from the gener-
al study of natural history. If there be any utility in it, it is evident
that it must be looked for in a broad and general, and not in an exclusive-
ly practical view of the subject. I will proceed to state briefly, what I
conceive to be some of the principal advantages of this study.

In the first place, it is to be observed that we ourselves constitute
a part of nature. We are born and dwell in the midst of natural ob-
jects, the beauty of which attracts our attention from earliest childhood,
whilst their endless variety, their curious mechanism, and their wonder-
ful adaptations excite the curiosity and invite the investigation of the
profoundest and maturest intellect.

STATE HOklMCULTURAL SOCIETY. 155

There is about a third part ol' human Hfe, embracing the periods of
youth and old age, which is not occupied with the exacting demands of
business, and some provision must he made for the intellectual entertain-
ment of so large portion of our lives; and 1 know of nothing more
suitable, nt)lhing more i)!easing, more healthful, more i)urifving, or more
satisfying, than the contemplation .nul study of nature; and the cultiva-
tion of a taste for sucli studies, would, 1 have no doubt, save many a
young man from debasing iiimself with coarse and sensual pleasures
and man)' an old man from the tedium of a barren mind. 1 never
heard of any one who regretted tiie time expended in cultivating these
l)ursuits. 'i'he poet Wordsworth expresses sentiments similar to these
in language none the less true because it is poetical.
'• Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.
It is her [jrivilejje to lead iVoiii joy to joy :
For she can so improve liie mind which is within us,
And so feed with lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgments, or the sneers of seliish men
Shall e'er prevail against us."

Another advantage of the study of natural history is the careful,
accurate, and methodical habit of mind, whi( h the ))rosecution of such
studies requires and cultivates.

The celebrated Baron Cuvier, who was not only the most distin-
guished naturalist of his time, but who was also a man of vast general
attainments, and was often called to fill responsible positions in the state,
in the preface to his great work entitled the " Regne Animal," or the nat-
ural history of the animal kingdom, in speaking of the benefits to be
derived from this study, makes the following remarks:

" The habit, naturally acquired in the study of natural history, of the mental class-
ification of a great number of ideas, is one of the advantages of that science that is
seldom thought of, and which, when it shall have been generally introduced into the
system of common education, will become, perhaps, the principal one. By it, the student
i? exercised in that part of logic which is termed method, and which, when once acquired
may be ai)])lied with infinite advantage to studies the most foreign to natural history.
Every discussion which supposes a classification of facts, every research which demands
a distribution of matters, is performed according to the same laws, and he who had cul-
tivated this science merely for amusement, is often surprised at the facilities it affords him
in disentangling and arranging all kinds of affairs."

If such considerations as these strike any one as too lofty, or too
purely intellectual to be practical, I must maintain that they are not so
in the highest and best sense of the word; and that if they are so, the
same objection lies against a very large proportion of human knowl-
e«ige.

In teaching Entomology, the plan has been proposed of hanging
upon the walls of the school-room magnified pictures of the most inju-
rious species, or what would be better, to hang up a glass-covered box,
containing specimens of the insects themselves; accomj^anied with
plain directions how to destroy them, or otherwise counteract their rav-
ages. This is an excellent method so far as it goes, and may seem to
many all that the child needs to know upon this subject, since it is all,

156 TRANSACnOXS OK TIllR TI.f.TXOT:^;

and probably more than all, that he w ill ever need to ])ut in practice.
But its del'iciency lies in this, that it teaches only what is local, special,
and exceptional; it gives no 'principles, no general information, no
knowledge winch can l)e applied under a change of circumstances.*
The intelligent child will not long rest satisfied with the knowledge
thus communicated. (His eager young mind would starve u])on such
exclusively ])ractical diet as this.) He will say, or may be imagined to
say : Yes, I think 1 am sufficiently familiar with these two or three dozen
species. 1 l)elicvc 1 know pretty well how to contend with them, and if
1 do not, J can mucji better learn what 1 actual!) need to know, when
the time comes, bv consulting some [)ractical treatise ui)()n the subject.
But how is it as respects the twenty-odd thousand species which I am
informed inhabit the State of Illinois alone. What business have they
here; what bearing have they on human interests, directly or indirectly;
what part do they enact in the curious and complicated economy of
nature; what can you tell me about these; what general principles can
you give me by which 1 can tell which of the hundreds of species that
i meet with, are likely to be injurious to me or not; or what general
rules arc there by which i can distinguish my friends from my enemies ?
These are some of the questions that will present themselves to the
mind of the empiiring child, and which our methods of teaching must
be prepared to meet before we can dignify them with the title of educa-
tion.

There are two principal methods by which instruction is commu-
nicated; first, by oral or conversational lessons on the part of the teacher ;
and second, by the aid of text-books.

A very considerable diversity of opinion exists as to the value, or
necessity of text-books. The fact that teachers have been in the habit
of reiving too much uport such aids, and sometimes to the almost total
exclusion of Jhe great book of all, the book of nature itself, has
caused a reaction which is liable to run to the other extreme, and to dis-
parage the use of books almost entirely in teaching the natural sciences.

A great deal of the uncertainty which in\'olves this subject is
cleared away by recognizing an imjtortant distinction which exists in
the requirements of the child and those of the more advanced student.
A child soon tires of books, and often fails to understand them, whilst
his attention is immediately arrested by the natural object itself, whether
it be a bird, a flower, or an insect. He cares but little what is said
about this object on the printed page, so long as he has the thing itself
before his eye, and a living teacher ready to explain it. But as he pro-
gresses in his studies, the case becomes changed ; after becoming suffi-
ciently familiarized with the objects of his study, a new desire arises;
he longs to know what the masters have said concerning them, and
what results have been arrived at by those who have gone before him
in this field, and who, by a life time, perhaps, of patient toil, have over-
come the obstacles which lie heavily in his path.

* It does not so much as touch that higher department of education referred to by
B. Cuvier in the extract which we have read from his writings.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ^57

The Hon. Nevvton Rateman, the able and experienced Superintend-
ent of Kducalion in this State, in an article recently published by him
upon this subject, has happily presented tlic different rctiuiremcnts of
the ]v///,\q-t'r, and the /nore advanced scholars in the natural sciences.
After depicting, in eloquent terms, the eagerness with which the child
seizes u[)on knowledge when it presents itself in the form of object les-
sons, in the hands of a sympathizing and enthusiastic teacher, he goes
on to present the other side of the case, and commences with the fol-
lowing passage ;

" Let it be kept in mind that in what I have been saying, I have had special refer-
ence to beginners in the rudimenlR of natural science. I do not .say that some teachers
niav not make judicious use of a text-book, even at the outset, or as soon as pupils are
able to read fluently ; much less would I approve the one-sided and extravagant notion,
now becoming so prevalent, that text-books should be entirely discarded in public
schools, and all the instruction be oral. A good and suitable text-book, in the hands
of a teacher who knows how to use it, and how to direct its use by pupils, is always a
help — one never to be undervalued. And for advanced classes in tlie natural sciences,
text-books are almost indispensable, even wjth the best teachers."

The books which have been written upon insects are very numerous
and varied. They may be divided into three general classes; first, those
which contain accounts of the instincts and habits of insects, intended
to entertain and instruct children and others who do not desire to make
a special study of Entomology ; secondly, those who treat the subject
from a purely scientific point of view, and which are intended only for
the professed student of this science ; and thirdly, those which have
treated the subject practically, for the purpose of teaching, either how to
.rear the useful species such as the silk-worm, and honey-bee, or else how
to destroy those kinds which are injurious. (A considerable number of
books have been published, it is true, of an intermediate (les(ri])tion be-
tween the first two, but they are usually of such a character that they may
be classed in a general way with the one or the other.) The greatest
desideratum in entomological literature, at the present time, in my opinion,
is a book which will form a c(mnecting link between those works which
treat the subject either from a purely scientific, or an exclusively pract-
ical jioint of view.

1 am continually receiving, in my official capacity, two classes of
enquiries; first, how to cope with injurious species — coming from prac-
tical farmers and horticulturists; and the other, much less numerous, but
not inconsiderable, ho.w to classify the insects which the encjuirer is col-
lecting— coining from young people who have become interested in this
study. To the first ([uestions I reply either by jjrivate letter, or if the
subject be of general interest, through the public press, or if it be [)ar-
tirtilarly new or interesting, through the medium of my annual report.
'["() the latter, 1 am obliged to reply that no work exactly suited to their
purpose exists; and those which come nearest to it are either out of
])rint, or too expensive, or otherwise unavailable ; and those which are
within his reach are for the most jiart too learned and technical, besides
that many of the works upon different orders of insects, are scattered

158 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

through different and disronnerted volumes. So much have I felt this
want for others, and for myself in my earlier studies," that I have ven-
tured to commence the preparation of a work which, to the best of my
judgment and ability, shall meet this demand. The first installment of
this work, enbracing a concise outline of the structure of insects, and a
distribution of them according to their habits and the nature of their
food, and continued so far as to include the wliole of the first great
order of insects, or that of the Colcoptera, or beetles, is now nearly
completed, and will be published in connection with my next annual re-
port if an appropriation can be obtained sufficient to pay for the tigures
necessary to illustrate it. It will be my aim to give that general knowl-
edge of insects which underlies their practical treatment, and to describe
as plainly and concisely as possible those principles which conduct to
the scientific treatment of the subject. (Such a work can not be made
to include many practical details without being too bulky, and this is not
necessary, because we already have these details in the practical reports
which have been published, or which are now being published in this
and other states ; and which are easily obtainable either gratuitously, or
at a price Avhich is little more than nominal in proportion to their intrin-
sic value.) Such a work may have, indirectly, a practical value which
we cannot now fully realize, by inviting into this field of labor many
young and enijuiring minds which might otherwise be deterred by the
difficulties which they would meet at the outset.

I .should be pleased to describe my plan more fully to you, but the
plan itself is as yet but partially matured, and I have already trespassed
too long upon your time. 1 will close therefore with one more remark.

Mr. Edward Newman, a respectable English entomologist, in his
little work published many years ago, entitled : " A Grammar of Ento-
mology " — commences his preface with the following remarks : —

" Teacher.s in .science are nearly equally divided into two classes : those who know
too much, and those who know loo iiule. Tiiose of the first class, overloaded with sci-
ence, cannot admit the possibility of meelint; with readers who have none, and therefore
.their essays and introductions are so worded that it requires a tolerable ])roticiency to
understand them. The teachers of the second class fall into the opposite error ; they
curtail, garble, and popularize the writings of others without understanding them, for-
getful that it requires a consummate knowledge of any science to abridge a work which
treats of it ably, and at large."

If I should be so fortunate as to be able to pursue a middle course
between these two extremes, I should have occasion both for your, and
my own congratulation.

In the discourse that I have just read, it will have been observed
that I have been discussing more particularly the teaching of the ele-
ments of the natural sciences to those young persons, either in school
or out of it, who may have a taste for such pursuits, and upon whom
the treatment of this subject, in its practical as well as its scientific as-
pects, will hereafter devolve. In doing this, I have not been able,
without making my address too long, to treat of the directly practical
application of this subject. I have endeavored to show that instruction

STATr TTOTrnCUl.TURAT. SOCIETY. ^59

in the elements of any scionre is not identical with directions how to
practic e it, but that it precedes and underlies them. Tliose who have
taker, an interest in reading my annual rei)orts, and my freiiuent con-
tributions to the agricultural press, are aware that the greater part of
my entomological writings have been of an exclusively practical char-
acter.

I make these statements simply to guard against misapprehension,
and to remind vcni that in providing for the elementary education of
the young people of the State, your Entomologist has not neglected the
important and more directly practical duties of his otifi( e.

PRIZE TO STUDENTS OF ILLINOIS INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY FOR
ENTOMOLOGICAL EXHIBITIONS.

Mr. Earle offered the followmg resolution:

Resolved — That this Society offer to the students of the State Industrial University
two prizes, one of ten, and one of five dollars for the best and second-best collection of
insects, to be exliibited at the annual meeting of the Society in Champaign next Decem-
ber ; each collection to be accompanied by a paper upon some species of insects, bene-
ficial and injurious.

After considerable discussion upon the expediency of adopting the
resolution.

Dr. Gregory stated that he knew members of the Society who
would furnish the funds to pay the premiums if offered, and he would
pledge the funds; whereupon the resolution was adopted.

Mr. Wikr — I wish to offer a resolution requesting the Legislature
to continue the appropriation of money to sustain our State Entomolo-
gist.

Wherf.AS, — By the revision of the Constitution of this State the appropriation for
the compensation of the Stale Entomologist ceased at the close of August last, and
the present incumbent has since th;it time pursued his labor without C(>in[)ensation, and

WiiERKAS, — We are fully convinced of the great value lo the State which will accrue
from the continuance of that official, amounting to many times its cost, therefore

Resolved — That it is the earnest wish of this association that the oftice be continued,
and that we urge the General Assembly of the State to pass such act as is necessary to
continue the oliice of State Entomologist, and to make appropriation for the compensa-
tion of the same.

REPORT ON ENTOMOLOGY.

Major |. R. Muhleman, from Standing Committee on Entomology
presented his report, introducing it with some interesting remarks upon
the strawberry crown-borer, which, for some reason, the reporter failed
to take down.

He said he was not a professional entomologist, tiiough lie had taken
a great interest in the science, and had devoted many leisure hours to its
study. He would christen his remarks at this time as —

160 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

SCRAPS PICKED UP BY THE WAY.
which he presented to us as follows:

" It is amusing sometimes in moments of leisure, when alone and
not tormented with the persistent cares for the to-morrow, when travel-
ing over prairie and through lonesome woods for instance, no faster than
horseflesh can go. to muse, whence happiness or miseries come, and how
much we owe to littje things for both. I have thus once been musing
on the birth and early youth of Entomology. The wise man tells us
that there is 'nothing new imder the Sun,' and I have tried to apply the
saying to the subject before me. The horticulturist and the agriculturist
will study chiefly that part of the science which treats of the noxious
insects, and of the means to destroy them, or at least check their in-
crease; it is due to self-preservation, that we as lords of the creation,
stoop to apparently so little things, and in this sense 1 am prepared to
maintain that there is 'nothing new under the Sun ,' that Entomology is
no new science, that it is as old as written language at any rate ; what-
ever occurs or manifests itself for good or for evil in the existence; the
preservation or comfort of man, becomes necessarily the object of his
attention, and of study to the more intelligent, and it is chiefly to the
two former that we are indebted as the originating agents of the science.
Then, as now. man was bitten, stung, tickled, and crawled over, by day
and by night, yet would he not stoop down to the biters, the stingers,
and ticklers, and learn something of their inner lives; but when it mat-
ters about the very existence or preservation of life, when it matters
about the destruction or diminution of his bread, then those little de-
stroyers at once become important in proportion to their destructiveness;
and the intelligent man at once perceives the necessity of acquainting
himself with the habits of the enemy, in order to disiover the proper
means of warfare. This is the birth of Entomology;- its growth has ke])l
pace with the gradual increase of noxious insects, and of cultivated
plants.

There are, besides, other elements Avhich might be regarded as com-
ponent stones in the arch of the science, one — namely superstition, —
which is almost an inherent part of the moral existence of the ancients,
the foundation of their religious systems, ihe soil in which rooted much
of their poetry and arts.

It is the ])rovincc of science to dispel suj)erstition ; yet the latter
was before the former and superstition is (luasi the mother of science.
At any rate we have now some names which were suggested by supersti-
tion; for instance the si)ecific name Atropos given to a large European
Sphinx, Avhich bears on its breast the figure of a human skull. Airopos is
the great name of one of the three goddesses of fate, the one who cut
the thread. i'o this day is the moth regarded as a messenger of death
with the common peo])le of Europe, when flying into a lighted ro(jm,
perhaps a sick chamber. We need therefore not to go back to the an-
cients for instances of superstition in connection with our subject ; does
not the vocabulary of popular names itself to-day teem with such that

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ](^|

are suggested by su})erstition ?. Fear stimulates imagination ; the pecu-
liar and often fantastic or repugnant forms, together with size, suggest
to the ignorant the presence of supernatural powers ; they become to
them at once messengers from the realms of the mysterious, even the
harbingers of death.

But let us turn over this leaf of the dark powers and ot th(^se hu-
man infirmities; there are beneficent insects; they, totj, claim a jilacc in
the arch. Though they are but faw m number of species over against
the destructive and injurious ones, they arc by no means unimportant.
These few have already in very early days largely contributed to the
wealth and comfort of man ; they are the Ree, the Silkworm, the Coccus,
and last the Spanish-fly. The Coccus under different names was known
to all the oriental nations, and prized for its scarlet properties, though it
is said that the insect was supposed to be a vegetable ])roduction.

As colonization extended and civilization progressed, vegetables
for man and feed for animals increased in variety ; so have insects ; new
species, or such as had before been unknown because they inhabited
uncultivated districts of forest and prairie, have urged themselves ujjon
the notice of man, often for evil it is true. Yet the science of Entomol-
ogy having grown in the meantime, and divested herself of the tutelage
of superstition, had commenced to notice and reach out to all, whether
injurious or not, grew to independence — to rank with her twin sister.
Botany.

In a [ia])er re;id during last summer before the Alton Horticultural
Society, I alluded among other things to the gradual disappearance of
some insects from once uninhabited prairie districts ; in a conversation had
lately with an old settler in my county, which by-the-way had. not longer
than fifteen or twenty years ago. thousands of acres of prairie lakes, so
that it received the epithet u\ Progpond. — I learned something about
the small green horse-fly, — Tahaniis liiiri>la, \\hi( h goes to confinn the
statement alluded to.

He said that befoie the days of railroads, when larmers Irom Greene,
Jersey, and Macoupin ctninties took their produce to Alton over ro.uls
leading over raw prairies, and around the numerous lakes, they had to
travel only nights, on ai » ouiu of that lly. Tiie lar\;e of it, like others
of the genus, live on decaying vegelal)le matter in marshes, just such as
were afforded them by those prairie lakes. N'ow they have disajipi ared.
Railroads and the plow have drained them, that vegetable matter has
assimilated with the soil, and the yearly ])iowings of course have disas-
trously interfered with the inc rease and breeding of the fly, so that now
it is counted with the ]»lagues that were.

INSI'XT NA.MKS AND I 1 1 1 I K DERIVATION.

It is obvious to nil, do doiibt, thai il is necessary in science to use a
common language to name its subjci ts, legible ami lomprehensiblc to
the students of all nations, and thus facilitate scientific intercourse on
the subject between people of different languages, and avoid the other-

12

|g2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Avise inevitable confusions which would ensue if science were reduced
for her vocabulary to the popular names of each country and language ;
it would moreover, burden the student with the onerous duty to master
every language in which the science is written, even to its idioms.

The derivation is necessarily very various. Simple as it no doubt
was with the ancients, who knew scientifically, }jerhaps, no insects at all,
and oftenest named them after familiar objects which they resembled,
in form or dress, as to precious stones or metals, or to animals; the ad-
jectives expressing their appearance, destructiveness, or beneficence ;
their forms also as above alluded to, suggested by superstitious dread,
their size, color, habits, and numbers. Later, as science assumed more
comprehensive proportions, when the number of known insect species
rose into thousands and tens of thousands, it drove the systematist into
many additional fields of knowledge ; even poetry had to become lender.

By far the richest and most appropriate source for names, however,
are the characteristics of the whole insect, or its parts, as for instance,
of the feelers, mouth-parts, the wings and their veins, the feet and
their parts. Among such I would name de^^astator^ destructor, stimulea^
bivittata, ^nftata, punctata, tridentata, cincrca, liiicola, i/iaculata, chrysomelas,
brevicornis, albifrons, albipennis, fulvipomis.

Next are we indebted to Botany, especially in the category of specific
names, denoting generally the food-plant of the larvre, ?L'iq7{ercus, popu/i,
rohinia,jii;:^landis, saliA\/^isi\ fabiv. Next, to denote the resemblance the
insect may have to certain plants, or their ^a.x\.s—2L^ popii/ifolia guercifolia,
lanrifolia.

Mineralogy has furnished its quota, and lastly. Mythology. In
names from the latter we can frequently trace a resemblance between the
insect or its appearance, and the representation or attribute of the par-
ticular fabulous being whose name it bears, for instance, Polyphemus, the
name of one of our large silkworm moths, obviously suggested by the
conspicuous dark eye-spot in the middle of each wing, suggestive of
course of the one eye in the middle of the Cyclops' forehead. Some are
doubtful and obscure in their meaning as applied to insects. Thus it is
difficult to account tor the application of the name Luna to the beautiful
green moth. Luna is both the name of the moon and the goddess of
the moon. 1 could ajjply that name to the insect, only for its resem-
blance when at rest, — against a dark background, to the appearance of
the moon, nearing her second quarter.

Many however, are so utterly devoid in analogy as to the whole or
its parts, with beings whose name they bear, that the imagination of the
uninitiated is utterly baffled. Among these J could cite Prometheus,

another large moth, Apollo, a beautiful butterfly from the Alps. Idalia,
Aphrodite, Paphia — aliases of Venus, Diana, and Cybele, all applied to
five different species of the argymus butterfly.

Rather suggestive are Apollo above named ; Tityus, the name of a
giant, and applied to our largest beetle ; Erebus, the hell of the ancients,
the name of an immense dark moth.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ;! 53

T presume most of my hearers, especially those of the horticultural
persuasion, are aware that we distinguish in Entomology four distinrt
classes of names (at least they ougiit to know after all the itrcai liing they
have had on the subject.) These names are, first, of Orders; second, of
Families ; third, of Genera; ; and lastly, of Species. I have so f;ir, chiefly
dealt with the last; the first three are suggested chiefly by their charac-
teristics, and hence are more or less descriptive.

Names which the ancients applied to distinct species, have in later
times been applied to the whole genus. Thus Coccus, as Dr. Harris
tells us, is the name of a grain, and was the scarlet in grain of the Ro-
mans; they supposed it to be a vegetable production.

Curculio was also by the Romans applied to the European corn-
weevil, but now to the whole tribe of them, amounting to between eight
thousand and ten thousand species.

So is Coccus applied to the whole family of scale insects.

CATERPILLARS AND GRUBS.

An important and a rich chapter. No tiller of the soil, no horticul-
turist will deny it. Although much injury is done by the perfect insects
of the four orders, colcoptera, orthopicra, hemiptera, homoptcra, yet does it
not stand comparison with that done by their larvae added to that done
by the larva; of the Icpidopiera. The larva? state is the period of growth,
and although not the longest in the aggregate existence of the indi\'id-
ual, the larva; state is the longest of the destructive period.

It is the caterpillar, the grub, the louse, and the larvre and pupre of
many orthoplrroia; insects, which are destructive to the appletree, the
peach, plum, and the grapevine; to the garden, the forest, the field, and
the meadow. The injury done by the perfect insect is insignificant in
comparison ; because first, they need no food in order to grow, and sec-
ondly they are too short-lived. The most serious injury done to plants
we cultivate, is that done bv the so-called Spanish-fly, Lytta ritiaia on
the potato vine, — the injury done by the Colorado beetle being much
less than that done by its larvae. Another is the grasshopper, some
wasps and beetles, on fruits.

On the other hand do we derive the greatest benefit from insect-
friends during their mature state ; be it by their habits as parasites, or
by their raptoTial habits: it is rhicflv the perfect beetle, rcar-horsc. bug.
or wasp.

In Economic Entomology, the knowledge as to what particular m-
sects catcrpillnrs, grubs, etc., will turn to, therefore, is commensurate in
importance with the injury and destruction done to what we culivate for
our subsistence, for commerce, comfort, and pleasure ; I say in Economic
Entomology, because Scientific Entomology takes notice of all insects,
injurious'or not.

It is computed by entomologists, that the proportion of known in-
sects to known plants is as five to (me ; this need however, not mislead
to the supposition that each species of plant has five different insect en-

|g^ TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

emies. I am not prepared to say whether there are plants which have
positively no insects feeding on them ; but I have noticed a few on
which I have never seen any, namely, the tansy, the so-called ' old man,'
and the hoarhound ; a certain beetle is said to feed on the pie-plant, but
I know of no larva.

But what must we say of the grapevine, the oak, the apple tree ?
The two former have at least fifty different insects feeding on each of
them ; on the apple tree at least twenty-five. Any one, who has an eye
for caterpillars, can find in September and October, on the post-oak
alone, caterpillars of twenty-four different species of moths.

On the subject of generalization I take the liberty to quote from an
excellent article on noxious larvae, by Dr. William LeBaron, which will
be found in number eight, volume two, of American Entomologist. He
says :

" As a general rule, hairy caterpillars produce moths, whilst spiny or
naked ones produce butterflies, sphinges, or sawflies; or all densely-
haired caterpillars produce moths, but all the larvae of moths are not
hairy."

Wood-boring larvae belong mostly to the coleoptera, but also to a tew
families of the Icpidoptera, namely, the ccgeiidiC, the hepialida, and a few
exceptional fortricidce.. The larvae of the lepidoptera can always be dis-
tinguished from those of the coleoptera by the presence of prolegs on
the intermediate segments. A few coleopterous larvae have one pair of
prolegs on the anal segment, but more generally only one such leg.

All leaf-sucking larvae belong to the order of hemiptera (including
homopte)\i).

All larvre found underground, excepting those which enter it only
for the purpose of undergoing their transformations, are divisible ac-
cording to their habits, into two sections. First, the subterranean larva.',
properly so-called, which lirr underground, and feed upon the roots of
plants ; and secondly, those wliich subsist above ground, but burvuvv into
it, when not feeding, for the purpose of concealment.

IN CONCLUSION.

A few words as a tribute to Entomology, as a. promoter ot ha])piness,
of comfort, of wealth, and of humility ; (jf hapi)iness, because she dispels
the dread of superstition ; enlightens, elevates, affords recreation, amuse-
ment, and instruction. By the practical ajjplicalion of what she reveals.
we can do good and benefit mankind, and thus, in the hands of the
christian, she becomes the handmaid of religion. She reveals to us, with
other natural sciences, the ])alijable evidences of God's infinite wisdom
and goodness. \\"hen we contemi)late with the help of the lens, these,
to many, insignificant creatures, we see things which were sealed to
the naked eye; when we take a lens of double, oi' ten, yea of a^hundred-
fold power, we sec still mori'. but never all of it, no more than we can
know all (jf the Creator. He is infinite and so are his works, while we
and our tools are finite. Whatever bears the seal of his spirit, has a
Holv of Holies, into which we cannot penetrate, not even the high priests
of science. J. R. Muhleman.

STATE HORTTCULTURaL SOCIfiTV. \Q^

On motion of Mr. Flagg, the Society requested Mr. Cooper to pre-
sent his rejjort on Ornithology, which had been crowded out from its
regular order.

REPORT OF J. C. COOPER, COMMITTEE ON ORNITHOLOGY.

Afr. Prcsid,-nt •

1 must say llial 1 was \(*iv iniu h siir|irisc(l ;it receiving a ( ire ular
from the Secretary inronniii:.', nu- thai I had been appointed a nu-nil)er
of the Committee on Ornithology tor eighteen seventy-two, with a request
to "report upon all matters which come legitimately within tlie province
of such committee " — for the reason that a report on any subject which
comes legitimatelv within the province of the State Horticultural Society,
should contain the results of practical experience and observation, to
make it of any \alue — and in these two essential qualifications 1 am free
to acknowledge my ignorance of any knowledge of practical value per-
taining to the subject assigned me.

1 may say that 1 have taken more or less interest in birds, in com-
mon with every person who loves the works of nature, and have always
been inclined to the belief that they were the natural friends of man,
rendering to him a full tjiiiJ pro (///t> for all their trespasses upon his work.
1 used to think, il 1 was a fruit grower, 1 would cultivate the acquaint-
ance of the birds; 1 would sa\ to tlinn Ironi the alTections of my heart,
"You beautiful harbingers of joy, who ( ome to me after the silence and
the chill and the gloom of winter, with the tirst glad songs of the spring,
you are welcome to my small hospitality. 1 esteem it a pleasure to have
the privilege to entertain you, as a slight return for the valuable assis-
tance you render me in keeping in subjection the swarms of insect pests
which destroy the t>uils ol rn\ labor ; and for the delicious scjIos and
concerts of entertainment vou have given me." but afterwards, when
I began to raise fruits in an amateur wav, for the su])ply of my fan^ily,
and after planting and cultivating tcj a maturity whicii i)i-.)niised the long
expected reward, when 1 foinid my esteemed friends, the birds, feasting
on the long-looked-for tirst strawberries, and day after da\ postponing
the delicious first saucer full of the season, picking ^^'i my choicest
cherries before thev were rijjc, watching with a faithful pertinacity that
in man would win him success in any field of labor, for the hrst raspberry
to color, and then making away with it just liefore 1 was ready to gather
it; and then when the grapes, which hang in such glorious clusters over
my head in the arbor, as 1 walkthrough it ov^er and over again and watch
the precious tint of color as it spreads and encircles the little globular
repositories of the precious nectar, as they begin to ripen, to fmd that
they are being appropriated as fast as they ri[)en by those whom i had
esteemed my friends, and wlio start away with an evident conscious-
ness of guilt upon my approach, when I l)egan to feel their merciless
beak in my dearest hopes, somehow or other my feelings undergo a com-
plete revulsion, and in place of the kindly sentiment of hospitality, the
baser feelings of revenge would take sway, and it required a good deal

165 TRANSACTIONS 01^ THE iLLtNOtS

of philosoi)hy, and a severe draw upon my better nature to resist the
temptation to commence a deadly war of extermination ai^ainst them. At
such a time we are hardly willing to reflect that the birds which become
such destructive pests to the fruit growers' industry in the latter part of
the season, on their /irs/ arrival, in the early si)ring, subsist almost wholly
on insects which might, if they were permitted to live, do as much inju-
ry to the crops as we charge the birds with doing.

We have a large number of birds visit us here in this locality during
the summer. I cannot say how many, but trying to entimerate them a
short time ago, I made out the following list, some of the names embrac-
ing several varieties :

Woodpeckers, Blackbirds,

Creepers, Bob-o-link,

Thrush, Mocking-bird,

Bullfinch, Blue-bird,

Pewee, Titmouse,

Wren, Wax-wing,

Robin, Swallows,

Cat-bird, Martins,

Shrike, Oriole,

Red-bird, Blue-jay,

Quail, Yellow-hammer.

Meadow-lark,

Swallows are supposed to feed on gnats and flies almost exclusively,
but they sometimes feed on other insects and small beetles. M. de Buf-
fon tells the following interesting anecdote about this bird, which may
not be out of place here, as it illustrates its uniform habits : A shoemaker
in Basle, (France) put a collar on a swallow containing an inscription
to this purport :

" Pretty swallow, tell me, whither goest thou in winter ?"

and in the ensuing spring he received by the same courier the following
answer :

" To Anthony, at Athens ; — Why dost thou enquire?"

Theory and speculation and sentiment may be entertaining for the
moment, but it is real practical knowledge or information that we want ;
and this can only be obtained by careful observation, not only for a sea-
son, but continued through the seasons. The birds want a just, intelli-
gent and kind-hearted judge to hear evidence through a series of years;
to open a business account with them, giving them credit in the early
part of the season for their cheering songs, which come to us, as Thom-
son beautifully says of the lark (although it was not one of our birds,
yet the sentiment was universal):

" Shrill-voiced and loud, the messenger of morn ;
Ere yet the shadows fly, he, mounted, sings
Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunt*
Calls up the tuneful nations."

STATE HORTICULTURAL 80CIETV. • IQfJ

for llicir cheering songs, their valuable example of applied industry, their
gratification to the eye in the sight of beautiful colors and graceful mo-
tions and for the faithful work they perform, from the time the ground
is broken in the spring, or the warmth of the season gives life and mo-
tion to the insect world, to the time when tiie fruits become ripe enougli
to tempt their appetite, continued through the seasons in early morning
and llu- later evening — then to charge against them the fruits they eat,
from the delicate strawberry to the wine-tlavored grape, and footing up
the accounts find on which side the balance is. My hope, desire, and
present belief is, that a very fair balance will be found in favor of the
birds.

The great Creator of all things has had an eye to beauty as well as
to use; else, why has he colored the head of tlie Woodpecker red, or
shotted the Brown Thrush with the gray and the yellow .' The fully de-
veloped horticulturist has an aesthetic nature to be provided for as well as
a practical one, and when we weigh the birds in the balance, and give
them credit for their beauty and their songs, and their faithful work,
perhaps we will come to think that they have earned a right to a taste
of the first strawberries and the ripened grapes.

DISCUSSION ON BIRDS.

Mr. HuGGiNs^ — I cannot sit still here and not say a word in favor
of the birds — I always feel like speaking a good word for them, when
ever the subject comes up. I know there is a dispute in regard to
the benefit or injury that'they do. We all have loved the birds' music —
and we can but love those birds that are known not to be injurious — 1
wish to call attention to two birds, the Blue-bird and the Wren, which,
1 think, all hands will agree, are not injurious. I believe they are very
beneficial, and especially beneficial in destroying the Codling moth. I
cannot state facts as 1 would like to, I cannot speak positively and say
that I know that the Blue-birds take the Codling moth, but I believe
they do, as they are very active wherever this moth is found ; es-
pecially when they are rearing their young there is no leaf thai they do
not carefully examine, on every side. They search diligently for the
Codling moth, as I have reason to believe, and what the blue-bird
overlooks, the little wren will be likely to find. I think 1 have evidence
that the Codling moth does move in the daytime. Last fall, a year ago,
I placed apples in my cellar, and in midwinter I saw the insect flying
about the windows — this was evidence to me that under some circum-
stances at least, the moth did fly in the daytime. At any rate these birds
find them and destroy them, and hence 1 encourage their presence in
my orchard. I build nests for them, by hanging oyster cans upon the
limbs of my apple trees, and they are all occupied.

IQQ ' TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Mr. \Vikr — 1 did not want lo say a word ii|(()ii this sul)iect, I do
not know tlial tliere is any subject so little understood as this ; it is a very
mixed question. W^e know birds do not eat moths, I l)elieve they will
eat the larvae — and about their flying in the daytime, 1 do not believe it.

Under the circumstances detailed they may have moved about a
little, and if so, they were probably female moths trying to find a jjlace
to deposit their eggs.

In discussing this subject, I want to leave all poetry out and come
down to prosy facts. The writer did not seem over zealous in his
defense of those birds which depredate upon our fruits.

Reports from Messrs. Bryant and Carpenter, members of Standing
Committee on Ornamental and Landscape Gardening were handed in —
neither of the gentlemen being present — and were referred to the Secre-
tary Avithout being read. — [See index for these papers.]

DISCUSSION ON RASPBERRIES.
Mr. Galusha — I move we spend fifteen minutes in discussion of
the Raspberry — Carried.

Dr. Hooton — There are few if any varieties of Raspberries that
I ha\e not tried — I have run through the Raspberry fever in all its
stages ; I have tried the earliest and the latest ; the black and red. and
every other color. I tried the Miami or McCormick, and had two or
three crops, but they finally became sickly, and all the care I could
give them did not keep there in good health. I tried the Clark and
Brinkle's Orange, and a number of other varieties, including the Golden
Cap — none of them succeeded well. I tried Kirkland; which succeeded
a little better.

The President — Have you tried the Black Cap .'

Dr. Hooton — I have. Even the Philadelphia did not succeed
very well with me. If I got the berries, I could not always get them to
market in go<:)d condition.

Mr. Flagg — I will say that one gentleman in Alton seems to have
succeeded Aery Avell in shipping in pint boxes. It paid him very Avell.

Mr. Webster — 1 have found that for six years the Philadelphia
Raspberry is the best red raspberry that I have tried, and has succeeded
well every year but one. I have shipped to Chicago, and have realized
a good price for them, and they have always arrived in good condition,
but usually I find a market at home, for all I have.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. 1(59

Mr. Scofielu — Did I uiulersl.ind I )r. l{of>tf>n to say, thnt the
Philadel]thia Raspberrj' docs mn <!(> well lu.'re?

Dk. HooTON — So far as 1 ha\e seen, it does not do well. 1 am in-
clined to l)elieve that for us here, the Doolittle is likely to do the best.

Mh. Ci.ALi;sHA — Do you |trune bark the ijjrowing canes in summer?

Dr. Hootox — Yes, I do.

Mr. (J.-\lush.a — Then \<)u may safely conclude that you have not
a soil adapted to the culture of raspberries; tor the Doolittle, McCor-
mick (or Mannnoth Cluster), and the Philadelphia are more generally
profitable through the state than ,in\' small fruit, except Wilson's Straw-
berry. Of course they na-A < iilii\ation, and judicious summer-pruning.

Mr. Scofieli> — I have had great success in growing raspberries —
and 1 fmd none better than the Doolittle. They are as large as the
Mammoth Cluster. Prof. McAfee in passing through my grounds, said
to me, "You have the Mammoth Cluster? " 1 informed him that it was
onlv the Doolittle. For four years 1 have had lull crops ; on one-half an
acre I had from sixteen hundred to seventeen hundred quarts that were
picked, and four hundred more that were wasted. I found some diffi-
culty the first year in finding a market; the second year 1 found a
ready market for all, and the third year I could not supply the. demand ;
and this is the way it has been ever since.

So much lor good fruit. The people will buy it, if it is a good
article.

With Us the Philadelpliia is hardy, and a perfect success.

The Davison's Thornless is hardy, but after three or four pickings
the berries are almost worthless. 1 do not advise planting this variety,

DISCUSSION ON CHERRIES.

Mr. Wier — Mr. President. — 1 am aware that the hour at which
we should adjourn has arrived, but as many of us may not be here in
the morning, 1 would like to have a short discussion on cherries.
With us, we have got tluough svith the Early Richmond. There were
not only bushels, but hundreds of bushels of these cherries that went to
waste the past summer. There was no market for such fruit.

1 think we should now turn our attention to cherries, and let the
Early Richmond go. I can raise as many bushels of sweet cherries as
I can of Early Richmond. If you can't take my word for it, come
and see.

]^70 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLIKOIJ

Mr. Phexix — What varieties have you ?

Mr. VVier — I have twelve varieties.

Mr. Phenix — On what stock .'

Mr. Wier — I prefer the Mahaleb — but have succeeded on the
Hazard. The first great requisition is to branch your trees at the
ground ; head them low. so that the larger branches are shaded — cut
back while young.

Mr. Freeman — How many trees have you ?

Mr. Wier — Three hundred. There is another way you can grow
them, and that is by budding tliem on the Pearly Richmond.

Mr. Dunlap — Yes, because you want some fruit.

Mr. Wier — Yes, sir, — we want fruit, and this way we get it, by
cutting away the Early Richmond.

We have trees that have been in bearing for twenty years ; but
mind you, the Morello stock was not all cut out.

Adjourned.

FOURTH DAY.

It being generally understood that 'the Society would adjourn at an
early hour, to enable members to reach their homes before Sabbath, but
few came together and but little business was transacted.

The Secretary spoke of the importance of a reorganization of
the Society so as to secure a continuation of state patronage without
which its influence and usefulness would be seriously impaired. He re-
capitulated the steps already taken to secure reorganization, and urged
members to use their influence with their representatives in the General
Assembly to secure favorable attention to this matter, early in the session.

The Secretary, on behalf of the Committee, read the following:

REPORT ON FINAL RESOLUTIONS.

Resolved — That the thanks of this Association are due, and are hereby tendered to
the officers of the IlHnois Central ; Rockford, Rock Island and St. Louis ; Chicago and
Alton ; and the Indianapolis and St. Louis railroads for courtesies extended to our mem-
bers in granting commutation of fares on returning from this meeting ; which we trust
will result in mutual benefit.

Our Secretary is directed to transmit a copy of tliis resolution to the proper officers
of the several companies named.

Resolved — That we fully appreciate the kind, efficient, and impartial manner in
which our retiring President, James E. Starr, has discharged the duties incumbent upon
him ; for which we tender him our cordial thanks.

Resolved — That the citizens of Centralia, by their cordial reception and kind hos-

State horticultural j^ociety. jyj

pitality Lave icndcicd our visit an occasion tf> which we will ever reveit with pleasure.
Teiulerintj theni our sincere thanks, we trust that they may realize a verihcation of the
promise, ' It ib more blessed to give than to receive."

Samuel Ei:i\varus, t „

H r- Wni-r-iviAK, I Committee.
rl. C r RhEMAN, )

The President spoke of the importance of the meeting of the
American Pomological Society' in P)Ost()n next September, and of the ad-
vantages of that occasion for making a display of Illinois fruits. He
said we are able to place more fine fruit upon the tables there than any
other state in the Union, and hoped we would make such an exhibition

as would do credit to the State.

Several members spoke of thr necessity of individual effort in

making up collections of fruit for tiiis important exhibition.

iVlk. Earle — 1 feel a good deal of interest in this exhibition. I
had the only collection of fruit'from this State last year at Richmond- —
1 had there a larger collection of apples than was exhibited from any
other state, and in some respects the most valuable. In the opinion of
many, my collection should have received the premium. I did not think
the awards were entirely on the merits of the varieties.

Judge Brown — We must see that we have a large variety of red
apples next time.- — (Laughter.)

Mr. Earle — I think we can exhibit five or six hundred varieties, if
we make an effort. I was perhaps unfortunate in taking to Richmond
many kinds of apples that were not handsome, but for size and excel-
lence were not, as a collection, surpassed.

Mr. Huggins — I move that we now adjourn.

The President — Before we part, I desire to return my sincere
thanks to all the members of the Society, for their uniform courtesy to
me, and to one another; and in parting from you, it is with the hope
that we shall all meet again at Champaign next year.

The Society then adjourned.

]^72 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

ADDITIONAL

REPORTS AND PAPERS.

The following Papers have been sent to the Secretary for

publication.

REPORT OF FIRST HORTICULTURAL DISTRICT.

I have only received reports from two correspondents in this dis-
trict, and having been confined closely at home during the whole sum-
mer, I am not able to report from personal observation.

Mr. H. C. Graves, of Sandwich, De, Kalb County, writes that the
fruit interests in that county have improved very perceptibly in the past
two years ; that the fruit crop in eighteen seventy-one was better than
for many previous years, and the present year it has been good. The
small fruit?, excepting strawberries, were an average crop, notwithstand-
ing the drouth was quite severe.

Grapes ripened rather une\enly in some localities, but were gener-
ally satisfactory.

Cherries abundant.

Pears not so plenty as last year ; blight about the same.

Apples good size, and unusually fair, but the Canker-worm did
some damage in the northern part of the county.

He further says :—" Timber planting is a good deal talked of;
what vve want most is a few practical examples ; if one or two men in
each township would make a beginning, many others would fall into line
and planting would be general. A beautiful Larch grove of a tew acres,
even when tlie trees are small, six to eight feet, would wake up a whole
township."

Mr. S. G. Miukler, Oswego, Kendall County, writes: " '^J 'he past
season like the previous one has been very dry. Early Rose potatoes
ripened with scarcely any rain. The Cherry crop was abundant and
tine. Strawberries not as abundant as usual, as two-thirds of the land
planted has been plowed up, and the remainder suft'ered by drouth ; but
the crops brought prices that made them remunerative.

Pears — fruit fair, — trees blighted badly."

In the Fox River valley he reports heavy crops of apples for the
past two seasons. Early apples exempt from Codling moth ; winter ap-
ples a little affected by them. He thinks too many early apples have
been planted — no market for half of them even at two shillings per
bushel, and as cider-barrels could not be had, hundreds and thousands
of bushels have rotted on the ground, or were fed to animals by turn-
ing them into the orchards. He closes by saying that winter apples
were selling in Aurora, (December fourth) at four dollars per barrel.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 173

The fruit crop — small fruits excepted — has been very light, the past
season, along and near the western shore of lake Michigan, owing mainly
to the very heavy crops i)roduced both in eighteen seventy and eighteen
seventy-one, and the extreme drouth of both these seasons exhausting
the trees so that they were not able to mature fruit-buds for the past
season's crop. The timely, (though not by any means copious) rains
the i)ast summer, have so invigorated our trees that they give promise
of an abundant crop next season. Robert Douglass,

Waukegan, Til.

LANDSCAPE GARDENING FOR ILLINOIS.

BV J. P. PRYANT, MEMBER OF COMMITTEE ON ORNAMENTAL AND LAND-
SCAPE GARDENING.

Landscape gardening is an art about which so much has been
written that it would seem almost unnecessary to try to say anything
nevv, or for any but one of rare experience and ability to write at all on
the subject. But when I see on every hand so many evidences of a lack
of a true knowledge of the art, (perhaps I should say a lack of any
knowledge at all, or even any interest in the subject) and this too among
those who are known as "eminent horticulturists," and whose self-inter-
est one would think would pronijii them to foster and encourage all
efforts in that direction ; I (eel that somehow the fine thoughts of our
writers — clothed in beautiful language though they are, — have not been
what was needed, have not hit the nail on the head, and that there is still
room tor myself as well as others, if wx» can only bring the subject be-
fore our hearers in a shape that \yill enable them to appreciate its beau-
ties and advantages, and also the convenience and economy resulting
from a practical application of its principles.

I am willing to confess that alter reading Downing's work on Land-
scape (hardening, ami also the writings of others on the same subject,
it was not at all easy to reduce their ideas to practice. Though they
were men o( experience and wrote with ability and a true appreciation
of the art. the thought has occured to me that many persons would, after
reading their works, give u[) the subject in disgust and go back to first
jjrmciples; which generally means no principle or plan at all.

In fac t, though generally i)rofessing the contrary, the general tend-
ency of such works has been to make people believe that to lay (nit a
place and keep it iiji would be to incur an expense that but lew would
be able to afford; when in reality such work can be done in a manner
that will not only enhance the beauty and value of a place, but also re-
sult in positive economy in the end.

Ueautv has been defined as fitness of the object, or means used for
its destined end ; and on reflection 1 think all will admit that the defi-
nition is a good one. 'I'hus in nature we see every leaf, flower, twig,
tree, or |)lant, perfectly fitted for its office. Every piece of machinery,
every building impresses us with its beauty^ in proportion to its adapta-
tion to the purpose for which it was made. Why then should we not

;[74 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

lay out our farms, our nurseries, and our town lots in such a manner as
to make them as useful and convenient as possible, at the same time in-
troducing such trees, flowers, and othiT accessories of Landscape Gar-
dening as may be cf)nsistent with our ability to pay for, and the end de-
sired, and not carry them on in the common mixed-up way.

If one has a country place, and is able to furnish the money, he
can have his lakes, fountains, and rcK k-work. and what one worthy horti-
culturist, and geologist too, 1 believe, in his contempt for the art saw fit
to designate as " turpentine walks," provided of course, that any or all
of these modes of ornamenting are consistent with the natural character
of the place and with the rest of the improvements. But to attempt
anything of the kind without the ability to carry it out is worse than
useless.

Within the limits of a short essay on the subject, of course I can
not go into any detailed plan or instructions ; but will try to give a few
hints on the matter that perhaps may be of service.

First of all, begin with a plan and endeavor to have some system in
the mode of operation. The site for the dwelling-house should be first
selected by going carefully over the ground, and estimating the advant-
ages and disadvantages of every location that may seem at all desirable.
A central location with good drainage and well sheltered, if there are
any trees on the place, would likely be most suitable. Then the out-
buildings, pasture-ground, cultivated land, and the place most suitable
for planting a forest, (and some of us, I believe, think forest planting is
the main thing after all) should be thought about. Perhaps some of the
land needs draining ; in that case a system of drainage should be laid
out that will when completed fully accomplish its purpose in draining
the land at the least expense, and furnish a supply of water, if needed.

The best method of doing all planning is to have a map of the
place made, (drawn to any convenient scale) showing all present and fu-
ture improvements accurately located ; for all work can usually be laid out
to much better advantage on paper than on the ground itself. Besides,
if one proceeds in this manner he is apt to give much more thought
and careful study to the requirements of his plan than he otherwise
would.

It may be thought that this is taking much unnecessary trouble,
and wasting time to no purpose ; but it is nevertheles true that no place
can be laid out to the best advantage in any other way. It is not ne-
cessary to finish the map in the style that a professional would adojDt,
only let it indicate the location of whatever enters into the composition.
Some may say, " I can not make a map. I can not draw." Very well. I
by no means recommend any one to make his own ])lans when he can ob-
tain the assistance of one experienced in such matters ; but I think that
if all could be persuaded to study the subject, and mature plans to the
best of their ability, they would much more fully apreciate the services
of those who make it their business to plan, and not be so careful about
a few dollars where so much is at stake

STATE HORTICUI/rURAL SOCIETY. 175

It may be thought that all ])lanning, to a person just beginning a
phice, ])cihaps poor and unable to pay for even the tenth part of the
suggested improvements, would be looking too far ahead, and foolishly
trying for something beyond his means.

Was any one ever known to achieve any great success in life without
some settled purpose? ])o not good Inisiness men study any new pro-
ject carefully, in all its aspects, before investing their money in it.' Why
then should not we be as careful in laying out our places and improving
them to the best advantage .'

By starting out with some definite plan for the future, to improve
and beautify our homes, we are much more likely to attain what we de-
sire in the end than if we start with no plan at all. Very likely we may
modify or almost entirely change our original plan ; but if we do it, it
will be for some good reason, based on a- knowledge only to be derived
from a careful study of the subject. Really there is more need of care-
ful study when the amount to be invested is small, and such cases call for
a much greater display of skill and talent, than when everything wanted
is at command.

And here let me say, do nr)t attempt too much, or anything that is
out of character with the rest of the place, or can not be fully cnrried
out. Any attempts to make artificial lakes where the result will be
nothing but a puddle of stagnant water, or to build the little piles of
stones that are so often dignified with the name of rock-work, are mani-
fest absirdities ; though rock-work and lakes, when really beautiful, are
invaluable in adding to the attractions of a place.

Tree-planting should be attended to as soon as possible after com^
pletingour plans. We may make almost all our improvements in a short
time, but we must wait for nature to furnish our trees after we have made
a beginning. If we can find trees already grown, so much the better;
(only taking care to make our other arrangements in reference to them)
as large, well grown trees, even of inferior kinds, are much to be pre-
ferred to any we can supply their places with. How often do we see
places where a few grand old trees or beautiful groves have added a
charm that newly planted trees would not give in a lifetime.

.Vvoid crowding. F*"ew seem to think that a tree a few feet high when
planted may in a score of years grow to fifty feet. Our grounds may
look bare for a while if we plant with reference to the future growth of
the trees, but we had better endure it for a few years than at the end of
that time find ourselves surrounded by a wilderness of starved, ill look-
ing trees. Some advocate planting and thinning out as it becomes ne-
cessary. This plan may do in some cases, but very few have the nerve
to cut a fine tree to keep it from interfering with others, and besides,
the finest trees will often be those that are in the wrong place. A good
plan, where the grounds are small and a considerable variety is desired,
is to plant mostly of those kinds that never attain any great size, using
also a good proportion of shrubs.

176 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Nothing adds more to the beauty of a place, than a well kept lawn.
Any of the common grasses that endure the wear and tear of ordinary
pastures, will do for this purpose. All small irregularities of the surface
should Ix' first removed and then the blue-grass, white-clover, and red-top
generally used will, with a little care, make a soft green carpet that will
set off the surroundings, and call forth the admiration of all who see it.

Walks and drives should be as few as possible, both on account of
their first cose, and the trouble of keeping them in order. Let them be
laid out so as to appear to be the most direct or rather the easiest route to
the end, if not really so. They should not wind here and there over the
grounds in a useless manner, because "a curve is a line of beauty, there-
fore the more curves, the more beautiful the walks;" but gently curve to
avoid a clump of trees or rise in ground, avoiding any sharp turns. A
cow path winding through a pasture will often furnish a better model
for a walk, than some that are laid out by skilled gardeners, not because
the old cow has better taste, but because she has at least a strong vein
of common sense, that prompts her to get to her journey's end by the
easiest route.

As for the buildings, they should be made to conform as far as pos-
sible to the natural characteristics of the place, and all subsequent im-
provements should in a measure conform to them. Knowing, as I do^
that it often requires m.ore skill, ingenuit)% and taste, to properly arrange
a two thousand dollar dwelling-house, than a fifty thousand dollar public
building, I would advise every one i*o consult a competent architect be-
fore building; feeling assured, that in the end it will be found a saving
of money, time, and trouble ; and above all, result in something
satisfactory.

The work of the architect should not stop with the dwelling-house,
but he should furnish designs for the out-buildings as well ; for nothing
looks worse than a good house surrounded by shabby, ill arranged build-
ings, that might just as well be respectable.

Fences ought to be open and low, so as not to obstruct the view :
except where it is absolutely necessary to have them high and strong for
protection. A fence made of ( ominon four-inch fencing can be made to
look better, and will cost much less, than one of the great high picket
barriers so common ; especially when the latter are left unpainted, look-
ing as though the owner had sunk all his money iji building them.
There are many patterns of picket fences that are neat and light, and
look well if kept in good order. It should be remembered, however, that
an expensive fence needs eare to keej) it looking as well as a plain,
cheap one.

Here Ave have all that is necessary to make a place beautiful and
homelike; trees, grass, and walks; (flowers I have not mentioned; feel-
ing assured that the taste of all the fair sex for these choice gifts of na-
ture, will secure them their proper ])lace), together with well designed
buildings ; just what everyone can have, and what all tvould have, I
think, if they could only be made to understand how much easier it is

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ]^77

to cultivate a taste for order and beauty, than, as often seems to be the
rase, a taste for confusion and ugliness.

And here let me say that the ronfused litter of brush, boards, and
other rubbish so often seen lying around is not only an eyesore, but a
positive waste of material that might much better be made useful. It
may seem to be hard for one accustomed to the old order, or rather dis-
order of things. " to have a place for every thing and every thing in its
place," still in a short time he will find himself amply repaid for his
trouble.

I have not spoken in glowing language of the grand, the beauti-
ful, and the picturesque, as seen in the highest forms of landscape gar-
dening ; leaving it to those that are better qualified; but have endeavor-
ed m plain words to give a few hints on the art of making our places
pleasant and home-like. Those who wish to pursue the subject (and I
hope they are many) will find many books that will afford them great
assistance, though no one of them will perhaps cover the whole ground.

" Scott's Suburban Home Grounds," is one of the best T know of.
Downing's works are good, though not so well adapted to our wants as
could be desired. These and some of the many works on farming,
gardening, and Horticulture, will be found well worth studying, and to a
thinking man will give new and enlarged ideas and quickened perceptions
of beauty, that will be a source of pleasure and profit through life. .

That there is a desire for something better, is shown by the ill-
directed and spasmodic attempts to "fix up a little " so often seen;
attempts that would, if ])rof)erly directed and combined with persistent
effort, make beautiful homes the rule, and not the exception ; and check
any repetition of the few noted places in our state, which, apparently in
a large measure more the result of accident, than design, are worthy of
praise as a beginning, though not to be conmicnded as models for any
one to follow. Want of knowledge and experience ( an not now reason-
ably be made an excuse for mistakes, by those who are willing to learn
and ready to i)ractice.

There is much encouragement in (he fact thai many arc interest-
ing themselves in the work oi' cultivating a love for the beautiful as well
as the useful, and 1 hope, some day, to see as much appreciation of ihc
former as of the latter; among horticulturists at least.

Many of them indeed claim it as one of their missions to encourage
everything that may promote a love of nature, and whatever may tend
to ennoble and refine our lives : but I am afraid that they sometimes lose
sight of the means best adafjted to show the irjim'iii:; infiiiciicc of
horticulture.

The following essay is from one of the Correspondents of this Socie-
ty and is sent in, instead of an annual report.

13

j^78 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

THE MECHANICAL STRUCTURE OF PLANTS.

BY J. COCHRANE, HAVANA, MASON COUNTY.

The wonderful mechanism of the human eye, the arrangement and
construction of the ear, the number and diversified uses of the muscles,
the mechanical organisms of plants, the various combinations of the el-
ements, the immensity and harmony as well as the diversified arrangements
of the Solar System would almost lead us to believe that variety alone,
distinct from every other consideration was the motive in the mind of
the Creator or with the agents of His will. The dissecting-room, the
microscope, and the laboratory partially reveal to us the arcana of nature,
but the science of astronomy, beyond all others, displays to us the splen-
dor and magnificence of His operations. Through this the mind rises
to sublimer views of the Deitv, though we cannot familiarize ourselves
with the minor details in this department of His works as we may in the
one which I have chosen as my topic.

There are a few observations on the vegetable kingdom that it will
be our aim to notice. One great object of nature in the structure of
plants is the perfecting of the seed, and its preservation until it be per-
fected. This intention shows itself, in the first place, by the care which
appears to be taken to protect and ripen, by every advantage which can
be given them by situation in the plant, those parts which most immedi-
ately contribute to fructification, viz : the anthers, the stamina, the stig-
mata. These parts are usually lodged in the center; the recesses, or the
labyrinths of the flower during their tender and immature state, are shut,
up in the stalk or are sheltered in the bud, but as soon as they have ac-
quired firmness of texture sufficient to bear exposure, and are ready to
perform the important office which is assigned them, they are disclosed
to the light and air by the bursting of the stem or the expansion of the
petals, after which they have, in many cases, — by the very tbrm of the
flower during its bloom, the light and warmth reflected on them from the
concave side of the cup. What is called also the sleep of plants is the
leaves or petals disposing themselves in such a manner as to shelter the
stem, buds, or fruit. They turn up or they fall down according as this
purpose renders either change of position necessary. In the growth of
corn, whenever the plant begins to shoot, the two upper leaves join to-
gether and embrace the ear and protect it till the pulp has acquired
a certain degree of consistency. In some water-plants the flowering and
fecundation are carried on with the stem, which afterwards opens to let
loose the impregnated seed. The pea tribe enclose the parts of fructi-
fication within a beautiful folding of the internal blossom, itself protected
under a penthouse, formed by the external petals.

This structure is very artificial, and adds to the value of it, though
it may diminish the curiosity, as it is very general. It has also this
further advantage which is strictly mechanical, that all the blossoms turn
their backs to the wind whenever it blows strong enough to endanger
the delicate parts upon which the seed depends. It is an aptitude which
results from the figure of the flower, and as before remarked, strictly

«;TATF. TTORTrrui.TURAT. SOCIETY. 179

mechanical, as much so as the folding of the fans of a windmill, or the
tin cap on the top of a chimney. In the poppy and many similar flow-
ers, the head, while it is growing, hangs down, a rigid curvature in the
upper part of the stem giving it that position, and in that position it is
impenetrable by rain or moisture.

When the head has acquired its size and is ready to open, the stalk
erects itself for the purpose of presenting the flower and instruments
of fertilization to the genial influence of the sun's rays. This is a curi-
ous property provided for the constitution of the plant, for if the stem
be only bent by the weight of the head, how comes it to straighten itself
when it is the heaviest. These instances show the attention of Nature
to this principal object, viz : the safety and maturation of the parts up-
on which the seed depends.

In trees, especially in those which are natives of the colder climates,
this point is taken up earlier. Many trees produce the embryos of their
leaves and flowers in ope year and mature them the year following. There
is a winter also to be got over. Now what we are to remark is how na-
ture has prepared for the trials and severities of that season. These tender
embryos arc in the first place wrapped up with a compactness no art
can imitate, in which state they compose what we call the bud. The
bud itself is inclosed in scales, the remains of past leaves or the rudi-
ments of future ones. In the coldest climates a third preservative is
added by the bud having a coat of gum or resin which being congealed
resists moisture and frosts.

On the approach of warm weather this gum is softened and ceases
fo be a hindrance to the expansion of leaves and flowers.

The seeds themselves are packed in capsules or in vessels composed
of coats which, compared with the rest of the flowers, are strong and
tough. From this vessel projects a tube, through which the fertilizing
properties that issue from it, are admitted to the seed. Here occurs a
mechanical variety, accommodated to the different circumstances under
which the same purpose is to be accomplished. In flowers which are
erect, the pistil is shorter than the stamina, and the pollen shed from the
anthera into the cups of the flower is caught in its descent, on the head
of the pistil called stigma.

In flowers that hang suspended, (the crown-imiterial, etc.,) this ar-
rangement is reversed, the f)istil being usually the longest and its pro-
truding summit receives the pollen as it iirops towards the ground.

rile seed vessels assume an incalculable variety of forms in differ-
ent i)lants, all evidently ( onducing to the same end namely, the securitv
of the seed. Of the gourd, melons, etc., the seed vessels assume an im-
mense bulk ; in stone fruits and nuts, the seed is incased in a strong shell,
the shell itself incased in a pulp oi husk ; m numerous kinds of berries, in
grapes, oranges etc., the seed is enclosed in a glutinous syrup contained
within a skin or bladder ; in apples, pears, etc., it is imbedded in the
heart of a firm, fleshy substance, or. as in strawberries, pricked into the
surface of a soft pulp. These and many more varieties exist in what we

]^80 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

call fruits. In grain, grasses, trees, shrubs, and flowers, the variety of
seed vessels is incomparable. We have the seeds, as in the pea tribe,
regularly disposed in parchment pods which though soft and membran-
ous are impervious to water; at other times as in the bean, lined with
a fine dovvn ; we have seeds packed in wool, as in the cotton plant, lodged
between hard and compact scales, as in pine cones, protected by spines as
in the thistle, placed under a penthouse as in the mushroom ; in ferns, in
slits on the back of the leaves, or, as in grains and grasses, covered by
strong close tunicles attached to a stem according to an order appropri-
ated to each plant.

In the above enumeration we first notice a unity of purpose under
a variety of expedients. Nothing can be more single than the design,
more diversified than the means. Follicles, shells, pulps, pods, husks,
skins, scales armed with thorns are all mechanically employed for the
same end. Secondly, we may observe that in all these cases the purpose
is fulfilled within a just and limited degree. We can perceive that if
the seeds of plants were more strongly guardeti than they are, their
greater security would interfere with other uses ; many species of animals
would perish if they could not obtain access to them. Here as in many
cases a balance is to be maintained between opposite uses. The provi-
sion for the preservation of seeds appears to be directed chiefly against
the inconstancy of the elements, and inclement seasons, the depredations
of animals, and the injuries of accidental violence seem to be provided
against by the abundance of the increase.

When nature has perfected her seeds, her next care is to disperse
them. The seed cannot fulfill its ends while it remains in the capsule.
After the seed ripens, the pericarpiuni opens to let them out, which is
according to rule in each species of plant. Some are opened by the ac-
tion of the frost, some by elastic explosion, throwing the seed to a dis-
tance. Those of most composite flowers are endowed with downy
appendages, by which they float in the air, and are carried to great dis-
tances. We are compelled to omit to notice the store of nutriment laid
up in the seed for the nutriment of the young plant. A striking analogy
exists between seeds and eggs of animals ; the same point is provided
for in the same manner. The white, and that only is used in the form-
ation of the chicken. The volk, very little altered or diminished, is
wrapped uji in the abdomen of the young bird, to serve for its nourish-
ment till it has learned to pick its own food. We give the most common
as illustrations because of their being the most forcible.

Our second observation on the mechanical structure of i)lants is
upon the general property of climbers. In these |)lants, from each joint,
issue close to each other two shoots, one bearing the flower and fruit,
and the other drawn out to a tapering si^iral tendril that attaches to
anything within its reach, considering that two purposes are to be pro-
vided for, the fruitage of the ])lant and the sustentation of the stalk.
No means could be more mechanical than this arrangement presents to the
eye. " We do not sec," says a noted author, " so much as one tree, shrub,

STAtft ItOkTlCllI.TUUAl. SOClfeTV. X81

or herb, that hath a stiff, struiifj;, stem, that is able to mount up and stand
alone without assistance, furnished with these tendrils." We make as in-
gle, simple comparison, the pea and bean, and remark that in the pea
they do not make their ai)|)earan(e till the plant has grown to a height
to need support.

The hollow stems of canes, straws, and grasses give the greatest
possible amount of strength and elasticity for the amount of material
used. Joints at staled distances in these tubes are another element of
strength without increase of weight, ihv material being slightly different.
With what uniformity and care has nature [jrovided for tliese stalks of
grasses, grains, and canes bv covering each with an impenetrable coat of
weather-proof varnish.

(brasses seem to be nature's especial care. With these she carpets
her green earth and paints the landscape; with these slie feeds the hu-
man family, the birds of the air, beasts of the field, and tiie grub beneath
the surface. Cattle feed upon the leaves, birds upon the smaller seeds,
many insects upon their roots, and none need l)e told tliat (oru, wheat,
rye, etc , etc., are strictly grasses.

Corn is a monoecious panicious grass, and though the great staple of
the West, it seems to be overlooked in its botanical and mechanical con-
struction by intelligent growers. Our bread-producing plants are grasses.
Those families of plants known as grasses e.\.hibit extraordinary means
and powers of increase, hardiness, and an almost unconquerable dispo-
sition to spread; their faculties for recuperation coincide with the inten-
tion of nature concerning them. They thrive under a treatment by
which other plants are destroyed. The more their leaves are consumed
the more their roots increase. Many seemingly dry and dead leaves of
grasses revive and renew their verdure in spring. In lofty mountains
and cold latitudes where the summer hea:s are not sufficient to ripen
their seeds, grasses 'abound which are able to propagate themselves
without seed. The number of the mechanical adjustments are so nu-
merous we must content ourselves as before remarked with a reference
to the more common and marked instances. Parasitical plants furnish
marked illustrations. The Cusciita Europea is of this class. The seed
opens and puts forth a little s])iral bodv which does //t:"/ seek the earth to
take root, but climbs spirally from right to left u])on other plants from
which it draws its nourishment. The little spiral body proceeding from
the seed is to be compared with the fibres the seeds send out in ordinary
cases. They are straight, this is spiral. They shoot downwards, this
shoots upwards. In the rule and in the exception we equally perceive
the design.

A better known parasitical plant is the mistletoe. We have to remark
in it a singular instance of "compensation," No art hath yet made those
plants root in the earth. Here, then, might seem to be a mortal defect
in their constitution. Let us examine how this defect is made up to
them. The seeds are endued with an adhesive quality so tenacious that
they adhere to the surface or bark of any tree, however smooth. Roots

3^g2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE iLLINOIiJ

springing from these seeds iiisinudlc iheii lihies inti) the woody substance
of the tree from which this parasite draws its hfe and maintenance.
Another marked instance of rare mechanical action is in the Autumnal
Crocus [Cholcicuiii aulttmnaU). How I have sympathized with this poor
plant. Its blossom rises out of the ground in the most forlorn condition
possible, without a sheath, calvx, or cap to protect it, and that, too, not
in spring, to be visited by the summer sun, but under all the disadvan-
tages of a declining year. When we come to look more closely at its
mechanical organism, we find that, instead of being neglected, nature
has gone out of her way to provide for its security, and make up for all
its defects. The seed vessel which, in other plants, is situated within
the end of the tlower, or just beneath it, in this plant is buried ten or
twelve inches underground, in a bulbous root. The styles always reach
the seed vessel, but in this by an elongation unknown in other plants.
All these singularities contribute to one end. As this plant blossoms
late in the year, and would not have time to ripen its seeds before the
access of winter would destroy them, Providence has contrived its struc-
ture such that this important office may be performed at a depth in the
earth out of reach of the eflects of ordinary frosts. In the autumn
nothing is done above the ground but the blooming and fertilization.
The maturation of the impregnated seed, which in other plants proceeds
within the capsule exposed with the rest of the flower to the open air, is
here carried on during the winter within the earth below the reach of
ordinary frost. Here a new difficulty must be overcome. The seeds,
though perfected, are known not to vegetate at this depth in the earth.
The seeds, therefore, though so safely lodged through the winter, would
after all be lost to the purpose to which all seeds are intended. To
overcome this difficulty, another admirable provision is made to raise
them above the surface and sow them at a proper distance. Tn the spring
the germ grows up upon a fruit-stalk accompanied with canes. The
seeds now% in common with those of other plants, have the benefit ot
summer, and are sown upon the surface.

" How great and marvelous are His works," and how carefully are
the minute details of all His creatures, animate and inanimate, provided
for. Relation of parts one to another is and must be harmonious in
mechanics, so in the animal economy, so in the vegetable world. None
of the works of the Deity want these harmonious relations of parts and
offices.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON ORNITHOLOGY.

Mr. Secretary :

I call on you as my witness, to prove that I have tried hard to evade
the handing in of a report on this subject; that I came to you privately
and told you that I had not written a report, and begged of you not to
call for it ; that when you did call for it, you found that I had slipped
out of the house; and that I did not write it till you had written to me
some weeks after the adjournment of our meeting insisting that I must

AT ATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. I33

send ill :i rciX}!!.*" Now, 1 will U-ll you why 1 tried so hard lo escape
this duty. It is because I begin to believe that there is some truth in
what our Alton friends have alleged, /. e., "that Douglas has such a
weakness tor birds that he <annol see their faults." I consider myself a
prejudiced witness, hcn( c my unw illingncss to testily.

I will admit this much however, that last summer many robins and
cat-birds, — to save traveling expenses, — brought their young ones, bred
in other localities, just as soon as they could fl)', to my ravine, close by
my fruit-garden and orchard, and then went to work (with an energy
worthy of a better cause) stealing my fruit, and stulfing these young
ones, "not to the manor born."

Now, why should these young robins and cat-birds be fed at my ex-
pense? How do 1 know whether it was their parents or some other
robins and cat-birds that I saw gobbling up the cut-worms and grubs,
when we were plowing and planting last spring, and early stnnmer.' I
wish 1 could single out these interlopers, and wouldn't I blaze away at
them? But these robins and cat-birds are honest compared with a
thrush — not the brown tlirasher — but a solitary olive-green-backed fel-
low, who will not stay long enougli to be identified. Now this fellow
comes stealing along all alone, and I have no doubt "with evil intent,"
for you cannot go near him till he flies, and darts out of sight. Not so
with the robins and cat-birds; they come with their families and friends,
as if they thought they had a right to their living, and then they chirp
and chatter as if they came to erijoy each other's society as much as to
enjoy the good living. Why I there is as much difierence between them
and this thrush, as there is between some of these well-meaning but
misguided fellows, who take a glass for the sociability of the thing, and
a still, quiet, old soaker who takes his sly swig bjhind the door, and
then wipes his mouth, and comes out as meek(?) as a good Knight
Templar.

flow the cedar-birds did devour my cherries last summer ! Now,
I'll own up. 1 did stand and watch while the boy went for the gun, and
what a shot it would have been, for I think there were twenty or thirty
in the flock, but before the boy came back, three or four of them darted
off at'ter stray moths, and gobbled them up, before my eyes. Why I who
would have thought that one of these clumsy birds, with a little less than
a pint of cherries in his maw, could dart so quick, and snap, and catch
every time? I got to watching them so intently that i "held my hre",
and — would you believe it? — these gourmands all set to work devouring
the slugs from off the adjoining pear-tree leaves, till 1 went away, and
then they went back to the cherry-trees, and gobbled away as hard as
ever.

I noticed an uncommon occurrence in the way of cedar-birds last
winter. For many years previous, they have gone south in the tall, and
then after winter fairly set in, the \\ a\-wings (lloheiuian Chatterers)
would come from the north and take their places, living on juniper, red-

*The Sicretary "owns the corn," and the Society owiis^the report.

2^4 TRANSArTIOV!=^ OF THE TTJ.TXOTS

cedar, and mountain-ash l)erries. frozen Siberian crabs, and ahiiost every-
thing that has anv jnilp ; in fact, feeding exactly bke the cedar-birds,
and resembling them in every way except iliat they are about one-third
larger, and arc a little more handsomely marked. Well, last winter,
the cedar-birds did not leave at all, but remained here during the whole
winter, and stranger still, the Wax-wings did not come along at all, and
to show that this was not local but general, I may mention that we wanted
a few Wax-wings to send to a friend in Cincinnati, so we sent to friend
Stickney at Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, asking him to shoot a few for us; he
sent us quite a number, and behold, they were cedar-birds.

I willingly admit that " there are two sides to this bird question,"
and that men who raise cherries have rights that the cherry-birds should
be "bound to respect." We cherry-growers are sorely troubled with
these birds, but my troubles are trifling when compared with those of
some of nvy neighbors who grow sweet cherries. No sooner has the
word gone forth, " The cherry-birds have come," than there is such a
hubbub ! Dinner bells are rung, looking-glasses hung up in the trees,
wardrobes are ransacked, and garments inexpressible and unmentionable
are brought forth, and "hung like banners from the outer" limbs, and,
"the cry is, still they come! " (Shakespeare).

Sitting, drowsing in my rustic chair, under my favorite elm, watch-
ing these birds, my mind runs dreamily on Shakespeare, and I fancy I
can see a similarity between Hamlet and that old cherry-bird, sitting on
the upper limb, and watching my neighbor's sweet cherries. He shows
the same indecisive and vacillating traits of character ; he raises his
wings, intent on flying over, and then settles back again; he flies a few
feet, describes a semi-circle, and falls back on his old position, and all
this time he keeps up a continual chattering to himself, and I imagine
him soliloquizing thus : " To be, or not to be } That is the question.
Whether it is better to remain here and eat the sour Richmonds, and
endure the stomach aches, and the gripings, and the thousand ills that a
disordered stomach is heir to, or to take wings, and fly to that sweet-
cherry tree; and, while eating, die there.' Who would eat the slugs, the
worms, the codling moths, but for the hope of something after this,
worth eating? Who would dodge the sticks and stones that are thrown,
and the slings and arrows of outrageous urchins, when he liimself might
his quietus take from yonder shot-gun ? " The report, of my neighbor's
shot-gun awoke me from my reverie, and brought me back to the posi-
tion from which I started, namely, that " there are two sides to this bird
question." Robert Douglas.

Waukegan, III.

HORTICULTURE IN THE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY.

O. B. Galusha,

Secretary State Society, — Dear Sir :

The reports from the horticultural department of the University,
which you have selected for publicaton, will give some idea of the work

STATP. HORTirUr.TURAL SOCIETY. 1^5

accomplished for the \enr eigliteen seventy-two, and 1 now refer to them
as part of the history herein written. All considered, the year was a
very favorable one. The nursery stock made a j^ood 'growth, and the
newly transplanted trees nearly all lived; the timber ]ilantalions succeed-
ed well and gave promise of some very interesting results to come.
Fruit was abundant and of fme quality, though the small fruit jiianta-
tions, were vet too young to produce much. About the only draw-back
was in the death or injury of many evergreens, esjiecially those recently
transplanted. This is attributed to the extremes of drouth and frost
during the winter of eighteen seventy-(jne and seventy-two, seemingly
producing the same effect over large areas of the country. The Arbor-
vita-'s weVe badly damaged, but usually covered themselves with new
shoots and leaves during the summer. Some large Xorways, transi)lanted
the year before, making a good growth and looking fresh all winter, died
outrignl in the spring. Others, two years transplanted, died.

Apple Orchard — The experimental apple orchard, now supposed to
have about twelve hundred varieties, planted in the spring of eighteen
sixty-eight, has continued to make a healthy advance, and eighty-nine
of these supposed varieties bore fruit ; but not so many came to maturi-
ty, so that they could be indentified. Some trees bearing different names
bore the same fruit, doubtless showing that either the names, or the fruit
was incorrectly placed. We may look for more trees to bear the com-
ing year. A seedling crab has fruited three years, and is probably
worth a name, and cultivation. The cions from the Agricultural Depart-
ment at Washington, of Russi;\n apples, all failed.

Pears — The four hundred varieties of pear cions received from
Mr. Chas. Downing two years ago, were root-grafted and carefully plant-
ed, and many grew and did well. This season the same generous hand
has supplied the kinds that died, so that a large collection, it is hoped,
will be ready next year for planting in the orchard. Other orchard fruits
arc accumulating, though the work is necessarily slow.

'Forest riaiitation — The Larch and Chestnut were damaged consid-
erably by the white grub, which worked upon the roots, and many of
the former died from other causes. 'I'hose living made a fair growth.
The Scotch Pines transplanted in eighteen seventy-one and eighteen
seventy-two mostly died, as was the case of many Austrians. Special
attention is asked to the Osage Orange. It seems to be eminently valua-
ble for timber growth. It is cheap, easily transplanted, rapid in growth,
hardy enough here, and is at the licad of the list for the value of its wood.

Vegehihle Gardens — A cheap structure was erected in the early
spring for a propagating pit, and proved very serviceable, being much
more convenient and with us really more economical, than the long row
of hot-beds heretofore used. The size is twenty-two by forty feet, with two
span roofs side by side. The walls are oak posts and boards, sunk to
the eaves in the ground. The heat is supplied from rough wood burned
in a common large sized box stove, standing in the center of the build-
ing, the smokepipe running near the ground to a flue at one end, and

\^Q TRANSACTIONS OF THEj^ILf.INOIS

wooden troughs well painted, lor the tiiculation ol hot water from a tin
boiler on the stove, running to the end opposite the flue. Two beds in
each division of the house, with walks between, gave six hundred and
forty square feet of effective surface for plant growth, and the heating
arrangements though so simple gave the very best results. The entire
cost was about two hundred and fifty dollars. The garden plants, except
celery, succeeded as well as the liest, but the market for su<;h as were for
sale was poor. Reference is again made to tiie rejiorts on Early Cab-
bage and Tomatoes.

Arboretum — The Arboretum was begun, about thirty-five species of
forest trees tiaving been planted, and the land furtiier prepared for more
planting the coming season.

Green-House — The University Green-house is now full of plants of
very many kinds noted for their beauty and u-ie. The ornamental grounds
received a large number of these plants for summer keeping, and togeth-
er with a rich display of annuals and other bedding plants, gave a scene
of beauty such as is seldom seen in public or private grounds. The
whole labor for the year on these grounds and in the green-house, was
done by the students under the supervision of the professor of Horti-
culture. Some interesting experiments have been tried with warm water
and cold water, with ammonia and with potash on pot plants, but are
to be repeated before giving results. The students of the Horticulture
class each root-grafted, and afterward planted with their own hands a
thousand or more apple cions, as practice in that special line of work.

Horticulture at the University is beginning to attract more atten-
tion, as the plantations acquire age, and as the development of previous-
ly prepared plans shows the heretofore but partially observed work in
progress. T. J. Burrill.

UNIVERSITY FOREST RECORD.

Mr. Vickroy, orchardist for the Industrial University, has sent the
Secretary an accurate, tabulated record of the forest plantations connected
with the institution which, though valuable, is too elaborate and exten-
sive for publication here.

The plantations made in eighteen seventy-one and eighteen seventy-
two consist of forty thousand eight hundred thirty-two trees (quite small)
planted on eight and a half acres.

One and a quarter acres, only, were planted in eighteen seventy-
two.

Of White Maples and White Elm there is one eighth acre each.

Of Green Ash, Catalpa, Chestnut, Osage Orange, Austrian and
Scotch Pines, and Norway Spruce, each one quarter acre.

Of White Pine, one acre.

Of European Larch, two acres.

Of White Ash, two and three-fourths acres.

STATE ilORtlCULTURAL bOCIETV. 1^7

The entire cost uf the trees — including six ihuusand additional used
in the spring of eighteen seventy-two for replanting —

was $660.91

Expenses of planting, ------- 141.02

" " cultivating two years, 152.5^

Total cost, --------- 954.5 1

Sixty-four per cent, of the trees were living at the end of eighteen
seventy-two, (the proportion being much reduced by the ravages of the
white grub.)

The entire cost of plants and cultivation is thus found to be a frac-
tion less than three cents and two mills each, for those living.

These facts are important as showing that, exclusive of use of land,
the expense attending the starting of forests on the' prairies is not so great
as to deter any enterprising farmer from making at least a small planta-
tion. The deciduous trees were — when planted — mostly two or three
years old; and the evergreens were about one foot high.

The following account of the plantations, accompanying the tables,
contains valuable hints and information for persons designing to com-
mence forest plantations.

" All the ground for the forest plantations was well prepared by
plowing and harrowing. We were very careful in the planting of the
Austrian and Scotch Pines, as we lost most of them last year, with good
planting and care, so gave them extra care this year, putting the fine
earth around the roots with our hands, and doing everything we could
to insure their growth ; but still there has a large per cent, of them died.
One cause, 1 think, for so many of them dying has been the severity of
the past two years on evergreens. It is easy to account for the failure
of the European Larch to grow, for the cause was very plainly to be
seen. The white grub (the larva of the May beetle) has worked on
them last year and this, girdling the roots entirely around, and in most
cases, from the collar, and below the collar three to five inches down.

In our White Ash, two to four feet high, they girdled a strip across
the piece for a width of about four rods, so that nearly every tree died.
The White Pine and Norway Spruce were taken up in the spring,
and heeled in as fast as taken up, until they were wanted for planting.
t The roots were puddled before planting. They were both planted the
same day ; and you will see by the Record that very few of the spruce
have died, while the greater part of the pines have. One thing in favor
of the spruce is their masses of fibrous roots, while the pines have very
few. These were planted before the spring rains.

The Chestnuts are nearly all dead. They also were injured last
year by the white grub — taking nearly all of them, and the balance were

\g^ TRANSACTIONS OP THE TLLTNOtS

injured bv the winter. We have a few standing in nursery rows protected
by other trees, which have stood the winter. 1 think it would be a good
•plan to plant some hardy trees with them for protecteon. Plant the sil-
ver maples, for instance, alternately with the chestnuts, and when they
get some size, cut out tlie majiles. Ceasing cultivation early in the sea-
son, would also prevent their being so liable to winter-kill. When a
plantation is once established it is good for all time; when cut down
they will grow uj) from the stunii)s and be ready to cut again in fifteen
or twenty years. Why would it not be a good idea, as our markets are
becoming glutted with other fruits, to plant them for the nuts ? The nuts
are now worth from six to eight dollars in market, per bushel.

The Osage and Catalpa bid fair, with us, to be classed with our best
timber trees ; as far as growth is concerneil they are satisfactory, but like
some of the other Hist growing trees, are liable to have their tops winter-
killed. Sto])ping cultivation early in the season 1 think would prevent
this objection. One thing in their favor is their cheapness and easy propa-
gation ; they are very easily transplanted while young and very few die.
We planted them last year (eighteen sevenfy-one,) and last spring cut
them off' at the ground, to get a good straight growth, and have succeeded
well. The wood of both is valuable. It is said the Osage never rots ;
therefore it must be very valuable for posts and grape stakes.

Another tree that is very easily grown is the Silver Maple, a very
fast grower, and when kept growing rapidly, is troubled very little, if any
by the borer. Mr. Bryant, in his " Forest Trees " says : '' I know of no
forest tree, except, perhaps the box-elder, that will make so speedy a
return of equally valuable wood for fuel, as the silver maple. It is pre-
fered to oak for kitchen fuel, particularly for summer use." The cheap-
ness, easy propagation, and rapid growth ought to recommend it for this
purpose, as kitchen fuel is always in demand.

The White Ash is making very satisfactory growth with us. I think
it Avould be a very good plan to jjlant some cheap tree, something that
would make good fuel, stakes, etc., with our more costly ones, as nurses;
as they eventually have to be thinned out. The first cost of some trees
deters a great many from planting them. The European Larch and a
good many of our evergreens are inclined to spread out at the bottom,
and if some of those cheaper trees were planted between them it would
give them a more upright growth. Care would have to be taken that
the nurses did not outgrow the others.

We have European Larches planted on high and low land and they
seem to be doing better on the high land.

Respectfully,

H. K. VicKRoy.

LISTS OF FRUITS.
In addition to the lists of fruits reported by the Vice-Presidents in
the several districts, the following have been received from gentlemen of
well known reliability and experience in fruit culture.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ^gQ

LIST OF APPLES FOR TAZEWELL COUNTY.

Mr. O. B. Galusha, Secretary.

Dear Str : — In making out a list of apples for Tazewell county, I
will try and be brief, but accurate, believing that a few tried varieties,
having proved themselves to possess the requisites for market : namely,
hardiness, early and prolific bearing, size, coloring, and beauty of iruit,
to be preferable to a larger list of kinds having these requisites in a less
degree.

SUMMER.

Early Hardest — good, but shy bearer on rich soils ; on poor soils,
bears better. •

Red Astrachan — showy and profitable for market.

Carolina Red June — a great bearer, but the fruit sometimes cracks
and scabs.

FALL.

Maiden's Blush — very fine.

Rambo, Lo-ivelL Mother, and Fall Pippin — all good.

Porter — good, but shows bruises badly.

Snow and Fall Wine are good, but scab badly, some years.

WINTER.

IVillow- Twig., Ben Davis., Wine-sap, and Smith's Cider, are all very
profitable.

fonathan — profitable, but drops early.

Roman Stem — good in (juality and bearing. **

}[ inkier — doing well.

Raa'lcs fanct — tree and fruit rather tender — bears too full — fruit
small.

Some others might be added for family use, but sue h additions
would reduce ihe jirofits of a commercial on hard.

J AS. W. ROBISON.
IKUI'IS FOR NOKllIKKN ILLINOIS.

O. B. Calnsha, Secretary .State Horticultural Society,

Dear Sir : — In compliaui'e with your rcfjuesl, I send the following
list of fruits which have proved ilie most liardy and reliable, in Will
County.

Soil — bla( k loam, prairie, with clay sul)-soil. .VIong the Kankakee
river, and the Desjjlaines, flickory. Forked, and Rock creeks, the soil is
sandy loam, underlaid with gravel or stone.

SUMMER AI'PLKS.

Parly Pennock — large, good; bears itself t(t rfbath in fen or twelve
years.

Early Harvest — good crop every other year.
Sops-of-wine — profitable.

;]^90 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

Red Astrachan — root-grafted, requires age to bear. Top-grafted,
on old trees, bears young and profusely.

Carolina Red/jutic — requires thinning to get size ; profitable.

Dyc\€ss of Oldenburg — good, everywhere.

Golden-S-weet — great bearer.

Benoni — fine; does not bear very young.

FALL APPLES.

Maidens Blush — tender while young, hardy in orchard, good.

Fameuse, or Sno^u — hardy and good.

Fall Wine-sap — profitable for cooking and drying.

Fall Orange — hardy ; large, and great bearer.

Keswick Codling — early bearer, profitable.

WINTER APPLES.

Jonathan — fine ; must be gathered early.
Raivles' Janet — needs thinning to get size.
Wagner — early bearer, good.
Willozv — best late keeper.

Ben Davis — hardy, good bearer ; fruit sells well.
Roma7i Stem — fine ; profitable.
Domine — hardy and good.

Northern Spy — requires age to bear ; top-grafted on old trees com-
mences the third year, and bears profusely ; must be picked early, and
carefully handled ; one of the best.
Minkler — good bearer.

Stannard — early bearer ; profitable ; early winter.
Early Golden Russet — great bearer ; when picked must be buried in
ground or barreled up tight, and placed in dark, cool cellar till spring.

Gilpin or Red Romaniie — great bearer; fruit small; keeps late, and
is the best cider apple.

Wine-sap — "fruit fine on young trees; small and scabby on old trees.
Milam — fruit small ; tree an early and great bearer ; profitable.
Yellow Bell flower — good on clay soils, worthless on black prairie.
I have seen it bearing good crops on sandy loam, with gravelly subsoil.

SIBERIAN APPLES.

Transcendent, Large Red, Yellow, and Montreal Beauty — all good.

I could name a great many varieties which do well in certain lo-
calities. From observation and experience during a residence of twenty-
six years in this county, I believe the above list of apples will be found
the most profitable and reliable for general planting.

PEARS.

Flemish Beauty — hardy tree and great bearer.

Bartlett, Belle Lucrative, Seckel, Louise Bonne, HoivelL Beurre D'An-
jou. Duchess, Dearborn Seedling, Buff am, and Glout Morcean.

CHERRIES.

Early May (or Richmond), Late Richmond.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. jQX

PLUMS.

All sorts do well .ind would bear if the Little 'I'lirk would let tlicm
alone.

The Wild Goose and Miner — said to be nearly " Curculio-proof " —
have not beeii sufficiently tested here.

CURRANTS.

Red and Whitr. Dutch, White Grape, and Cherry : Victoria and Long-
bunch Holland for late varieties.

R.\SPBERR!ES.

Doolittle, Miami, and Davison s Thornless. Turner is a new vari-
ety, cane nearly thornless, a great bearer. The fruit is red, better than
Philadelphia, and firm enough to ship.

BLACKBERRIES.

Kittatinny has proved hardy with me for the past six years ; is a good
bearer of fine fruit.

STRAWBERRIES.

Wilson is worth all the rest.

GRAPES.

Concord {or general planting, FT. Prolific and Delaware ; Clinton for
cooking.

GOOSEBERRIES.

Nouf^hton and American Seedling, or Cluster.

AV, T. Nelson.

FRUITS FOR SOUTHERN ILLINOIS.

Alton, February 5, 1873.
O. B. Galusha, Secretary Illinois Horticultural Society :

Dear Sir. — I feel somewhat delicate about making out a list of
fruits as a guide to planters. Some kinds of fruit do better on a dry
ridge, and others on a moderately level, rich soil. Of the last Rawles
Janet and Northern Spy are specimens among apples. The Wilson
lilackberry becomes more perfect on a dry ridge — Kittatinny, on level,
rich land — Red Antwerp raspberry produces large crops on poor clayey
ridges, and the fruit is of the best quality. Every planter, if possible, should
inform himself in regard to the varieties of fruit best adapted to his lo-
cation. Below 1 give varieties with which I have had a good deal of
experience for many years. My location is upon the sedgy timber land
back from the Mississippi river about one and a quarter miles; soil thin,
with clay sub-soil.

SUMMER APPLES.

Early Harvest, Benoni,

Red .Astrachan. Summer Pippin.

Sops-of-^^'ine, Golden Sweet.

192

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

FALL APPLl

ES.

Keswick Codling,

Fall Pippin,

Maiden's Blush,

Gravenstein,

Pennsylvania Red Streak,

Jersey Sweet.

Rambo,

WINTER APPLES.

Rome Beauty,

Canada,

Jonathan,

Smith's Cider.

Buckingham,

Ben Davis,

Willow Twig — for market.

Newtown Pippin,

Pryor's Red (quality best for

Lady Apple,

cider — equal to the Gilpin.)

Gilpin,

White Winter Pearmain

t

PEARS.

Ladies' Sweet.

Madeline,

Buerre D'Anjou,

Bloodgood,

Howell,

Dearborn's Seedling,

Sheldon,

Bartlett,

Winter Nelis,

Seckel,

PEACHES.

Lawrence.

Hale's Early,

Oldmixon Free,

Tillotson,

Crawford's Late,

Bergen's Yellow,

Stump-the-World,

Early Royal George,

Smock,

Crawford's Early,

Heath Cling.

BLACKBERRIES.

Kittatinny,

Wilson.

RASPBERRIES.

Miami,

Philadelphia.

Red Antwerp (for hom

e use and to

wn market ; best fla

currant:

>,

Red Dutch,

White Grape.

Cherry,

GRAPES.

Concord,

Delaware.

Ives,

STRAWBERRIES.

Wilson,

Jucunda,

Green Prolific,

Col. Wilder.

Many more varieties of fruit, of c\( client quality, might be added
to this list without adding ([uality or profit. An amendment might be
made in substituting other varieties, or more kinds of sweet apples; and
I could suggest raising more of them as good for cows, horses, and hogs.

Yours truly,

Benj. F. Long.

T

P>^ANSACTION

• r -wifff

NORTHERN ILLINOIS

HORTICULTURAL

SOCIETY,

Jit its Freepad M-eetitig^

JANUARY 21, 22, 2 S, AND 24, 1873.

14

j^i^^^':^iifiii

*4as.,:

WI WIDOW 'a AM DM N,

fROM pi^IGGS ^HO » ^EED CATALOGUE, J^OCHESTER, |V. y.

Membership List Nor. III. Horticultural Soc,

NAME.

r. o.

COINTV.

VAME.

P. o.

rOLNTV.

Robert Little

Freeport,

Stephenson.

C. N. Bcntlev

freeport.

Stephenson.

Lewis Kllsworth

Xapcrvillc,

Du Page.

D. C. Scofield

Elgin.

Kane.

M. B. SpafTord

r>ixon.

Lee.

J. F. Dawson

Freeport.

Stephenson.

Abijah Powers

do

do

A. T. Coleman

Corning, Iowa.

M. S. Ellsworth

Naperville,

Du Page.

S. W. Lamson

State Center, lo

H. H. Cody

do

tlo

E. Ordway

Freeport.

Stephenson.

N. R. Thalclier

do

<lo

D. J. Piper

Foreston,

Ogle.

Frnst Vanoveii

do

do

E. Askcv

Ridott,

Stephenson.

O. r. Stoiigli

Hinsdale,

do

Willard Weeks

Mt. Carroll.

Carroll.

h k. S.;oliclrt

Free port ,

Stephenson.

H. D. Emery

Chicago,

Cook.

H. Hodsiinn

do

do

Ifihn Cewe,

Hompton,

Rock Island.

Win. M. Morris

Marengo,

McHenry.

"E. H. Beeb.-

(ieneva.

Kane.

M. L. Oiiuh.p

Champaign,

Champaign.

L. W. Guitcau,

Freeport

Stephenson.

O. B. Galiisha

Morris.

Grundy.

Rev. M.B. Patterson do

clo

(ieo. Tlioiiipson

Freeport,

Stephenson.

Rev. C. S. Harrison

Earlville,

LaSallc.

Tyler McWhorter

Aledo,

Mercer.

Wm. Hill

Dundee.

Kane.

flen. S. D. Atkins

Freeport,

Steplieiisou.

W. H. Schuvler

Chicago,

Cook.

R. R. Hawley

Normal,

McLean. i

M. M. Meyer

Freeport.

Stephenson.

Arthur Bryant

Princeton,

Bureau.

W. O. Thompson

Blairstown. lo.

Sam'l F.dwards

La Moille,

do

J. L. Smith

Di.xon.

Lee.

S. M. Slade

Elgin.

Kane.

Jas. Pennington

Sterling

Whiteside.

T). W. Scott

Galena,

Jo Daviess.

C. W. Richmond

Naperville,

Du Page.

Oscar Taylor

Freeport.

Stephenson.

G. Wright

Rock Falls.

Whiteside.

H. W. Allen

Warren.

Jo Daviess.

A. B. .Austin

Downers Grove

, Du Page.

Arthur Bryant, Jr.

Princeton,

iBurean.

Rev. T. Gilkerson

Marengo,

McHenry.

Hon. Wni. Smith

Geneva. N. Y.

Theo. P. Lukens

Rock Falls.

Whiteside.

L. W. Munn

Freeport.

Stephenson.

S. G. Minkler

Oswego,

Kendall.

Charles Lee

Maquoketa, lo

L. C. Francis

Springfield,

Sangamon.

H. H. .McAfee

Freeport.

Stephenson.

A. R. Whitney

Franklin Grove

Lee.

L. Montague

Lena,

do

Dr. D. H. Spigler

do

do

L. L Mnnn

Freeport,

do

A. Brown

Dixon,

do

W. R. Fairbairn

Ridott,

do

J. Williams
C. 1. Horsman

Dunlap, Iowa.

John Pope

Freeport.

do

Rockford,

Winnebago.

Jas. S. .McCall

do

po

A.H. Vail

Marengo.

McHenry.

Orrin Crocker

do

do

C. H. Keim

Mt. Carroll.

Carroll.

lohn Swanzey

Ridott.

do

Rob't Douglas

Waukegan,

Lake.

y.. Hathaway

Damascus,

do

Abraham Hostettcr

Mt. Carroll,

Carroll.

Hon. I. H. Adams

Cedarville,

do

Jonathan Periam

Chicago,

Cook.

A. A.'Bab.oek

Freeport,

do

C. S. Hill

Freeport,

Stephenson

riios. Hunt

Ridott,

do

Hiram Snyder

Lena,

do

Jacob Gable

Kent,

do

J. U. C. Runner

Piatlville,

Kendall.

Ira Babcock

Freeport ,

do

H. C. Graves

Sandwich,

DeKalb.

J. V. Cotta

Lanark,

Carroll.

D. C. Wiuslow

Hinkley,

Hinkley.

"Paniel Teeter

Mt. Carroll.

do

J. H. Stover

Freeport,

Stephenson.

F. J. Nelson

Ridott,

Stephenson.

John Coates

do

do

fames Flansburg

KIroy,

do

A. N. Carpenter,
W. O. Mil ard

Galesburg,

Knox.

1>. \V. Dame

Lanark.

Carroll.

Sterling,

Whiteside.

]lr Duncan Markcv Ml. Carroll,

do

E. M. Sheller

Freeport,

Stephenson

H. N. Bliss

Buda,

Bureau,

L P. Bryant

Princeton.

Bureau.

W. K. Lukens

Rock Falls,

Whiteside.

B. M. Lewis

Lombard,

Du Page.

Flovd Sliaw

Fremont.

Ta/ewcll.

Otis Coleman

Bclvidere.

Boone.

F. P. Snow

Elgin,

Kane.

Dr. Geo. Potts

Freeport,

Stephenson

T. D. Robertson

Rot:kiV»rd.

Winnebago.

A. L. Cumniings

Galena,

lo Daviess.

W. A. Pratt

Elgin.

Kane.

leriah Bonhani

Ghicago,

Cook.

W. B. Tininer

l*reeport,

Stephcn.son.

S. J. Davis

Davis.

Stephenson
fo Daviess.

Wm. Young

do

do

S. C. Harriss

Galena,

C W. Prescoll

Marengo,

McHenry.

C. C. Walinslcy

Polo,

(;)gle.

W. A. Jreat

do "

do

Seth Mann

Freeport,

Stephenson

Will. J^ltlOM

Sandwich.

DeKalb.

W. H. Hauson

Franklin Grove

, Lee.

K. M. Pritchard

Waterman.

d..

J. S. Rogers

Maren;;p.

McHenry.

W. L. F. Jones

Asbiiry.

Kendall.

n. Gronner

Galena.

lo Daviess.

Israel Rogers

Sandwich,

DcKalh.

Robert Brand

do

" do

I. R. Shelly •

Shannon.

Carroll.

Wm. ,\. Nourse

Moline,

Rock Island

C H. Rnsensteil

Freeport,

Stephenson.

Geo. Purinton

Freeport,

Stephenson

G. S. Cadwell

• )rangevillc.

do

G. F. Smith

do

do

Geo. Kliine^mcdt

■>an<lwich.

DcKalb.

K. If awes

do

do

L. D. Rogers

do

do

J. M. Bechtel

do

do

Wm. HenniijK

Piano,

Kendall.

Alois Schwartz

Naperville,

Du Page.

Tames Henning

do

do

D. E. Peck.

Marengo,

McHenry.

I>exter Severy

l.eland.

DeKalb.

D. F. Kinney

Rock Island,

Rork Island

S. Bailey

Shabbona.

do

Chas. H. Atkins

Chicago.

Cook.

Jonathan Mayber

ry Belvidcrc,

Boone.

196

TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

HONO

RART

JA

EMBERS.

COUNTY.

Mrs. Amada Little Freeport, Stephenson.
A. G. Tuttle Baraboo, Wis.

Mrs. P.W. Hathaway Damascus, Stephenson.
Geo. P. Pefier Pewaukee, Wis.
T. C. Phinib Milton, Wis.

Mrs. H. H. McAfee Freeport, Steohenson.

Mrs. L. K. Scofield do do

Mrs. D. C. Scofield Elgin, Kane.

Miss Amanda Fifield Marengo, McHenry.

Mrs. Mary E. Page do do

Mrs. Jane Shaw FreKiont, Tazewell.

Mrs Oscar Taylor Freeport, Stephenson.
"W. O. Thompson

Dr. C. L. Usher
E. M. Speer
Wm. Le Baron
Nathan H. Shaw
Mrs. E. M. Speer

Freeport,
Blairstown, lo.
Maquoketa, lo
Seward, Neb.
Geneva,

West Point, Neb
Seward, Neb.

Kane.

Mrs. S. C. Harriss
Mrs. R. H. Scofield
Miss Mary A. Brand
J. L. Budd
D. W. Adams
B. Hathaway
W. H. Ragan
A. Steward
Dr. H. Shimer
Jno. W. Robson
Jno. A. Warder
J. S. Stickney
Mrs.C J Richards'n
IVIrs. F. W. Waller
Hon. Sucl Foster,
Miss Mary F Nourse

Jo Daviess.
Stephenson.
Jo Daviess.

Galena,
Freeport,
Galena,
Shellsburg, lo.
Waukon, Iowa.
L'e Prairie Ronde, Mich.
Clayton, Ind.
Richfield, Minn.
Mt. Carroll, Carroll.
Abilene, Kan.
Cincinnati, O.
Wauwatosa. Wis.
Princeton. Bureau.

do do

Muscatine, la.
iSloline, Rock Island.

iLLlNr)^ HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ig^J

PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Northern Illinois Horticultural Society.

SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING
oi' THr$ Sociirrv was iikld in tiik

COURT HOUSE AT FREEPORT,

COMMFNCINU; jANrARV 2 1st, I 873.

The meeting was called to order by President Hon. Lewis Ellsworth
at ten o'clock A. M. On account of the great snow storm but a few
members were present at the hour, and on motion adjourned till half-
past one o'clock P. M.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

The Society called to order at half-past one o'clock. Prayer by the
Reverend Mr. Patterson.

Vice President J. S. McCall introduced Gen S. D. Atkins, of Free-
port, who addressed the Society as follows :

ADDRESS OF WELCOME.

BY GEN. S. D. ATKINS.

M? President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the

Northern Illinois Horticultural Society :

At the request of one of your number, here resident, and in behalf
of our citizens, I beg the privilege, at tlie opening of your session, of
addressing you a few words of welcome to this city and county. Very
many of our citizens are deeply interested in those questions which you
will be likely to discuss in connection with the science and art of
Horticulture.

Science is knowledge, and knowledge comes of the attrition of
mind with mind, and teaches us, logically, to understand the why and
the wherefore of things ; and art comes of experience, and teaches us
to apply science ; and he who has learned by experience how do any
thing well, has acquired an art ; and if he details his experience in
meetings like this, he places others in the possession of that art which
his experience has made peculiarly his own.

293 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

The successful horticulturist must possess a scientific, or, nt least,
a practical knowledge of the soil and atmosphere, and of those immuta-
ble natural laws which govern production ; and he must possess also
the art of skillfully applying that knowledge. The necessary scientific
portion of his information he may acquire by silent research and diligent
study in the seclusion of his library, and for the art, too, he may draw
upon the inexhaustible storehouse of the world's experience in the ages
gone by; but the art comes mostly out in the sunshine, in the garden
and the orchard. One man, in a single season, may not acquire much
information ; but the aggregate information acquired by a number of
gentlemen, engaged in a similar pursuit and scattered over a wide extent
of country, must be something considerable. I know, gentlemen, that
you are anxious to be devouring that information, and I am not going to
detain you long.

I have had a little experience myself as a horticulturist, but it is a
very little. I learned by experience, more than twenty years ago, that
peaches could not be profitably cultivated on the prairies of Stephenson
county; and by experience I learned that Chickasaw plums can be cul-
tivated very easily indeed, and there is a nut, in my experience wnth the
Chickasaw plum, that I would like to have some of you scientific gentle-
men crack for me.

I settled, with my father's family, on the prairies south of this city
many years ago, and across one corner of the farm ran a slough, leaving
beyond it a few acres of high prairie. When the farm was fenced, the
fences were built on the lines of the government subdivisions, and the
high prairie broken up, with the exception of the little patch south of the
slough. Then we plowed around the outside of the field, to keep the
prairie fires from burning up the fences, and that kept the fires from
sweeping over the little patch of unbroken prairie included within the
inclosure. It soon came up with hazel, crab apple, and plum trees. I
pulled up and transplanted several of the little plum trees when only
about sixteen inches high, and they soon came into bearing, and proved an
excellent variety of the now^ extensively cultivated Chickasaw plum.
There was no timber, and no plum trees within miles of that spot; and
Avhat I wish of you scientific gentlemen is to tell me how those Chicka-
saw plums happened to come up away out on the prairie as soon as the
prairie fires were kept down. I have often thought if the prairie fires
had been kept down nature would soon have covered our prairies with a
luxuriant timber growth.

I distinctly remember having seen in a geography, which I studied
at a district school when a lad, a picture of a North Carolina prairie,
with a Rosa Bonheur buffalo careering over it, and while traversing
that State with Sherman's troops in 1S65, I wondered what had be-
come of the prairies. But, one afternoon, after the officer of my staff
and myself had dined with General Means, in Cabarras county, we
stepped out on his back porch to enjoy our cigars, when the general,
looking out three or four miles over a beautiful valley, over the green

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. J^QQ

verdure of the timber growth that covered it everywhere, inquired if we
had any scenery in Illinois to equal it? I answered him, dwelling on the
beautiful views attainable in Northern Illinois, where the eye wanders
over miles and miles of beautiful prairie, uninterrupted by timber growth,
when an old gentleman, the father of General Means, I think, tottered
up to the railing of the porch, with the aid of his crutches, and said :
"General Atkins, 1 remember well when standing here and looking
over that valley, all within view was a beautiful ])rairie, and not a tree
to be seen." I thought it was wonderful; but riding on horseback the
next day for miles, 1 could nowhere find a stump, or log, or body of a
tree more than half a century old.

Oak came first to cover the prairies of North Carolina; but cut off the
oak, and cultivate the ground, then leave it to grow up in timber again,
and i)itch pine alone will cover the land.

When during the Revolution, Lord Cornwallis passed over that
country with his army, he cut through the native timber, in many places,
a military wagon road, and to-day you can trace his road by the growth
of pine which has filled it. The first growth of timber there was like
our prairie grass, that never comes in again when trodden out. I have
traced for miles over our prairies neglected Indian trails by the growth
of weeds which filled them.

Pasture our prairies, and a growth of white clover will follow the
prairie grass, and how does the white clover get there .'

A couple of years ago, while in Washington City, I was shown
through the Agricultural Department by Col. Capron, the Commission-
er, and my practical experience in the cultivation of peaches and Chick-
asaw plums very naturally interested me in the horticultural subjects.
The culture of apples was under discussion, and the Commissioner stat-
ed that he had gathered the various varieties of apples grown in this
country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and that it was a singular fact
that those varieties wiiich originated east of the Alleghanies grew larger
in size and coarser in texture as you passed from east to west.

The Newtown Pip])in originated near where I was born, in southern
New York, and I in(|uired about that variety, and was shown fac simile
specimens in wax of the Newtown Pippin grown where it originated ;
also grown in New England, and they were much smaller; also grown
in Ohio, and they were much larger; also on the prairies of southern
Kansas, and the same variety, the Newtown Pijjpin, was almost twice as
large grown in Kansas as compared with those grown where that varie-
ty of apple originated, which is, doubtless, to you gentlemen, a very
familiar fact, but it was a new, and very interesting and curious fact to
me. We also discussed, somewhat, the insect enemies that the horticul-
turist is fated to contend with.

Mr. Capron appeared to place great confidence in birds as the friends
of the horticulturist — as a great armv which was intended to destroy
the great armies of insects and worms that destroy tlie fruits and tlowers.
1 remembered that when I was a boy the blue-jay was regarded as a

200 TRANSArTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

gre:\t enemy to the orchardist, and I inquired of Col. Capron what he
knew about the blue-jay. He took me to the case of birds, and pointed
out a blue-jay, jauntily perched upon a twig, with his gay plumage almost
as natural as life, and said : "There he is, and by his side the contents
of his stomach when he was killed." 'I'hat dissection had made a go.od
record for him and his race — the despised blue-jay had robbed some
horticulturist of a single cherry, but with the cherry were found no less
than forty specimens of fruit-destroying insects and worms.

Hut, Mr. President, I am not unmindful of the fact that you gentle- •
men came here to discuss horticidtural subjects yourselves, not to hear
me do so, and, while thanking you for your kind attention, 1 again,
Mr. President and gentlemen, on behalf of our citizens, give you, one
and all, a cordial welcome to our city and county.

President Ellsworth responded in behalf of the Society, and
expressed his sense of the courtesy which was shown by the citizens.
He then proceeded to deliver his annual address, which was as follows :

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

Ladies and Gentlemen :

The unceasing march of time has brought us to the close of another
year in our Society; and we are again assembled at our annual meeting,
for the purpose of discussing the best means of promoting the horticul-
tural and arboricultural interests of our State.

We know what this Society has done to promote these interests ; the
past is secure. What the future will bring forth depends almost wholly
upon the interest manifested by the people.

I have often felt that most of our citizens did not fully appreciate
the object and aims of this and other kindred associations, or realize the
great benefit such associations are to themselves. Until the people
awaken to their duty, and come tbrward with their hearty support, the
influence of our Society must, in a great measure, be restricted.

Comparatively few seetn to give the subject of Horticulture and ar-
boriculture more than a passing thought, very many not realizing their
importance ; hence the indifference manifested.

The past season has been noted for its continued drouth, yet, not-
withstanding, the fruit crop has been fully an average one, nearly all
kinds being plenty in their season, with, perhaps, the exception of straw-
berries.

The winter thus far has been a peculiarly severe one, but, so far as
my observation has extended, fruit trees of all kinds appear to be un-
injured. I attribute this to the fact that the more hardy varieties of
fruits have been planted for some years past.

The experience of all at the West, especially nurserymen and orchard-
ists, during the last twenty years, has been a severe, expensive, and yet
beneficial educator. We have witnessed the destruction of trees, of
many of the favorite eastern varieties of the apple, too tender to with-
stand our climate, necessitating the substitution of hardier varieties.

ILLINOIS llOklll ULlllRM. :sO)Cl£TY. ^(j^

There is a deficiency of late-keeping varieties of apples cultivated
with us; the result i* that, while that fruit is abundant in the latter
part ot summer and in autumn, the winter market is largely supplied
from the orchards of Michigan, Ohio, and New York. The reason for
this must be so apparent to every one that I need not take up your lime
in its discussion.

There is one subject to which I would especially call your attention
at this time, and which I consider of great importance to the future pros-
l)crity of not only our own State, but of the entire Northwest. I refer
to the subject embracing forest and timber tree-planting. Our forestr,
and groves are rapidly disappearing, and it needs no very great discern-
ment to see that, in a very few years, unless means are taken to prevent it,
our sui)i)ly of timber will be entirely exhausted. The mind of the pub-
lic should, therefore, be more thoroughly aroused to the importance of
tree-planting, not only for fuel and shelter, on our naked prairies, but
for all the various pur])oses for which timber is required, such as build
ings, fencing, machinery, telegraph-poles, railruad-ties, etc.

The demand for railroad-ties is itself enormous. In Illinois alone,
over six thousand miles of railroad have already been built. It requires
about two thousand si.\ hundred forty ties to each mile of road, or a total
of nearly sixteen million ties for the whole six thousand miles. The life
of these ties is seven or eight years, requiring over two million two hun-
dred fiftv thousand to be replaced annually, at a cost of not less than
lorty-five dollars per hundred ties, or a total of over one million. This
amount will be largely increased by the construction of new roads, which
are rapidly being built in every direction. Statistics show that, in the year
eighteen seventy-tw^o, there was completed in this State eight hundred
thirty-seventy miles of road; and, in addition to the number completed,
there were five hundred sixty-four miles under construction.

There is but one wav to meet the future wants of the country in the
demand for wood for all the uses to which that material is applicable,
and that is by the planting of artificial groves of timber. It would also
tend to increase the humidity of the atmosphere, as well as to improve
the climate, by the shelter thus obtained; and, at the same time, increase
the beauty of the scenery, by covering our broad prairies, here and there,
with the verdure of woods.

Among the niany useful varieties of trees, the introduction of the
European Larch is perhaps the most imp(^rtant ac(]uisition in respect of
timber that our country has ever obtained. It is of a rapid growth, and
adapts itself to a great variety of soils and exposures, while the wood it
furnishes is of the very best quality, and is capable of being used for a
greater variety of purposes than perhaps any other. Experiiuents in
England and Scotland have proved that in durability it far exceeds the
famous British live-oak, and it has been found superior even to the ash
for the various purposes for which that timber is used, being lighter and
of superior strength. Although the value of the larch can scarcely be
over-estimated, it is by no means the only tree which should be grown.

202 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTFIERN

There are many other valuable sorts which are well worthy of cultiva-
tion.

There is a want of information to the public as to the cost of plant-
ing and cultivating of forest trees. I do not at this time propose to en-
ter upon the details of this subject, but would remark that the cost is
comparatively light, as small plants can be purchased at very low rates.
The preparation of the ground, and after-culture for a few years, are
about the same as for corn ; after which, the trees will require no culti-
vation and little further attention.

Some of our railroads feel an interest on the subject of tree-plant-
ing, and will no doubt afford any reasonable facility for distributing
information on the subject to the public. In the matter of transporta-
tion, they would no doubt reduce the rates of freight on small trees to
those who purchase for the purpose of planting.

I would recommend this Society to appoint a committee, whose
duty it shall be to prepare and have printed a circular embodying a sta-
tistical statement in regard to the cost of planting, culture, growth, and
profit to be derived from timber-growing ; to be distributed for the infor-
mation of the people.

I would also suggest that you take such action as you may deem
best adapted to procure the passage by our Legislature of a law to en-
courage forest-timber planting.

Your attention is called to a law passed by our State Legislature
last winter, taxing growing nursery stock. It is an unjust discrimination,
and the law should be repealed, for nursery stock is as much a growing
crop as corn, wheat, or oats, differing only in the time of maturing.

The passage of an act by the Legislature of the State to create a
Department of Horticulture, providing for the election of a Stat« Board
of Horticulture in such manner as will be just to each portion of the
State, and also for an appropriation for the publishing of the horticul-
tural transactions, is important, and should receive tlie united support of
all and especially of this Society.

This Society has heretofore appointed a committee to request our
Representatives in Congress to exert their influence in procuring the
passage of a bill to repeal part of our revenue laws imposing duties on
all imported forest trees, plants, and seeds. 1 would suggest that a
committee be appointed at this meeting for the same purpose.

As your presiding officer, I ask that discussion on all subjects may
be concise and brief. Much time in conventions is not unfrequently
spent in irrelevant debate,' and 1 trust that I may rely upon your cordial
assistance in endeavoring to conduct our meetings so as to transact the
largest amount of business in the least possil)le time.

A committee, consisting of D. \V. Scott and j. S. McCall, was ap-
pointed to arrange a programme of the order of business.
The report of the Treasurer was received and accepted.

ILLINOIS HORTICLTLTUR.VL SOCIETY.

J03

L. Woodard, Treasurer, in account u iih Nortlicrn Illinois Horticul-
tural Society.

1872. Dr.

Jan'v 25, To cash, D. B. VV^ier, Advance on Fransac's, ^ 5.00

" '* " Received on Memberships, - 107.00=$! 12.00

187?. Cr.

Jan'y 25, By balance on old account, - - - $1 2.72

" " "' Paid D. W. Scott, per bill, - - 25.50

" '■ " C. N. Whitney & Co., printing, [ler bill, 11.00

Mar. 8, " Ex. charges for Stationery and Postage, 2.50

June 18, ' O. B. Galusha, for Transactions, - 70.00

" " " E.Kchange on Draft, - - - - .25

" Balance, - _ . _ - .03=^112.00

Respectfully submitted,

L. Woodard, Treasurer.

The President then proceeded to call for the reports of standing
committees, but as only a few of them were present and none of them
prepared to report, that portion of the business was deferred.

On motion of L. K. Scofield, the evening sessions of the Society
commence at seven o'clock.

On motion it was resolved, that Mr. H. H. McAfee be added to the
business committee, and that said committee be continued as the perma-
nent business committee for this meeting, and that they issue a pro-
gramme for each day without further orders from the Society.

Mr. Pells Manny, of Freeport, presented a paper on the Culture of

the Grape, as follows :

THE GRAPE.

Being unable to participate in your proceedings, I present a sketch
of m\- exjieriments in grape culture.

1 have about seven thousand vines planted, including thirty differ-
ent varieties; Clintons, Concords, Perkins, Ives Seedling, Telegraphs,
Rogers four, fifteen, and nineteen, have ]jroved about equally healthy,
hardy, and productive ; but several of our choicest varieties do not suc-
ceed well on my grounds. Martha, pAunelan, Walter, and Croton have
made feeble growth as yet. Salems, lona, and Delaware, the same, but
their fruit being of e.\cellent quality. 1 tried the experiments of graft-
ing them, with good success. 1 grafted mo.'it of them during winter, on
Clinton roots, taken up in fall for the purpose, and to ascertain the best
time for the operation 1 set a few grafts every two weeks on growing
vines, up to July 20th. Not more than ten per cent, failed to grow that
were set previous to June 20th; after that, they did not take so well.
They have all made strong, healthy vines, most of them bore fruit last

0Q4 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NOnTHEftN

season. 11ic leaves and friiii lield to thr \ ines in perfect health, till the
frost.

I have a few Salern vines near my house, where the clay was thrown
out from the cellar, the roots of the vines were put down below the clav
on the natural soil, the surface has never been disturbed by cultivation
or otherwise, and is nearly as hard as brick, no water has penetrated it
down to the roots, and those vines have done the best of any I have of that
variety not grafted. I am trying the experiment of ridging up the
ground and mulching it to shed off the water, and keep down the weeds,
but it is more expensive than grafting on healthy growing vines such as
Clintons that cost but twenty dollars per thousand, the grafting of these
thirty dollars more, perhaps, making but fifty dollars, while choice
varieties of vines for planting at present prices cost over one hundred
dollars per thousand.

1 am extending my vineyard by putting out C'linton roots on which
to graft such varieties as I wish to grow, thus saving half the first cost,
and securing strong healthy growing vines. I have tried Fuller's plan
of grafting in the fall, but they failed to grow as well as the grafts set in
July, and the expense of protecting them through the winter, precludes the
operation in the fall.

I have over a thousand vines in my yard, at the house, on
which to try experiments and note the results more accurately than i
could in the vineyard. Two years ago, I put up a lot of the vines for
fruiting, of different varieties that were from twelve to fifteen feet in
length, trained them so as to have the vines lap over each other eighteen
inches apart, and allowed them to carry ail the fruit they would set
without thinning out a bunch.

Clintons and Isabellas loaded so heavily with fruit that the vines
made scarcely any growth, but the fruit ripened up well; the next season,
they carried nearly the same amount of fruit from the spurs, ripened it
up w^ell and made a good growth of vine ; 1 conclude from this, that
the roots will expand and gain strength in proportion to the require-
ment of the vine above ground.

Hartfords, Concords, Rogers four and tilteen did not set so much
fruit as to check the growth of vines. None of the vines so treated show
indications of being injured in the least, but appear capable of carrying
double the amount of fruit another year to the vines that have been
cropped off and treated in the ordinary way. The ground has all been
well manured.

In putting up the vines in my vineyard two years ago, I discovered
that the canes shortened for fruiting were not starting into growth as
early as those left long for'laycring, therefore, I put up the long vines
for fruiting, and the result was, my grapes were all ripe and gathered
before any others come into market here. I tried the same experiment
last season, and the result was the same, enabling me to get a better
price for my grapes than those that came into market later in the season;
when the price became reduced, my grapes were sufficiently ripe to com-

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 205

mence working them up. From t.vo thousand five hundred bearing
vines only four years old I sold three thousand pounds of grapes and
obtained six hundred gallons of clear juice without pressing the husks.
After fermentation had nearly ceased, I put one-quarter of a pound of
sugar to each gallon, and about the middle of December I racked it
off from the sediment and put one-quarter pound sugar to the gallon
again : I put the husks into large casks, and put untothem two hundred
and fifty gallons of sugar water. In about six weeks the pulp was dis-
solved and the liquor clear enough to rack off. I drew off three hundred
and sixty gallons without pressing the husks, then added two hundred
gallons of sugar water to the husks which yet remains on them.
I shall not be greatly disappointed if these last experiments make
vinegar instead of wine; should it do so, the profits will be nearly the
same. To make wine will require more sugar ; to make vinegar requires
more water, thereby increasing the number of gallons.

Having noticed in Wm. Saunders report of the Agricultural Depart-
ment of the Patent office, his experiment of planting a small collection
of native vines outside a rude structure made by placing a few sashes
against a common board fence. Some of the vines were trained under
the glass roof, and others to a trellis four feet from it, exposed to the
atmosphere; the satisfactory results of the crop under the glass and the
great excellence of the fruit, induce the belief that if this mode of
growing our native grapes were generally known, many would avail them-
selves of its benefits. I have tried similar experiments in a simpler and
less expensive manner by training the surplus foliage horizontally above
the fruit so as to protect it from our heavy dews, and the result has
been very satisfactory in improving the quality of fruit.

P. Mannv.

This paper was followed by remarks by Messrs, McWhortcr,
Bryant, McAfee, and Spofford. who took the ground that a clay soil,
such as our trniber ridges, is the best. Mr. McAfee spoke highly of the
Rogers hybrids, in certain localities, but doubted if they would do well
south of this latitude, and Mr. Spofford in favor, of the Clinton.
Mr. McWhorter had not found grape culture profitable on our prairies,
for want of market.

Tne culture of the soil was considered by Mr. Spofford, who advo-
cated a sort of icrraiiilture, — that is, surface-stirring of the soil with the
aid of a fork, to the depth of ten inches, 'I'he object of this is to open
the soil to the air, dew, and rain, in order thai these Iok rs would be
able to supply the roots with plant-food.

Mr. McAkkf. had had good success in grafting the grape as late as
July fiftcenih, Vinesmay be laid down in a trench, and the grafts are
inserted by splinting the slock, but no wax is used, the vines being

206 TRANSACTION? OF THE NORTHERN

covered with earth. Mr. Loornis grafted in the usual manner of cleft-
grafting, tying the stock with a stri}) of cloth or ligature, and covering
with earth.

The President appointed Arthur Bryant. vSr., M. B. Spofford, O. B.
Galusha, L. Montagu, and Tyler McWhorter, a Committee on Fruits,
etc., on Exhibition.

Committee on State Legislation for the encouragement of Forest-
tree planting, Lewis Ellsworth, Arthur Bryant, M. L. Dunlap.

Mr. H. N. Bliss read the following suggestions on Geology:

SUGGESTIONS ON GEOLOGY.

BY H. N. BLISS.

Geologv is to be my subject : from the Greek ge^ the earth, and
logos^ discourse.

Well / will discourse, or talk about it.

To man, the earth is a great world, and with all his power and skill,
it is with great difficultv that the most fortunate can travel and sail around
it, and observe its merest outlines.

The combined skill of all, in their united researches, have more
theory than positive knowledge. It is with diffidence that the wisest men
speak of primeval times, the whys and the wherefores. They refer it,
with its causes, to a higher power.

Many good men have taken Moses as a scientific writer,and the I-^ible
zs the guide to all sciences; ^.w^ believing ///rt'/,they have denounced all op-
position to their false theory. Others, seeing those good men and de-
fenders of the Bible wrong., have denounced, not only the men, but the
Bible itself, as wrong.

An unhappy controversy has been the consequence. / shall begin
with Moses.

" In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

All about the how he did it, — the when he did it, by our blind meas-
uring lines, — and why he did not do it sooner^ and a thousand other things
that incredulity and curiosity might suggest, /don't know.

It is enough for me to see the order and fitness of things demands
ing a designer, and that God has been able to reveal the history of this
world thousands of years in advance, and to demonstrate by his works, the
character he has given to himself.

Moses as a servant was faithful in all his house — -in all the depart-
ment that Avas intrusted to him. But Moses" mission was not to teach
the science — not even the science of Geology.

He in prophetic vision, or rather in ecstatic vision, saw things as
they passed before him, and his revelation was in reference to the im-
pressions, the feelings, and the needs of the great mass of mankind,
who were neither scientific men nor philosophers.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 207

Moses, as one of the sons of men, describes to the sons of men in
language suited to them, concerning the fitting up of this planetary sys-
tem for the f)resenl race of inhabitants, and showed in opposition to the
l)antheistic, polytheistic, and atheistic cosmologies of ancient times,
that the existing things of earth are the work of oiir and the same self-
existent, self-concious, and intelligent God.

Moses is brief, but his record stood out above all the jumbled up
theories of mere fallen man.

Our {>owers of mind were given us to investigate the things within
our reach — to study with pleasure — with wonder, and with love.

I say — In the beginning (lod created the heavens and the earth,
and the earth was without form and void — to us an incomprehensible
and confused mass.

Now when this was, according to our measuring lines, I don't know,
and good scholars say there is nothing in the original language to prevent
us from saying, millions of years ago.

All scholars af nature, that are also scholars of revelation, say that
it has been geological, or immense ages.

It is evident that after the center of the earth was formed, that
water holding in solution many impurities, co\ered the earth a great
depth, occasicmally threw down sediments differing widely in appearance
and elements, forming layers around the earth like coats around an
onion.

But these coatings were not continuous, but drawn together here and
there, and thicker in some places than in others, but always alike in some
respects.

After many coatings were deposited containing no signs of animal
or vegetable life, then, from some unknown cause great heat seems to
have melted the central portions of the earth, w^hen the expansions and
rontractif)ns broke up those strata in mountain piles, throwing up
the melted r(jck, ;ind throwing them over upon the lop of the later
formed strata.

The motion of this melted matter was so great, like great waves,
that it broke up. tumbled and tilted the unmelted lavers above, in curi-
ous shapes, heating, condensing and crystallizing, and giving peculiarity
to those early formations.

After the primary formati(Mis were waved, tilted, tumbled, and par-
tially covered, the depositions went on before, and containing as before
fragments of former formations, with the sediments from water, and in
these formations begins to be found the lower order of ancient animals.

From this upwards, format ious continued more less shaken and
broken through and mixed w\) with the primiti\e formations, and increased
and fastened together by sedimentary formations.

The earthquakes and ufjheavals of mountains, tumbled the waters
backwards and forwards with terrific force, occasionally destroying
the animals and vegetation that at the time inhabited the earth.

Class after class were swept off, rising in importance or perfection,

208

TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

from the nerveless and thoughtless, that could live in the impure waters,
up to man, the climax of creation and the image of God.

There has been a general agreement among one class of geologists,
that there have been at least six classes of animals, and some have
named the different formations by these different classes, as:

Tst. Protozoic, or lowest class.

2nd. Deutozoic, or next lowest.

3d. Tritozoic.

4th. Tetrazoic.

5 th. Pentazoic.

6th. Hectazoic, and includes the animals now alive upon the earth.

These various later formations are classified under other names, as :
Transition,
Secondary,
Tertiary, and
Alluvial, which mrludes the surface of the earth.

The coatings of the earth lying upon the melted center, or igneous
or granite, as it is commonly called, is supposed to be from eight to ten
miles deep on an average.

This supposed average is mostly obtained by measuring across the
ends of the strata, where they have been thrown up by volcanic
action — illustrated by an open book, or the outside coats of an onion burst
through from the inside, and then smoothed off by outside friction.

Near Gardiner, Maine, for two miles, you can walk over the ends of
the vertical strata of rocks, which numbering from the center, are alike
on both sides.

SUPPOSE!) THICKNESS OF FORMATIONS OF THE COATS OF THE EARTH.

Hectozoic,

Pentaxoic,

Tetrazoic,

Trizoic,

Deutozoic,

Protozoic,

Azoic,

Primitive,
Igneous,

Alluvial and Drift,
Tertiary,
Cretaceous,
Oolite,
Triassic,
rPermain.
J Carboniferous,
1 Devonian,
\^ Silurian.
Graywacke,
Clay Slate,
Mica Slate,
Gneiss, etc.
Granite, etc.
Syenite,

Porphyry, Trap,
Basalt, Lava,
Pumice, etc., of
volcanoes.

KOD.s.
12
121

163.6

54

fo one mile.

'r Secondary, one mile.

Paloezoic, six miles
in Eng.

Crystalline,
twenty rods.

i

Three thousand nine
hundred ninety rniles
to Earth's center.

TLT.TNOT*; HORTirUI.TURAT, SOCIETY. Ofjf)

I will now look at the Chemistry of Geology, as we shall need it in
the practical management of our soil ; and it will he interesting to know
what we are breathing, seeing, and handling.

There are known to chemists only sixty simple bodies, or elements
in nature. Forty-four belong to the class of metals; sixteen are con-
sidered non-metallic, and ov\y fourteen of them enter tnto the rocks nnd
soils to constitute the greater part of the earth, its waters, and .ttrnnsphere.

r will take them in the order of their abundance.

1. Oxygen — A transparent colorless gas. The inost powerful
and almost universal supporter of combustion. Not only carbon in all
its forms burns brilliantly in it, but iron and steel burn as bright as the
sun ; and adding one part of hydrogen gas to eight parts of oxygen and
placing marble or chalk at the place of union, they will burn too brilliant-
ly to look upon.

It is the universal supporter of life in breathing, but if pure, we
should live too fast and soon die. It makes up more than one-fifth
of our atmosphere and eight-ninths of water — river, lakes, seas, and
oceans, — and forms two-fifths of the earth's crust. It has the greatest
range of affinities of all known substances.

2. Silicon — A dark, nut-brown powder, equivalent, 22. t8;
with oxygen Silica and equals three-fifths of the crust of the earth and
comes under the names: silica, silicic acid, silex, and silicates, quartz,
flint, sand, agates, etc., etc.

3. Calcium — A yellowish white metal, and of no account till twenty-
fi\e parts of it unite with eight parts oxygen and forms Protoxide of
Calcium or quick-lime. Quick-lime has a strong attraction for carbo-
nic acid, and with it forms Carbonate of l.ime.

One-seventh of the earth's crust, under the names of marble, lime-
stone, chalk, rhomb-spar, etc., abundant and useful.

Carb. of lime or quick-lime, with sulphuric acid forms (iypsum or
Plaster of Paris, useful both in the soils and arts.

4. Aluminum — Equiv. 1^.7. Is a gray powder, with a metallic lus-
ter, and burns in oxygen gas, or when heated in ( onmion air, with a
bright light, forming Alumina^ Kquiv. Al. 2. O 3.

t'ure Alumina is a tine white powder, smooth to the touch, and is
the basis of all our earthen-ware and pottery. Mixed with sand it forms
our clays, and is supposed to form one-sixth part of the soils of New
England. yV very abundant production in nature, in every region of the
globe, and in rucks ol all ages. Slates and sh.iles are specimens. The
oriental ruby and sa])i)hire, an- pure Ahimin.i, and Si)in(l .-md other
gems, with emery, are nearly so.

Alumina closes up the open pores in the st)ils and makes resting
places for plant food, called also geine, and sometimes by a half dozen
other names, as : extract of humus, carboniferous mould, humin, crcnic
and apocrenic acid, etc.

The Alum of the market is a sulphate of alumina, sulphate of po-
tassa, and water.

15

210 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

5. Potassium — Equiv. 39.15. A white metal, lighter than water, so
soft as to yield to the pressure of fingers. The most combustible of the
simple substances. It will burn in common air, on water, with a blue
flame, forming potash or potassa — protoxide of potassium, Equiv. 39.15.
-||- O « , a white solid. Potash of the market has sulphate and muriate
of potassa, with other salts. ' It is widely disseminated in the rocks al-
though not in a large quantity. All the aluminous minerals contain it.
Feldsyjar, a constituent in granite, seventeen and three-fourths per cent,
of it. Basalt, clay, slate and loam, contain more or less of it. But it
is absorbed rapidly from the soils.

6. Iron — Equiv. 27.14. When pure, nearly white, but pure iron
is never found in nature.

Meteoric contains from eight to ten per cent, nickel, and often tin,
copper, etc. Widely scattered, gives colors to soils and rocks.

As bread is said to be staff of life, so iron is the staff of business,
and almost of civilization.

7. Hydrogen — Equiv. by weight i, vol. 100. A clear colorless gas.
the lightest known, and without odor or taste. Breathing it gives the
voice a shrill squeak but it soon suffocates. Forms one-ninth of water,

—the ocean its home, but widely disseminated in the animal, vegetable,
and mineral kingdoms, and the air takes its portion. With oxygen form-
ing water, an almost universal servant in nature.

8. Sodium — Equiv. :?3.3. A white opaque solid, with chlorine 35.42
it forms common sail, which is found in the ocean and rock ; extensive
and scattered ; and from below the coal in this country.

Soda is a protoxide of sodium.

9. Magnesium — Equiv. 12.7. A white metal, malleable and brill-
iant, magnesia, a protoxide of mag. -||- O 90.7. Quite abundant in na-
ture, in rocks and good soils.

10. Manganese. Mn. — Equiv. 27.7. A brittle metal, grayish white,
and hard, granular texture. Perxide of — or black oxide of, 27.7 -||- 16
O. Valuable in the arts, laboratory, and soils.

ri. Carbon — Equiv. 6.12, sp. gr. 3.52. Diamond a pure carbon,
of immense value in the arts and show of the world. Carbon is abun-
dant in the vegetable, mineral, and animal kingdoms, and as useful in
each, as it is abundaut.

In creation, before the coal measures were formed, and while vege-
tation was growing with such rapidity and size, the air was doubtless
filled with carbonic acid, which would unfit it for the higher classes 0,f
animals, and in God's M'isdom they were not there.

Elias Colbert, a late writer on the great northwestern fires, thinks there
have been three million tons of carbon from the country, and three hun-
dred thousand tons from the city of Chicago, liberated from its union
with other elements, and gone into the air. Every three and six-tenths
pounds of it would take eight jujunds of oxygen, forming eleven and
six-tenths pounds of carbonic acid gas. That the oxygen taken up,
would su|;ply men and animals all over the globe for ten months.

ILLINOIS HORTirUI,TURAL SOCIETY. 21 1

Well, he argues that the want of the healthful and stimulating oxy-
gen in the atmosphere, replaced by the poisonous (arbonir acid, will i^ut
back the progress of man towards the highest limit of perfection three
hundred years. That is a startling announcement; but as it takes ior
granted that Adam was a mere child, if not almost a fool, there may be
something rotten in the theory, and as a race we may not be forced back in
degradation below Solomon and his generation. Or, three hundred years
would onlv carrv us back to the days of Luther. Bacon, and Shakespeare,
when the great reaction rallied the world from lethargy.

Seriously, soils may absorb the carbonic acid and become enriched
and stimulate vegetation to some greater growth, and an increase of car-
bonaceous rocks may be formed, and perhaps the doctors' list of mala-
dies will be a little changed, and doubtless some other effects will be
seen. But the idea that we have arrived almost to angelic perfection is
only gas, and often explodes in a Woodhul! Tammany Ring bulble.
Printing, etc., giving the minutiae in records, makes us superioi in retain-
mg and scattering our mventions, and that is about all.

12. Sulphur, S. — Equiv. i6.i. gr. 2. Pure and abundant in vol-
canic regions, ditto in g3'psum in Cadiz, and Cracow. In metals, (sulphur-
ets) it is scattered broadcast in and over the earth.

13. Phosphorus, P. — Equiv. 15.7. When pure, transparent and
nearly colorless. Easilv cut with a knife. Ft fuses at one hundred and
right degrees. It exists m the bones of animals, and in those of a man
yielding one pound on an average. It is scattered in the i.)hosphates of
lin)e, soda, potassa, iron, and in most rocks.

14. XiTKOGEX, Sym. N. — Etjuiv. 14.15. Pure Nitrogen, a color-
less gas, not a supporter of combustion, or of respiration, though not
poisonous. Constitutes four-fifths of the atmosphere, simply mixed
with one-fitth oxygen. It exists prominently in all animals and fungus
plants, and in fact in small (Quantities in all plants. Forms valuable salts
with potash, lime, soda, magnesia ; and with hydrogen it forms .Ammonia,
which is active, powerful, and useful. With oxygen it forms the protox-
ide of N.==exhilarating gas, and the most active acids.

Take one part of X. represented by 14.06, or. take 14.0O lbs. of
N. and mix with 4.2 lbs. O., and there is no chemical union and it forms
our atmosphere with the addition r^f a little vapor, carbonic acid, ammo-
nia, etc.

Take one part N. 14.06 with one part O. » it and form'^ Nitrous C)xide,
a chemical union, and when breathed, forms one of th*- most exciting
and exhilarating gases.

I part N. 14.06. with 2 parts O. 16 Nitric Oxide.
T " N. " " 3 " O, 24 Hyponitrous acid.

I " N. " " 4 '' (>, 32 Nitrous acid.

T " N. " " 5 " O, 40 Nitric acid. One of the

most powerful and useful acids.

Here we are shown the difference between mechanical mixture, as
in common air. and chemical union, as well as the law; whirb govern
the compounding of the '^iniple element'^ of the world.

2[2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

Now the fourteen simple elements with their combinations, form-
ing almost the entire crust of the earth, if thrown together and acted
upon by imponderable agents : gravity, cohesion, affinity, light, caloric,
electricty, and galvanism, which are called the forces that preside over
nature, there will be thousands of miniature galvanic batteries, and cur-
rents of galvanism, currents of electricity, currents of gases, and chang-
es of substances and plant food evolved.

Now throw in, or let grow in the roots of pilants with their vital power,
the incomprehensible life principle, and you can stand and experiment,
and wonder and admire.

Our soils are more simple and differ less in their chemical agents,
than we generally suppose.

I will here give what A. Gray calls an analysis of the general soils
in one hundred parts :

EARTHS. ALKALIES.

Silex, 66 per cent. Potash, 2.

Alumna, 16 " Soda, 0.5.

Lime, 2 " Ammonia, 0.5.

Magnesia, i " ^^^^^^

Salts and Urets, 1.5. of Iron, 5.

Organic Matter, 6.5. " Manganese, 0.5.

In the analysis of other soils, other alkalies, oxides, salts, and urets,
would fill the places of those just mentioned, and just as valuable.

I will give here Prof. Hitchcock's analysis of two soils one from
La Salle Co., 111., never cultivated; the other from Sciota Valley, Ohio,
cultivated fourteen years without manure.

SOLUBLE GEINE.

(Humates and Creates),

Insoluble Geine,

Sulphate of Lime,

Phosphate of Lime,

Carb. of Lime,

Silicates,

Water of Absorption,

120.5 105-3

The valuable Geine, both soluble and insoluble, is contained in the
soils from almost all the rocks in Massachusetts, and from two and one-
half to six per cent.

I will now give the composition of a few of the most common min-
erals. And they are such as enter into our own soils.

COMPOSITION OF MINERALS.

^ j Silicon, 22.18-II-30. Equiv. 46.18.

^ I Pure Silica, called Silex, Silicic acid, Silicious earth.

LA SALLE.

SCIOTA

1.6

4-5

13-8

6.7

18.4

2.1

0.4

0.9

3-3

2.8

73-5 ■

83.0

9-5

5-3

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL ^OCtETY.

213

.

\

Silica,

64.20

Feldspar, Flint, etc.

\

Alumina,
Potash,

18.40
16.95

Silica,

46.3

Peroxide

of Iron

- 4-5

Mica. Alumina,

36.8

Fluoric acid,

0.9

Potash,

9.2

Water,

1 .0

98.7

DarK Cclored,

Uglit Col.

Basaltic Col,

Silica,

48.8

59-75

42.24

Magnesia,

13-6

21.1

'3-74

Lime,

10.2

14.25

12.24

Hornblend. Alumina,

7-5

13.92

Protoxide of Iron

18.75

3-9

1459

Protoxide of Man|

^anese,

115

0-3

0-33

Hydrochloric acid

and water, eg

0.8

100.9 97' 97.06

Time forbids my running through the analysis of many interesting
things.

I have said that the most of our soils contain the greater part of the
elements needed for fertility, but they need to be placed in favorable
circumstances. They also need a few additions, which we get from ma-
nures as well as from the atmosphere and the Hoating gases. Every kind of
mulching, as well as grass and weeds left on the ground is manure.

Here let me give the summing-up analysis of the manure of one
cow for one year in geine and salts: A cow that eats twenty-tour lbs.-
of hay and twelve lbs. of potatoes, or that amount of food per day, will
in one year of

Geine, (decomposed organic matter),

Carb. of Ammonia,

Phosphate of Lime,

Plaster, or Sulphate of Lime,

Carbonate of l.ime.

Common Salt,

Sulphate of Potash,

Total, 5,134 "

I have now arrived at the point upon which I could begin to build
and know what 1 was about ; and here comes in the motto on the seal
of the State Horticultural Society : ''This is an art which does mend
nature." And here comes in also the lumliling of the soil, draining,
mixing, heating, and cooling; the practical of it, and if rightly managed,
the profitable working of it also. A little more close observation — a
little more mental labor will give an increase of interest and of pleas-
ure both to the agriculturist and horticulturist.

4,400

pounds

550

lu

71

t

37

37

24

^5

214: TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

By a little union in arrangement, an analysis of any specimen of our
soils could be made for, perhaps, ten dollars, if not for five dollars,
when practical, positive, and profitable knowledge would flow in.

. Adjourned till seven o'clock, P. M.

EVENING SESSION.

The following Essay on Trees and Tree-planting by W. E. Lukens,

of Sterling, was read.

ESSAY.

BY W. E. LUKENS.

It requires no little fortitude and moral courage to approach the
hackneyed subject of tree-planting. It has been so often and so elabo-
rately discussed at our meetings by persons much more familiar with the
subject than 1, that it is really embarrassing to attempt to say a word on
the subject. But if what I may say will be the means of inducmg one
man to plant a thousand, or even a hundred trees, it will pay for the time
spent in reading this short essay.'

Our arguments and appeals to the people to do a more extended
business in this line, are shorn of much of their influence by the sus-
picion that we are incited by interested motives. Because some of us
are nurserymen, and have young trees to sell, they seem to think we are
devoid of that public spirit which would prompt us to urge this matter
irrespective of any pecuniary advantage to ourselves. But they should
remember that nurserymen and orchardists have necessarily given to the
subject of trees more attention than they who are merely raising corn
and beef and devoting their exclusive attention to these pursuits. Not
long ago I asked a farmer, the owner of half a dozen large farms, if he
had ever thought of planting any of his land in forest trees. With a
cunning smile he asked, " Will they produce beef.''" This was all the
reply he made. I mention this to show that this man, though a success-
ful and intelligent farmer, seemed never to think of any plan of drawing
wealth from his land but by raising beef. Of course the idea of raising
trees was new to him, as it is to thousands. When they see the advantage
of this as they do that of other pursuits, they will be smart enough to
engage in it.

But suppose the trees do not produce beef, they produce value.
The farmer sells his beef year after year, and the avails he re-invests in
land or other property, or loans it at interest, till finally he dies and
leaves it to his heirs. If it can be shown that with a given capital the
farmer can leave more to his heirs at his death by planting trees than
by raising beef, and that, too, with less work and exposure, it would on-
ly be business-like to adopt this plaii.

But it is not suggested to any farmer to plant all his land in trees,
by any means. If each owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land
would plant six or eight acres, it would make but a small inroad on his

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. ^[5

i
beef-raising; and quiic likely the shellt-r these trees would furnish his
cattle in suniiner and winter would actually augment his profits on beef.
But not one farmer in ten is likely very soon to plant even that much of
his land in trees. A few, therefore, might plant fit'ty or one hundred
acres to great advantage, looking soleh' to the sale of his crop for the
profit.

The most common, in fact the only objection assigned is, that they
have to wait too long for return of ca])ital and |)av for labor e.vpended.
This would be a valid objection to one who could not reasonably expect
to make a living off the balant:e of his land not planted in trees; but to
one who has enough left to make a li\ing, or who has other sources from
which to draw, the objection is not good. Everv dollar a prudent, eco-
nomical man makes, over the amount necessarily consumed by himself
and family, is only so much yearly augmentation of his wealth, whatever
shape it mav assume, whether in land, stock, utensils, household furni-
ture or biink slock. Thus every year he is laying up his surplus earnings
for the future, which he rarely expends, and never aims to pan with
until he leaves it as a legacy to his heirs. In the choice of means, then,
that which would bring him the greatest amount in the end, with the
least toil and mental care, it would be wisdom to adopt.

I am well aware that any calculation we may make for years to come
may prove to be uncertain. So it is with everything else. But we can ap-
proach this more nearly than we can in any other business, particularly
that of raising corn. There is much more certainty that timber will
command a remunerating price in ten or fifty years hence than that
corn will ; for the profit on corn de])ends very much on the demand for
whisky, which w^e all wish to see diminish as fast as possible. When we
cease to use whisky, a tithe of the corn now raised will glut the market.

There are many kinds of trees that can be planted, from which we
may expect profitable returns; but I feel well assured that the European
Larch is the most profitable for fence posts or fence boards, or railroad-
ties. Of course, as soon as they are large enough they can be used for
almost any kind of building purposes. In planting them it is probable that
lour teet apart each way wcjuld be the proper distance, or about twenty-
seven hundred to the acre. The plants, two to three years old, cost say
from eight to fifteen dollars per thousand. Two dollars per thousand
will be a sufficiently high estimate for planting the trees. With this data
any farmer can estimate the cost of planting per acre, as all are familiar
with preparing ground for corn and cultivating it, which must be very
nearly the same as that for these trees.

Any one who takes the pains will readily see that the expense of
fifty acres of larch for the first ten years, including interest on land worth
fifty dollars per acre, cost of plants, preparing the ground, planting, and
cultivating two or three years, with ten per cent, compound interest -^n
each investment, will amount to about five thousand dollars. At that
time three-fourths of the trees should be thinned out, leaving them eight
feet apart. These, if worth fifteen cents each, will amount to over fif-

21f^ tRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTFlfiRjs!

teen thousand dollars, or a clear profit of ten thousand dollars. l( this
sum is kept at compound interest for twenty years it will amount to
fifty-eight thousand five hundred sixty four dollars, supposing it to double
in every eight years. But at twenty years we may cut three-fourths of the
balance, or twenty-five thousand three hundred twelve trees, worth ul
least two dollars each, or fifty thousand six hundred twenty-four dollars.
This at compound interest for ten years will amount to about one hun-
dred twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars. We then have left eight
thousand four hundred thirty-seven trees thirty years old, worth not less
than ten dollars per tree, or eighty-four thousand three hundred seventy
dollars — an aggregate profit of two hundred sixty-five thousand sixty-
four dollars in thirty years from fifty acres of land.

But if you. plant corn every year on fifty acres, allow it to produce
forty bushels per acre, and sell at fifty cents per bushel, allow interest on
net profit each year at com])ound rate for the same time, or thirty years
from first planting, you will not get it higher than sixty thousand or sev-
enty thousand dollars. Thus we find the trees will yield a profit of one
hundred ninety-five thousand sixty-four dollars more than the corn crop
at fifty cents a bushel.

It will be seen that in this calculation the trees at ten years are put
at fifteen cents each, while the probability is that they will be wortti
nearer seventy-five cents. But if each tree will make three cuts five feet
long, a good fence can be made from them by inserting them one foot
into this ground, nine inches apart, and nailing another on the top to keep
them steady. It would require eight of these poles to make a rod of.
fence, which at fifteen cents each would only be one dollar and twenty-
cents per rod. All can see that this is a very low estimate of the value
of such poles as they will be at that age. Mr. Scofield found that his,
at twelve years old, averaged three posts, worth seventy-five cents. But
if they should happen to be worth fifty cents each at ten years, which is
quite likely, then we will have a clear profit of forty-five thousand four
hundred thirty-seven dollars — equivalent to four thousand five hundred
forty-three dollars per year for the first ten years, the least profitable
time we are growing the trees.

Is it not strange that so few are lured into a business so profitable — -
so little liable to loss by fire, flood, or drought, or low prices, and so en-
tirely exempt from that care and anxiety incident to the state of farm
crops, where a thousand circumstances tend to fluctuate prices.'' What-
farmer does not know how difficult it is to determine the exact time to sell
to get the best prices for his products ? How often do they hold over for
larger prices and get less ? Why not have something growing on which
they can rely with more certainty .'*

But there is another strong reason why we should go more extensively
into this business. It is admitted by all who pretend to a knowledge of
this subject, that our present available timber will be exhausted, even at
the present rate of comsumption, in about twenty-five years. This fact
alone should alarm every one to do his share in warding off the impend-

Illinois hortk i'lt i'ral soctETV. 21?

ing calainitj' of a total exhaustion ol lumber, and of limber to supply
more. Ancient Egypt had to wage a war of C(jnquest on Syria for tim-
ber when her own territory failed to supply the demand. But where is
the timbered Syria for us to conquer when ours is gone? If we had
British America, and the supply there was unlimited, the freight alone
would more than equal jiresent prices.

Currents of air and currents of water are subject in many particu-
lars to the same law. V\'e see in a flowing river that the lower portion
of the current is retarded by friction, and moves more slowly than tlie
surface, especially where the bed of the stream is covered thickly with
rocks and boulders. So in currents of air, ever}' tree, whether small or
large, jjresents an obstacle to the wind, and diminisiie.s the velocity in
proportion to tiie obstruction. If belts of trees eight rods wide, every half
mile, extended all over our country, in a few years it would so diminish
the velocity of the winds that countless blessings, advantages, and com-
forts would flow therefrom. Yet these belts would onl}' require eight
acres to every one hundred and sixty.

There are probably three hundred thousand square miles of terri-
tory in the Mississippi Valley that will soon be covered by population.
Allowing each square mile to have six miles of fence, requiring over
sixty thousand feet of boards and three thousand eight hundred forty
posts, and allowing the fence to last fifteen years, it will require four
thousand feel of boards and two hundred and fifty-six posts per year for
each mile. The average lake, river, and railroad freights would be at
least eight dollars per thousand, and two cents each for posts, making
a sum of thirty-seven dollars per year freight on fence material for each
section of land. It is safe to say that there is four times this amount
used for other purposes, so that it is fair to conclude that we pay one
hundred eighty-five dollars freight on lumber each year for every square
mile of territory, or fifty-five million five hundred thousand dollars freight
on lumber alone in l,he Mississippi Valley. If Congress were to build
railroads to the lumber regions, and deliver lumber to us free of charge
for transportation, we would have to help fool the bill by our share of
taxes, but who would not be rejoiced to find a plan by which these fifty-
five millions of dollars a year could be saved in a few western states,
that we now pay chiefly to railroad companies? But there is just such
a plan within our reach.

The earth and the sun, with their exhaustless and incomputable for-
ces, are at all time'* ready and willing to bring to our very doors all the tim-
ber we shall want for lumber and fuel for thousands of years. They
say, " Only plant the seeds and we will grow you the timber at your
homes, where it is needed, as easily as we do in the distant forests, tliat
you now have to raft down your rivers, or transport over your lakes, or
rattle thousands of miles over your railroads. We shall not disappoint
you. \Ve never spend our forces in vain. We follow Nature's law; or,
rather, we are a part of great Nature herself. We are constant workers.
We spend no time idly. We do not even rest on the Sabbath day. But

218 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

be not alarmed ; we work so silently that at your very church doors your
devotions will not be marred by our activities. Even at night when you
sleep, or on Sunday when you worship, we are silently building up the
tissues that shall protect you from winter storms and summer suns, and
temper the winds to the shorn lamb. We are constructing material that
shall be an ornament to your dwellings, a i)rotection to your harvests,
and an essential part o1" your great railroad system."

Will we reject this munificent offer, or will we with grateful hearts
accept it ? Let us wisely do our part, and Nature will rigidly comply
with all her promises. In this way the western country can save in a
hundred years double the amount of our present national debt, in freights
on lumber alone.

It is said by some or.e of late, that the pAiropean Larch is not so
durable as has been represented by writers, who uniformly regard it as
the most durable timber known. It is possible that trees of this variety,
grown singly in the open field will not last so long as timber grown on
poor soil, or in a dense forest, where they grow more slowly. We who
have experience with oak and locust know that is the case with them.
A post of either of these timbers will not last a fourth as long when
taken from a field grown tree as if taken from the forest, 1 have no
doubt, therefore, that when we grow larch thickly, and consequently more
slowly, it will preserve the character that has been awarded to it by
European writers.

I will add further, that chere are a great many ridges through our
country too sandy for profitable farming on which can be grown box-el-
der and Scotch pine. I should much prefer the latter. Instead of these
unsightly sand hills which now so disfigure the landscape, we should soon
see interspersed, all over ©ur country, ridges and knolls of beautiful
green, emblems of life instead of death,

Mr. M. L. Dunlap spoke on the subject of bee-keeping as connected
with Horticulture and floriculture in city and suburban homes. It might
be inquired, what bee-keeping had to do with these pursuits. He would
answer by asking, what was the object to be attained in Horticulture and
floriculture. Simply feasts, — feasts of the eye and feasts of the palate,
— nothing but feasts. If we can add another feast of the eye and a
feast of the palate from the flowers, without detracting from the other
feasts that they supply, we have gained just so much, and it is this fact
that made bee-keeping a part of Horticulture and of floriculture, and
gave it a place in every city and suburban home where these pursuits are
carried on.

Mr. M. B. Spofford read the following paper on growing orchards :

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 21M

HOW I GKOW ORCHARDS.

The commercial orchard, or the raising of apples for the money
that therein is, is my subject at this time, and :it the risk of being cnlled
an egotist 1 shall principally conline m)self l<» uiy own observation and
experience, because that is one of the objects of our association.

My grounds are located on the north side of Rock river in Lee
county in what was originally heavy timbered land, and are now protected
on all sides by a second growth of oaks and hickory, the white oak
largely predominating, holding its leaves through the winter, making one
of the best of wind-breaks.

The soil is light colored, not very rich in vegetable mold, strong
in the elements of hardy wood growth, not easily affected by drouth, and
having a gentle slope to the south-east has sufficient surface drainage,
and a warm e.vposure. The sub-soil is a yellowish calcareous layer, (er-
roneously railed clay) about ten feet deep, underlaid by the yellow lime-
stone called Buff, Galena, or Sunflower.

My orchards consist of a hundred trees set in eighteen si.\ty-one, seven
hundred in eighteen si.xty-tive, three hundred in eighteen sixty-six, and
two hundred subsequently. They are set twenty feet apart both ways,
and were from two to four years old when transplanted and embraced
over sixty varieties, and none but first-class trees were used. I fit my ground
for setting, with the plow, by throwing a dea^. furrow about four feet oii
each side of the place where the rows of trees are to stand. This leaves
a land eight feet wide. I then plow around this land throwing the soil
both ways from the center and go as often as necessary to make it about
sixteen to eighteen inches deep, the cut in width eight feet, finishing up
by filling up the center dead furrow where the trees are to stand, about ten
inches above the natural level. This method of plowing leaves the soil
nearly in its natural order with surface soil on the top and with sufiicient
depth of mellow earth for a root bed.

1 then witii a pole twenty feet long and two hands with me set the
outside rows around my plat in line and at proper distance. We throw
the dirt from the top of the ridge, so as to leave the bottom of the hole
about on the surface level; one man then brings a tree from where they
are heeled in, and with a sharp knife the ends of bruised roots are cut
oft" so as to leave a long slanting cut on the under side of the roots and
the ends of the root fibres are also cut off. The tree is then placed in
position, and being held firmly in place by one man, your humble serv-
ant then, on bended knee, with his hands fills in finely pulverized soil
among all the roots large and small, leaving them as near as possible in
their natural position, leaving no air holes. The hole is then filled about
tour inches above the place where the earth stood in the nursery, and light-
ly pressed. A wheel-barrow load of coarse manure is placed around each
tree, (but not against the body) laid about four inches deep and covered
with soil to prevent evaporation. Five hundred trees are a tair day's
work tor three men in this way; the mulching is done by others. This
being a very important point, and should not be omitted.

220 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

The pruning or shortening in maybe left until the growing season if
preferred. Great care should be used then in not allowing two branches
of nearly equal size to start out like your fuigcrs side by side, but
rather leave such as start like your ihi/mh, from the side. All side branches
should be removed so as ultimately to leave a straight single body four to
six feet high to give room to cultivate the ground and gather the fruit. All
small limbs should be removed from the inside of the tree, as it grows
from year to year, sufficiently to leave space for sun and air to mature
the fruit ; but I would never cut limbs of any size in the spring.

The trees may receive a thorough washing with soft soap and water
(half and half) the last of May and August, also a good coat of white-
wash at the beginning of winter (applied hot) to keep off rabbits. I
think the whitewash would be as useful as the soap and water for the
three washings and have experimented largely, and cannot say which is
the best, both having given good satisfaction, but 1 regard the one or
the other indispensable to the growing a first class-tree. Either should
be applied as high up into the branches as possible, and I have found a
common shoe-brush fastened to a handle about two feet long to be the
cheapest and most rapid implement to do the work with.

The ground under the trees should be kept mellow and thoroughly
clean and cultivated in sweet corn planted about the first to twelfth of
June.

In no case should the ground be seeded or allowed to run into grass
sod, nor should grain of any kind be sowed there.

The inevitable tendency of such treatment is to bring in bark-louse,
borers, etc., and induce want of care and watching which are indispens-
able to the successful orchardist.

The ground should be kept in good order, and sufficiently rich to
keep up vigorous growth when the trees are in bearing, by spreading
good yard manure in the fall and cultivating it in, the next summer.

My practice is to pile up the earth around the tree to a distance of
about three feet, some eight to ten inches deep, or if the soil needs man-
ure I pile that up — the object is to check the action of the frost, etc.
Late in the spring, say about the twentieth of May, this is removed and
a good thorough washing, as before spoken of, is applied.

WHAT VARIETIES SHALL WE PLANT.

This subject comes home with great force by the side of which such
questions as, who shall be our next President, or, is the Darwinian theory
correct, sink into insignificance.

1 have near fifty varieties under cultivation that have been recom-
mended by this State Horticultural Society, and if I were to commence
now to set a commercial orchard, I would not use over fifteen at most.

The Carolina Red June was so covered with scabs yearly that they
were worthless.

White Winter Pearmain, same and did not bear much.

Yellow Bellfioii.ier, no fruit.

ILLTXOTS Hf>RTiriTLTURAI. SOCIETY. 221

Northern Spy, same.

F.arly Hanrst, very poor hearer.

■ FalliX'watfr, water cure and worthless.

MoKoitk^ no fruit.

Sicect Pear^ scabby and rotted on the tree by r racking open.

Rotnan Strut, very ])oor bearer, good quality.

Earlx Prniwck, poor bearer, falls early and rots before maturity.

Fulton, no fruit.
. Winesap, same or very little.

fonathan, very moderate bearer.

Roxl'ury Ktissrt, same.

Gilpin, Sfiow^ and Keswick Codlings good bearers and satisfactory.

Red .4straclian, moderate bearer.

Willoii.' Twig, great bearer.

The above were my first settings of one hundred trees,and I have used
all means in my power to kill bark lice, but the chaps are there yet and w€re
when set.

All of the above, except the last seven named, have been top-grafted
with other varieties. My other orchards have been purchased from
other parties and are entirely free from bark-lice and in first-class order.

I have about si.xty trees, not of my own setting, that were bought
from the Rochester nurseries and they are very lousy.

And here I shall say without offering any apology that I would ad-
vise all men not to listen to the blarney of an eastern tree peddler under
an\- circumstances, and if we wish its counterpart we have it at a very
early day in the world's history in holy writ.

Were 1 lo make a list for my own grounds or for similar soil, I would
set from some of the following, some six or eight varieties.

FOR SUMMER AND FALL.

Keswick Codling, Red Astrachan,

Sops of Wine, (table) Duchess of Oldenburg.

Primate, (fine) Sweet June,

Jersey Sweet, Lowell,

Jeffries, Bailey Sweet,

Emersinr Sweet, JVestcrn Bfauty,
Svow, largely for fall and early winter.

WINTER.

Willow Twig, Gilpin,

Grimes Golden, jMinkler,

English Russet, Ben Davis,

Tallman Sweet, Moore's Sweet.

If for a family orchard would use more varieties than for market.
And here I wish to enter my protest against the name " Bailey Sweet."
Fiftv-five years ago one hundred trees of this variety under tlie name of
Chillicothe Sweet were brought from Cayuga county, \ew York, to the
town of Sainesville, Wyoming county, New York, by Thomas Price, and

099 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

set. They proved so valuable that cions were constantly being cut from
them and wildly disseminated for top-grafting, as most of our trees at
that time were seedlings. Subsequently when the Pittsford nurseries
were started, and still later when the Rochester nurseries were established.
they were sold very largely and were in almost every orchard in western
New York under that name.

About the year eighteen forty the Postmaster at Perry, Mr. C. P.
Bailey, and the Hon. Win. Patterson, then in Congress from that district
and neither of them knowing one apple from another by its name, re-
ceived Mr. Downing's circulars requesting them to forward valuable spec-
imens of fruit from their vicinity. Both of these gentlemen sent this
apple to Mr. Downing and hence the name " Bailey or Patterson Sweet."

I can name orchards in Western New York where this apple is now
growing under both names, the one on trees top-grafted by myself years
ago and the other on trees from the local nurseries.

My orchards are all planted and each variety set in squares as com-
pactly as possible, and space is left on the plats for interlining and such
notes as "Left to grass at such time," "Pruned May, Oct., Feb.," or as
the case may be, " Soap-washed May twentieth eighteen sixty-eight and
eighteen sixty-nine" etc., "Whitewashed August fifteenth, eighteen sev-
enty," " Borer found," " Five bushels apples eighteen seventy-one," etc.,
are often found thereon.

These observations enable me to find the results of my experiments
and treatment generally and to profit thereby, and it is from these obser-
vations that I have come to the conclusions herein embraced.

To recapitulate, let me say in order to succeed in the orchard, we
must have first-class western-grown stock, thoroughly prepared and
suitable ground, well set and thoroughly cultivated trees with careful
watching and washing, and never allow grass to take the place of mel-
low soil.

T think as a society we should not recommend any variety, but if we
do we should also insist on some system of cultivation and the kind of
soil to place it in, and in all of our discussion of varieties it should be a
point to state these things in full. M. B. Spafford.

A discussion followed, lasting fully an hour, in which the principal
theme handled was the destructive habits of rabbits and the best reme-
dies to be adopted in preventing their ravages.

The President called the attention to the differences of opinion
existing in regard to different varieties of apples, and gave as his own
observation that certain varieties were different in their bearing qualities
in different localities.

Adjourned till Wednesday m.orning. nine o'clock.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 223

WEDNESDAY,

January twenty-second. Meeting called to order by the President.
Prayer by S. G. Minkler.

The following Communication from Dr. J. A. Warder was read.

Cleveland, O., January 20th. 1873.
Lewis Ellsworth, Esq.,

President Nor. III. Horticultural Society.
My Dear Friend :
T cannot tell you how highly I felt flattered by your kind and press-
ing invitation to be with you at the coming festival of good feelings
which I am sure you will have at Freeport. And oh, how I should have
enjoyed meeting so many of my good friends who will be there. I beg
you to present me lovingly to them, and assure them that though past
the grand climacteric of human life, and already feeling the weight of
years, I knew that a few days in their midst would have rejuvenated
me very much. Alas I it cannot be, and my disappointment is great.
I send herewith some notes of the past year on new and little known
varieties of apples, which will hardly do to read, but may, if referred to
a committee, be considered worthy of a place on the record if only for
reference. Several are named only to be avoided.

Please assure my good friends, many of whom I trust have been
seeking a better country, that it is my earnest desire, should we never
be favored to meet again in this world, we may have the joy of mingling
our praises m the realms of eternal bliss in a future state of existence.
I regret much not to hear yo\ir timber talks. *

Your friend,

Warder.

Tn m\ friends of the Northern Illinois Horticultural Society.

Next to meeting with you, as I had hoped to have done, I sh.ill
take pleasure in the thought that my presence was desired, and that 1
ran thus address you on paper.

I pro])Ose to present a sketch of mv notes of the season, upon some
of the new and little kncnvn varieties of apples that have come under
mv obser\ ition. They will be arranged alphabetically.

Abram — or Father Abraham — an old Virginia apple, but still little
known. I first saw it in Hlooinington, III. The great merit of this
variety consists in its keeping (jualities; it retains its good qualities until
midsummer of the next year. Tree upright, thrifty, liranrhing, twiggy,
productive, holds its leaves late. Fruit medium, globular, of a dull
grayish red, striped; sub-acid, rich; keeps good till July.

Auf^ustine — received from Virginia. This is one of the Fall Queen
family, of which there are several in the catalogues benring a strong
family resemblance, and yet somewhat different. I may name Buck-

224 TRAX^ArTinxs OF THF NORTTTFRN

ingham, Superb, Frankfort Queen, Fall Queen, Levett's, Equineteley.
Red Cathead of Va. and perhaps others.

The tree of Augustine is upright, moderately thrifty, productive.
Fruit large to very large, conic-oblate, bright rich red, stripes lost, very
handsome. Flesh yellow, tender, sub-acid, juicy, very good for dessert
and kitchen and for drying. September and October, rarely until De-
cember.

Bkdsoe^-K.entucky. Tree upright and spreading. Fruit medium
to large, oblong, green to white. Flesh very tender, fine-grained, juicy,
sub-acid— ^much like Ortley.

Boiiian — North Carolina or Virginia. Tree of medium growth,
thrifty, productive. Fruit medium, oblate, deep rich red, obscuring the
stripes. Flesh breaking, yellow, tender, sub-acid, rich, fine for dessert.
Well known and highly esteemed by Mr. Robey and others in the
South.

Bowling Sweet — Tree of moderate growth, very productive. Fruit
small, globular, red, striped. Flesh firm, very sweet, of little value for
market, but may prove useful for stock feeding. Season, early winter.

Carter — of Virginia. Tree of medium growth, spreading, very pro-
ductive. Fruit medium, conic, purplish red, striped faintly. Flesh very
tender, juicy, mild sub-acid good. Midwinter.

Center s — North Carolina. Tree thrifty, spreading, very pro-
ductive. Fruit medium, conic, regular, white. Flesh tender, acid,
juicy, September. The color and season are against and for profit.

Cheese — Virginia. Tree thrifty, spreading, productive, bears all
over. Fruit medium, conic, dull red, striped. Flesh sound, very
tender, juicy, sub-acid, good. Midwinter — a useful sort, and standard
variety where known.

Ch^esialee — southern. Tree twiggy, brushy, rather spreading, a slow
bearer. Fruit medium, globular, white, sub-acid, not very promising :
early winter.

Congress — Pennsylvania. Tree thrifty, spreading, productive.
Fruit very large, rather oblate, dull red, striped. Flesh rather coarse,
sub-acid, good : promising for market ; early winter.

Cracking — Eastern Ohio. This fine fruit is little known. Tree
spreading, productive, but appears shortlived. Fruit medium and large,
globular oblate, waxen yellow, beautifully marked with carmine spots
and occasionally blushed rich lake. Flesh yellow, cracking, tender,
juicy, sub-acid, rich, very good. October and December.

Cullasaga — new, southern. Tree spreading, thrifty, ]iroductive.
Fruit firm, juicy, sub- acid. Winter, should be picked early.

Culp — Eastern Ohio, little known. Tree upright, thrifty, product-
ive. Fruit very large, globular to conic, greenish white, rarely blushed.
Flesh tender, mild sub-acid, good — October.

Degruchy — southern. — Tree very thrifty, spreading, promises to be
large. Fruit large, greenish. Flesh acid, rather coarse, winter.
Strongly resembles Ohio Pippin. Probable the same.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 225

Ems Winter S'Vfet — southern. Tree of moderate growth, spread-
ing, productive. Fruit full medium, conic, green to yellow russeted ;
coarse, but very sweet — poor, late winter.

Farley Red — eastern Indiana. Tree upright, thrifty, rather slow,
but very productive when older. F"ruit medium to small, regular ol)-
long orchard shaped, truncate, midwinter — valuable for market.

Ferdinand — from H. Robey, Virginia. Tree large, spreading, vcrv
thrifty, slow bearer. Fruit medium to large, wliite, somewhat russeted,
acid ; rather promising — winter.

Garden — southern. Tree of medium size, early productive. Fruit
small, globular, dull red, striped, flesh dry but rich, early winter. Of
little value and here named on that account.

Griffith — syn. Claybank and Sweet Maiden's Blush. AVestern Ohio
from seed brought from North Carolina. Tree spreading, thrifty. Fruit
medium to large, oblate, regular in form, and ground color closelv re-
sembles Maiden's Blush, white, ornamented with carmine sjjots. Flesh
very delicate, tender, crisp, juicy mild sub-acid, aromatic. This is one
of the very best and most delicious dessert apples of its season. With
Spice of N. Y. following Jefferies, preceding De Watson and Bonam. w^
have five of the finest amateur apples of their season extending from
August to November.

Green Crank — syn. Yellow Crank, whioh see.

Hall — Hall's Seedling, Hall's Red — from North Carolina, where
it is much esteemed. Tree a moderate grower, ujjright, twiggy, pro-
ducti\e. Fruit cpiite small, globular, red, striped, sub-acid, juicy, aro-
matic, kept, well, good, but too small for market, fine for dessert, mav
f)rove valuable for cider. T may mention thai a lot of this fruit was sent
to me from the orchard of a Mr. Hall in the southeastern part of Illinois,
as a seedling with the local name of the owner.

Hamilton — southern. Not that described in Journal of Horticulture,
February, eighteen hundred and sixty eight, and in the Horticultural
Annual of the same vear.

Tree close branching, upright, twiggy, not early produitive; Fruil
large, globular, regular, smooth, tleep purplish red, stripes indistinct,
dots with fawn color. I'lesh yellow, tenikr, juicy, sub-acid, spicy,
very good. Enrl\ winter — verj' ])romising.

/fo/ladav — Virginia. Tree thrifty, ui)riglu, bears on the ends, no
productive when yining. h'ruil ol)late, regular, green, bronzed. Fate
winter.

///inter — i'cnnsylvania. Tree ihrifly, spreading, produt five when
old enough. I^'ruit large, globidar. regular, white or waxen yellow,
blushed, acid, juicy — September, October. Promising for market.

//nntsnitin's /•(/;v'/ ///■-- Missouri, found in the ore hard of |olin Hunts-
man, Johnson county, prtnluced from seeds iiroughtfrom South Carolina.
Introduced to notice and largely planted by Blair Brothers of Lees
Summit nurseries. Tree large, hardy and of rajiid growth, upright when
young. Fruit large, globular-oblate, slightlv irregular, smooth, bright

16

226 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

yellow, sometimes bronzy. Flesh light yellow, breaking, tender, juicy,
sub-acid, aromatic. Showy and very good. Midwinter.

Indian IVintcr — southern. Tree spreading, twiggy. Fruit oblate,
somewhat russet, faintly striped red. This is a long keeper and closely
resembles the American Pippin or Grindstone ; to be further tested.

Illinois Greenin;^ — Tree vigorous, spreading, productive, an early
bearer. Fruit large, globular, truncate, rarely blushed on yellow-green.
Flesh breaking, juicy, acid, good. Midwinter.

Indiana Favorite — By no means new, but confined to a limited area,
and unknown beyond. Tree vigorous, spreading, productive, and nearly
perfect as a vegetable. Fruit full medium, oblate, regular, smooth,
bright red on yellow, stripes indistinct. Flesh fine-grained, firm, break-
ing, juicy, mild sub-acid, rich.

Julienne — southern. Tree small, spreading. Fruit medium, conic,
bright red, striped. August. Not so good as was expected, but will
not be condemned until further trial.

Jackmans Sivecl — Pennsvlvania. Tree medium, spreading, pro-
ductive. Fruit large, globular or oblate, regular, greenish yellow, faintly
striped, pale red. Flesh firm, very rich sweet. Winter.

Ky. Streak — ^southern. Tree upright, open, productive. Fruit
medium, conic-oblong, striped light red on yellow. Flesh whitish, juicy
acid. Winter.

laurens Greening — southern. Tree medium, twiggy, not early pro-
ductive. Fruit medium, oblate, dull green to yellow. . Flesh white, acid,
^A inter.

longstem of Kentucky. Tree spreading, thrifty, productive, bears
equally over the top. Fruit large, oblate, smooth, handsomely striped
and splashed on yellow. Flesh breaking, yellow, juicy, sub-acid, well
flavored, early winter. Very promising, and in the market will go for
Northern Spy.

Major — from the South, referred to Pennsylvania. Tree thrifty,
spreading, productive. Fruit large, globular-conic, striped light red.
Flesh rather coarse. Closely resembles Pennock.

Manguni — Alabama, not at all like Cheese or Castor. (Vide Down-
ing.) Tree large, spreading, not early productive. Fruit full medium
to large, oblate, dull red, stripes^iearly lost. •

MarshalFs Sweet Favorite — Ohio. Tree upright, very productive.
Fruit only medium, striped bright red. Flesh firm, very sweet, early
winter. May prove v:iluable for cider and for stock.

Maverack Sweet — South Carolina. 'I'rec upright, open, thrifty.
Fruit full medium, conic-oblate, deeji red, stripes lost. Sweet, late
winter.

McDaniel — Premium seedling of Ohio State Fair eighteen hundred
and fifty, from Oreen C'ounty, O. I'rer tlirifty, spreading, open, not
early productive. PVuit large, globuhir-obkite, mixed light red on
yellow, stripes indistinct. Flesh yellow, sub-acid, rich ; autumn. Does
not come uj) to the high expectations entertained for it by the awarding
committee.

ILLIXOrS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 907

Afonk's Favorite — Indiana, introduced by Dr. J- C. Helene of the
State Board of Agriculture, described in Western Horticultural Review
for eighteen hundred and fifty. Tree thrifty, spreading. Fruit large,
conical to globular, with dark red stripes nearly meeting. Flesh coarse ;
unpromising.

^f classes S2oeet — Tree spreading, very productive. Fruit medium
to large, conic, regular, white or greenish white. Flesh tough, very
sweet, valuable chiefly for stock and cider. Early winter.

Morton — origin unknown beyond Clermont County, O. Tree
thrifty, large, spreading, productive. Fruit large, round, smooth, green
to yellow, with bronzy blush. Flesh white, tender, juicy, rather sweet,
refreshing, midwinter, promising.

Mote's S'lOeet — Miami County, O. Tree round, spreading, vigorous.
Fruit large, globular, somewhat flattened, angular, smooth, whitish yellow,
rarely blushed. Flesh yellow, fine-grained, melting, juicy, very sweet.
October, one of the most delicious sweet apples.

The twin sister named Celestia was again tested the past season and
maintains its high character as a dessert fruit.

Mote's Seedling i8j2 — same source. This fruit was first seen by
me this season. Fruit globular, uneven, smooth, _ waxy yellow. Flesh
tender yellow, juicy, sub-acid, rich, agreeable. November, very promis-
ing.

A'^orthfifld Bcaiitv Crali — Vermont, from seeds of yellow Sil;)eri;in.
Fruit medium to large, globular, conic, very smooth, mixed and striped
scarlet on waxy yellow. Flesh yellow, breaking, tender, juicy, acid,
crab-flavored. September, October. Shown at Cincinnati Exposition
nnd admitted to be the largest Siberian ever seen.

Nickajack — North Carolina. This old southern favorite, well known
in Southern Illinois is here introduced not as a novelty, but because,
like charity it has to cover a nuiltitude of sins, in the nomenclature of
nurserymen. The past season has enabled me to test the following
named varieties, all of which bore Nickajack apples : Berry, Buff, Gully,
Holly. Matanuiskeet, nnd Wall. This apple is a great favorite in the
Soutli, where the need of a pomological school for consultation is shown
by the extended synonymy of the variety which has twenty seven n;imes I

The tree is \igorous, upright and spreading, with open top, reaching
magnificent proportions, and vielding enormous cro])s. The (|ualit\' of
the fruit is indifferent, but as it kec|)s well, is largo and showy, orchartl-
ists find it very profitable.

Osceola — Indiana. Described by H. Ward Beecher when editing
the Western Cardener at Indianapolis. It is however little known as
yet. Tree thrifty, spreading, produc live. Fruit full medium to large,
globular, somewhat angular, dull red, indistinctly striped. Klesh yellow,
juicy, sub-acid, good January to March.

Phillips Sweet — Ohio. Tree vigorous, of beautil'ully regular conic
form, productive. Fruit large, very handsome, conic, truncated, regular,
striped bright red. Flesh white, breaking, juicy, sweet. October, very
valuable.

228 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

Pijie Strawberry — southern. Tree vigorous, upright, not very pro-
ductive, when young. Fruit nnedium, globular-conic, striped light red on
pale yellow. Flesh yellow, breaking, sub-acid, not very good, and for
that reason brought forward, as it has been praised.

Pres. Ewins^ — Kentucky. Trees vigorous, thrifty, spreading, early
productive. Fruit medium, oblate, regular, smooth, red mixed and
striped on yellow. Flesh yellow, fine-grained, juicy, rich, sub-acid,
good to very good. Midwinter, promising.

Raritan Sweet — New Jersey, rarely seen out of Ohio. Tree very
thrifty, upright, not very early productive. Fruit large, oblate, regular,
white, very sweet, honeyed. October.

Red-Ox — Pennsylvania. Frees from Kentucky, brushy, tAviggy and
mean looking, not early productive. Fruit large, conic, dark red on
green, to yellow. Winter, very unpromising.

Red Sweet Spice — Ohio. Tree spreading, productive. Fruit me-
dium, oblate, dull red, striped. Flesh tender, sweet, aromatic, rich.
September and October, not valuable.

Repub'ican — Tree very thrifty, spreading, large, not early productive.
Fruit full medium, oblate, striped on yellow.

Is this Republican Pippin of Pennsylvania'

Roberson /?^//— Brought from Kentucky. Tree thrifty, upright.
open. Fruit globular, distinctly striped red on yellow Flesh sub-acid,
pretty good, winter. Not yet productive, planted twelve years.

Roberson White — from same source. Tree upright, thrifty, not early
productive. Fruit medium, roundish, smooth, yellow. Flesh ^sub-acid.
October to December, not very promising.

Sheep nose— [o'i Mears) from Clermont County. Ohio. This is an
unfortunate name. Tree upright, open, thrifty, rather productive.
Fruit small to medium, oblong, truncate, irregular, pale green to yellow.
Flesh yellowish, breaking, juicy, rich, mild sub-acid; midwinter. Qual-
ity like white winter Pearmain. Dont scab.

Sillix — Pennsylvania. Tree upright, very productive. Fruit me-
dium, oblong-conic, truncated. Flesh very yellow, breaking, juicy, very
rich, sweet, October. Valuable for stock and for apple butter, and good
to eat.

.V/^ct/t/n— Georgia. This somewhat famous southern apple has be-
gun to attract attention north of the Ohio river. Tree a moderate
grower, very upright, j)roductive. Fruit medium to small, globular
ovate, very smooth, bright red or scarlet, striped, very handsome, a long
keeper, little better than Gili)in, but will take the market in spring time.

Smoky T^c'ii; — Kentucky. Tree branching, medium growth, very
productive. Fruit medium, globular, truncate, dull red ; a keeper, not
attractive but may prove valuable.

Spiee — (of New York.) Upright. Fruit globular to oblong, medium
to large, smooth, clear white, very tender. Flesh delicate, fine-grained,
juicy, sub-acid, aromatic, very good for table use, best, September, unfit
for market.

ILIJNOIS HORTICULTITRAL SOCIETY. 2*29

Strofnsons li'ifttfr — southern. Tree mediuin, spreading, pro-
ductive. Fruit medium, roundish, striped red on greenish yellow ; sub-
acid, good January to April.

Stribling — southern. Tree small, spreading. Fruit medium, conic,
very deep red, strii)ed. Mesh dry. acid. August and September, not
desirable.

Su't't't I'andervere — Ohio or Pennsylvania.' Tree spreading very
twiggy, thrifty, not early productive. Fruit medium to large, oblate,
dull red with indistinct strijjcs. Flesh yellow, firm, very rich sweet.
Winter.

Taunton — southern Tree upright, thrifty, open, productive. Fruit
large, globular-oblate, bright red on yellow, faintly striped. Flesh
breaking, rather dry, acid. October, not i)romising.

Tanner s No. i — western Kenlu( k\ . Tree thrifty, upright, rather
firoductive. Fruit medium, oblate to conic, dull russety red. Flesh
firm, acid, keeps well, coarse, not very promising.

Turner Green — Ohio.' Tree small, twiggy. Fruit medium, oblate,
regular green, acid not fully tested.

Trenton Pippin — origin unknown. 'I'ree large, very thrifty, slow to
bear. Fruit medium, conic, green.

Vaui^hans Winter— aonthern. Tree of medium growth, productive ;
Fruit medium, globular-flattened, striped light red on yellow ; keeps
well, not very promising m appearance.

ll'aiker's Pippin — Tree from the South, twiggy, of medium growth,
productive. Fruit medium, globular, flattened or truncate, rich yellow.
Fle^^h deep yellow, breaking, juicy, acid. December, very like Newark
Pippin.

IVaugh's Crab — southern. A sub-variety of Hewes' Crab. Tree
less thorny, early productive. Fruit small, promises to be equally valu-
able for cider.

Whitney Russet — origin unknown. Trees from your well known A.
R. Whitney, of Lee county, Illinois. Branching, rather open. Fruit
oblate, angular, dull grey russet. Flesh greenish white, very finegrained,
juicy, pleasant sub-acid, one of the best. December.

Willoui — Trees from Kentucky. Thrifty, upright, round-headed,
quite different from Willow-Twig, not early ])roductivc. Fruit meciium,
globular, white, acid, early winter, not very promising and may be a
misnomer.

Wonder — not Nickajack — southern. Tree vigorous, upright, open
not early productive. Fruit large, globular, dark red, handsome winter,
rather promising.

Yelloio Crank — rather Cireen Crank, southern. Tree medium,
twiggy, not yet productive. Fruit mtvlium to large, oblate, green to
yellow, acid, good, midsviiuer.

Zoar Greening — Ohio. Tree upright, thrifty, with deep green
foliage, leaves large and persistent. Fruit large to very large, globular
to oblong, green to white, rarely blushed ; acid — October, November,
promising for market.

230 TRANSACTtOXS OF THE NORTHERN

The President called for reports from the standing committees, but
as many of the members were late in coming to meeting, it was found
impossible to take up the subjects in their regular order.

Mr. Grove Wright, of Rock Falls, gave an account of a series of experi-
ments to demonstrate the influence of atmospheric electricity on vegetable
growth. He held that the only effect of the passage of a current of
electricity through any subject was decomposition. The passage of a
current through the earth in the vicinity of the roots of plants would
cause decomposition of some substances in the soil, and such a reorga-
nization as would furnish plants food which did not exist there before.
Mr. Wright has a theory of electricity, which he partially explained, and
which, if true, would show that there is a daily and constant flow of
electrical currents from the poles to the equator, which must produce a
disintegration and decomposition of soils very beneficial to plant growth.
The experiments given by Prof. Henry in the patent office reports for
1859- — '60 Avere cited to show that there is an atmosphere of electricity
surrounding the earth which is more dense near the surface, and rare in
the higher regions ; and all the phenomena of electricity are accounted
for from the disturbance of this atmosphere, and its tendency to an equi-
librium. There is, according to our physical geographers, a current of
air constantly rising at the equator, flowing to the poles, and returning
to the equatorial regions near the surface of the earth. This current
would carry up with it electricity of the density at the surface of the
earth ; because the air is a non-conductor this electricity would be carried
to the poles, and as it approached the earth it would be drawn from the
air to the attraction of the earth and produce a slow discharge which
would account for the Aurora Polaris. This electricity which is thus
constantly flowing to the earth at the poles would pass through the earth
to the equator, to supply the deficiency which is occasioned by the rising
of heated air at that place. The passage of such a current of electricity
■under the magnetic needle would cause a variation of the north pole to
the west in the northern hemisphere, and to the east in the southern
hemisphere, at the time of its passage. This passage of the current on
any meridian would be between 8 o'clock a. m. and 3 p. m. for the
reason that the heated air is then rising at the equator, and the electric-
ity would flow toward that point to supply the deficiency. Now, the
fact is admitted that between 8 a. m. and 3 p. m the magnetic needle
is deflected to the west, north of the equator, and to the east, south of
the equator, from one to fifteen minutes. Such a perfect agreement of

TIJJNOIS IIOUTtCtlLTUkAL SOClETV. 231

theory with facts cannot be accidcntal,but must be admitted as evidence
of the correctness of the theory. Each one can judge for himself of the
effect of such a current of electricity upon vegetable growth by its disin-
tegration and decomposition of soils. i\Ir. Wright claims that if this
theory of an electrical atmosphere is correct, it will change the whole
course of study in this department of science, and result in such pro-
gress as will soon leave no mysteries unexplained. The explanations of
thunder-storms and tornadoes, according to this theory, are so simple
that any schoolboy could understand them.

The President said, in regard to the experiments of promoting the
growth of plants by passing currents of clectricit)' through the soil at the
roots, he had tried them and found them to be a humbug. He advised
no one to try it, for it would be only labor and money wasted.

Mr. Bliss advanced some old fashioned theories of electricity for
the purpose, as he said, of draw ing out Mr. Wright's ideas. Mr. ^^'right,
however, seemed to think that the old theories and his new one would
not reconcile, and so he let the discussion drop.

Mr. H. H. McAfee read the following Essay on Botany and Vege-
table Physiology.

1 am most happy to be enabled to report a marked and material
progress in the educational system of our State. A point aimed at, and
hoped for, by the best men of our State for years, has been reached, and
we have the Natural Sciences in our schools. Concrete ideas will now
have an opportunity to strengthen and stimulate the developing minds
of our little men and little women, where before they were paralyzed and
benumbed by the abstract ideas forced upon them before their time.
If there is any one thing which the observing teacher sees more than
another, it is that the young, undeveloped mind i.*? frequently driven in-
to a disgust with education, by being fed upon abstractions solely.
Tne course of our schools, from monkish limes down to our day, has
been marked by the wrecks of intellects, which came into the world rich
in possibilities if rationally developed, hungering for facts about things,
and yet starved by premature attempts at ratiocination, theses, and reflec-
tive deductions, entirely unsuited to their time of life and powers of
mind. While the best reasoners in the world have all along maintained
that the elements of knowledge must come from things, and that the
exercise of reasoning powers must follow perception and obser\ation,
we have been asking pupils to reflect, to judge, to weigh ; in fine, to per-
form the operations of the mature intellect from the very beginning, in-
stead of first teaching them observation, and letting the i)ercepti\e
faculties act as a stimulus and support to the reflective faculties. What
vvonder that our schools are filled with children who were once briglit
babies, but are now either tolerable, or actually dull youths. It is, then,

232 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

a matter for congratulation, that our l>egislature has bet-n brought to
make tlie teacher's qualifications embrace the rudiments of the natural
sciences; and it is a further subject of congratulation, that the teachers
generally have shown such commendable diligence in fitting themselveri
for this branch of their duties. At no time, since we have had a school
system, have the teachers studied so much as they have since last winter.
A whole army of men and women have advanced to a higher educational
position in the past year, and in qualifying themselves to discharge
their new duties, very many have learned what they did not really
know before: that is, how really natural the natural sciences are; how
pleasant their acquirement is, and what an excellent mental discipline
they are; and, by contrast, how ci'/'-////V/d;/ the abstract sciences are. The
formidable plea entered in favor of classical education, which has, time
out ol" mind, been applied as a bar to the progress of the natural system
of' education, is that the classics, belles-lettres, higher mathematics, men-
tal science (so-called,) are such excellent "mental discipline."

That plea is but a sham and fraud. A mental discipline for what }
Teach a man to ignore and despise the present, that he may respect,
deify the past; to turn from living, developing, magnificent nature, to
embrace and love the dead, artificial past, even canonizing its sins as
more to be revered than modern virtue; to educate a man wrong side
to, and even wrong end up, so that his only ideas of progress are to ape
what some dead man was, or has done ; to cramp the intellect as the
Chinese cramp and dwarf their children's feet. That is what is called
"mental discipline," and from the which, "Good Lord, deliver us."

We have seen centuries of such kind of discipline, and the progress
of these centuries has all been achieved in opposition to its spirit, and
generally in opposition to the clamors, scoffs, and jeers of its devotees.
The people have been in advance of the schools in sentiment, if not
in attainment ; and the world has progressed, for that reason alone.
The "mental discipline" of abstract education is multiplying law-
yers, doctors, professors, and gentlemen (so-called), who love their
dignity and their emoluments, but who are seldom willing to adopt
an idea, except it has had the sanction of some half-heathen of old
times. The new education, which is now soon to take the place of
the old, which, every sign indicates, is fast passing away, proceeds
upon the principle that the knowledge most useful is that most
fitted to be imparted, making utility the first condition. " What shall I
learn first V is answered by, " That which is the most useful to know."
And the most useful knowledge for the youngest scholar is a knowledge
of things, not thoughts. Cultivate the perceptive intellect, and the reflec-
tive intellect will naturally keep pace and grow with it; and the mind
will be disciplined just as God meant it to be, when He made the babe
and the youth the earnest inquirers they are.

" But is this a report upon Botany and Vegetable Physiology ? " say
you. As the greater includes the less in abstract philosophy, so the nat-
ural sciences include botany, and thus we have botany in our common

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

23 H

schools. And of what use is botany to ihc nuilliliulc, uho must ol" ne-
cessity he content with a common-school education alone ? [s this sci-
ence to help the toilers earn bread, or the business m;in conduct trade,
or the manufacturer build, fashion, and construct ?

I'hese questions are asked often, and more, they are generally asked in
way that a shows that the inquirer is sure a negative must be given. And vet
this science has an immense bearing upon every material interest in the
world. Not only does the daily bread of man all come, directly or indi-
rectly, from the physiological action of the plant, but all his comforts, all
his luxuries, even his health and his very existence, alike depend upon
vegetable physiology. (.)ur interest in vegetable life need not stop at
the point that vegetable substances are food of man or food of animals,
which, in turn, are food for man ; nor with the point that vegetation,
directly or indirectly, houses and clothes us ; nor with the point that
vegetation constructs the hydrocarbons which, in their combustion, fur-
nish the force to do the wonderful works necessary among civilized peo-
ples. No, we may go a stej) further, and find that the trees, the grasses,
and every herb of the lields act upon the atmosphere and the earth, they
are making climate and building up soil ; from the lichen, which helps
the water and the atmosphere to crumble the rocks to earth, to the
great tree, which is a reser\oir of moisture tor the parched air to draw
upon, while it retards excessive evaporation form the earth beneath,
which is at one time a source of supply of electricity, and at another a
silent, safe conductor from the surcharged clouds, every pLuit has its
meteorological influence, immeasurably small perhaps, yet definite and
certain. Nations prosper or suffer respectively, just as questions of veg-
etable physiology turn out in their favor or against them. The potato,
which has an influence impossible to measure, in cheapening living, and
consequently labor, is a notable instance of how great an influence one
plant may have upon the welfare and happiness of many peoples. And
cotton, corn, and sugar-cane are like examples of great plant interests.

A general potato rot means starvation in Europe. And a general
failure of the corn crop would soon mean poverty and bankruptcy here.

The waste of timber means barrenness to any country. Unhappy
Persia sees it in her lamine; and our worse drouths and worse storms
are only the terrible forecast of what we are drifting toward, because of
the same sin against nature's economy.

Then, can any one say that a knowledge of plants, their action on
earth and air, their uses, their peculiarities, beauties, is a non-essential
in a utilitarian education .''

There are some hundreds less springs in this county (Stephenson)
alone than there were twenty years ago, and wells have to be deepened
every few years. This state of things is largely owing to forest denu-
dation : not here only, but everywhere over the country.

Thus you see that the processes of vegetable life are intensely inter-
esting, if we properly view the subject. And this subject is naturally
connected with the rest of the natural sciences; with chemistry, through

234 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

the combinations and reactions of organic products; with geology,
through the fossil remains and the mineralized hydrocarbons; with
zoology, through the aliment and habitat of animals ; with meteorol-
gy, througli the influence of vegetation upon the climate, and so on. To
only one class of people can 1 conceive that botany and vegetable
physiology would not naturally be interesting and profitable, if well un-
derstood ; and that is the class which is educated in the manner re-
ferred to above, so that their sympathies, their respect, their whole mind
is fitted to the classical mould. They can have no use for botany ; it
is too modern. Homer did not sing of it, and his song of how a licen-
tious prince set a lot of half-heathen by the ears, is vastly more interest-
ing to them than is the question of how best to supplv the nitrogen to
growing crops.

But while we congratulate ourselves upon the thought that wc have
been making such substantial progress in legalizing botany in the com-
mon schools, we must reflect that there is a great probability that the
botany about to be taught comes very far short of being the most useful
part of the science. As text-books are now arranged, we shall have
plenty of old Greek and Latin names, and a multitude of absurd tech-
nicalities in the same languages. Things which may be better described
with simple English words are badly described in Latin, and while de-
scriptive and systematic botany receive the greatest attention, the phys-
iology of the plant is too much ignored.

The study of plants, so as to be able to classify them and ascertain
their names, is but A B C of botany ; beyond that is the knowledge
of how they grow, how they live, what they produce in life and in death,
and how they pi'oduce it, their diseases and their parasites.

Botany, as usually taught, is extremely superficial ; as it should be ,
it is as deep as the life principle itself. There is a great, good work be-
fore some one — and 1, for one, would be glad to see it done — and that
is to compile a botany wliich would throw overboard the whole mass of
rubbish in the way of technicalities, use English in descriptions, and tell
what is known of vegetable physiology. It will be no light work to
compile such a book ; but it is a work much needed, and which should
yield a profit to the author.

No thorough classical scholar can make such a book ; he need not
try, for the first thing he knows he will be copying the egotism of some
of his musty favorites, and making the science instead of rendering it.
As a sample of the natural science of a classical scholar, 1 saw within
the year past a professor in a prominent institution, and by the way, the
author of a work on botany, make a drawing of a grape-vine, and place
the tendril in the axil of a leaf. And the same high authority declared
that a}l plants have roots, stems, and leaves, when there are plants which
are either rootless, or leafless, b) the thousand. You see he was snaking
his science — that was all.

But the great want in Botany is to have unore to teach. The sci-
ence, like all natural sciences, is cumulative ; it is growing, and not yet

ILLINOIS HORtlCULTURAf. SO(*IETV. 235

complete, and never will be. There is, then, ;is much need of investi-
gations to demonslrale new facts, as that known facts be taught. We
never should be satisfied to know so little as we do about botany. So
it is our bounden duty to make use of the best means in our power to
build up the science. And what is the best means.' The patient, care-
ful investigations of such men as are naturally and by the taste fitted to
study, and seek out new facts. If such men can and will, for the love
of science, carry on the w ork, very well ; but if the work is not done by
amateurs, then the expense should be borne by all, as the knowledge will
be for the benefit of all.

At present, there is no system which has worked so well for the ad-
vancement of specific knowledge as the experiment stations of Europe ;
and, in my opinion, the tiirn- is ri|)(' when the same thing should be.
attem])ted here. '

The great universities which the national benefaction has built up
seem to be, for several reasons, not the places where this work can best
be done ; and what we need for this work is not a school first, and a few
field experiments incidentally, but the experiments first and as the prin-
cipal matter, and then students to observe the progress of the experi-
ments as an incidental consideration. How much there is in relation to
plant growth that we need to know, it is hardly necessary to indicate to
a horticultural society. The whole subject of plant-breeding, or intel-
ligent control of offspring of plants, offers a magnificent field — a field as
yet hardly touched, except by amateur observers.

In your 'IVansactions of former years, as well as in the Transactions
of the State Horticultural Society, and also the State Horticultural Soci-
ety of Wisconsin, 1 have endeavored to draw attention to some of the im-
portant and generally neglected questions in vegetable physiology, which
are yet only suggestions to the inquirer, and which need and deserve
investigation. The horticulturist is shamed by the greater progress made
in the art of breeding by the stock-raiser. He has, by intelligent selec-
tion, bred the horns nearly off his i)iirhams, while he has furnished them
with a better digestive apparatus, and a carcass containing the minimum
of waste, lie has bred the nftse nearly off the ])ig, and made him a i)i'r-
fect laboratory for the i^roduction of the hydrocarbons. He has called
into being the wonderful divergence of forms in the pigeon, dog, and
sheep. And all this has been done with design, intentionally. But what
have we done in the way of breeding.' Not very much, we must ac-
knowledge.

True, friend Peffer, of Pewaukee, Wis., has proven some things, and
he seems to have reason to believe that his experiments have taught him
how to secure definite results at will. For instance, he has provecJ tiial
by raising five generations of peaches, the parents of which were subject-
ed to the vicissitudes of Wisconsin winters, the hardiness, power of resis-.
tance has increased, so that it takes many degrees lower of the thermom-
eter to kill his fruit buds than sufficed to destroy those of the first
generations. He claims, further to have learned the nature of the char-
acters implanted by the respective parents in cross-breeding.

236 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

But the little light afforded l)y the experiments of such men as he
only serves to give greater relief to the darkness which envelops us,
and the more we know of their success, the more we wish to learn.

Then, again, the whole subject of plant nutrition is far from defin-
itely settled as yet. Does the plant get its nitrogen from ammonia or
nitric acid — who can tell? But 1 forbear. It would be no great trouble
to indicate several hundred points of inquiry, all of vast pecuniary im-
portance, the correct knowledge upon which would be worth millions of
dollars in the aggregate, and the inquiries and experiments upon them
will take years of patient study and care to demonstrate correct solutions.

Private amateur effort i'^ not equal to the task. Shall we have the
experiment stations .'*

Will the Northern Illinois Horticultural Society lend its influence
to hasten their establishment .'

Mr. McAfee having obtained permission to exhibit the result of
some experiments with corn, said :

I have here samples of corn which have all sprung from one kind,
namely, a pure white eight-rowed dwarfish corn which I have raised now
for three years, and have been very careful to plant only white grains,
though each year some colored grains 7voiild appear in the product. In
eighteen seventy-one a manifest sport appeared, that is a stalk which was
deep reddish purple, grains, cob, husks, stem, leaves, and even the-
pith, being strongly colored. In eighteen seventy-two I planted a square
plat with these purple grains all from the same ear, and at the same time
planted another square Avith the rose colored grains picked out of mixed
ears. I wished to ascertain whether sports such as this one purple stalk
undoubtedly was, would entirely revert to the original type or not.

When ripe, I found about one-sixth of the ears of the purple plat
just like their immediate parent, that is purple throughout the plant ;
and the rest were all shades from pure white to the deepest purple, but
there was no mixture i/pon any ear, each ear was in florists language a " self. "
The plat planted with rose colored grains picked out of mixed ears,
produced mixed ears, every one of them, and though in some of them the
rose color predominated, there was not a " self " colored ear in the
square. Here then I think I have learned this principle in plant-breed-
ing. ''Sports are inclined to produce '' self s" in color, while crosses and
reverted forms have a tende?icy to produce variegatioTi in colors. I have
been trying to improve the form of the ear of this white corn by judi-
cious selection of the ears having the largest number of rows, and I
think I am making jjrogress, a larger proportion of ears appear to be of
the required form than did formerly. But I notice that the upper ear on
each stalk retains the old form, and the improvemetit of form occurs in the
loiver ears every time. Hence I judge that when we wish to change a
plant by selection we should select from accessory buds as responding to
our desire for change most readily, while the regular buds retain old
characteristics with greatest tenacity.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 237

HYBRIDIZATION OF PLANTS.

Mr. McAfee then proceeded to give an account of some experi-
ments in relation to the hybridization of plants. The different colored
grains he said, in regard to corn, will appear although the self-colors are
planted. He showed a deep red ear of uniform color even to the trunk
and pith of the cob. This result he obtained from pure white corn. In
this case no variegated colors can appear; they will be either white or
self-colored. He then selected grains of variegated corn and planted
them ; all the produce was variegated. His object was to show that in
hybridization all the colors were either self or variegated. Again he
showed an ear of white corn containing a few yellow grains at the tip.
These are the results of foreign pollen, they never begin found at the butt
of the ear. This was to illustrate the influence of female plants, on even
the husk and the grain. Therefore, to improve your corn, select the low-
er ear, that being always the nearest approximation to the genuine.

Dr. Pennington called attention to the subject of acclimation and
hybridization. He said we know as little of this as of electricity. The
most useful plants were exotics. They have been modified, as in the
case of the peach, which he thought would yet be acclimated so that it
will be grown constantly in this latitude.

Dr. I'ennington warmly indorsed Mr. McAfee, and hoped that the
subject would receive the attention of the Society.

On the subject ol the acclimation of plants, the Doctor took the
ground that the theory is a practicable one. He had no doubt that we
would yet produce a race of peach-trees that would bear a greater de-
gree of frost than any that we now had in our orchards.

Mr. Harrison objected to all these new things; he stood by the
old, for these had proved valuable.

.Mk. l)i)i glass. — It is niy belief from my experiments, that Siberian
Arbor \itce is only .i sport of tlic .\nierican Arbor Vitte.

Mr. Douglass thought the gentleman did not understand the paper
of Mr. McAfee, as it in no way prevented the classical gentlemen from
going on with their old-time theories to their hearts' content, lie was
ready to learn from Nature as well as books, and did not wish to be shut
out from new fields of investigation. Mr. 1). went on to describe the
very (vw changes in cross-tireeding, or hybridizing, of forest-trees. There
are a few sports; but these must be propagated by cuttings, as the seed-
lings are not like their sporting parents.

238 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

Mr. Rosenstiel pointed out the difificulty of growing any plant sub-
ject to crossing, to procure pure seed. He referred to growing of cabbage
and turnip-seed side by side, and how the turnip ruined the cabbage,
and so it was with the corn. The bees and the winds carry the pollen
from flower to flower, and thus contrived to break down distinct varie-
ties. It was, therefore, of great importance to have seed that is thus lia-
ble to be affected planted widely separate.d.

Mr. Schuyler was given permission to exhibit a process for drying
fruits, which occupied the attentiori of the meeting till the hour of ad-
journment.

Among the objects of interest on the tables for exhibition to-day
are several sections of European larch from the forest of D. C. Scofield,
Elgin, showing a prodigious growth in thirteen years ; a section of Scotch
pine of thirteen years from seed growth, by Mr. Hill, of Dundee ; thirty-
eight specimens of forest-tree planting, by Arthur Bryant. Mrs. P. V.
Hathaway, of Damascus, exhibited a fine collection of botanical speci-
mens, and a curiosity in the shape of a nest of the golden oriole woven
with amazing ingenuity out of worsted threads.

Adjourned till half past one o'clock.

AFTERNOON SESSION.
Meeting called to order by the president at half-past one o'clock.

Mr. Hawlev by permission, exhibited the Ruttan principle for
drying fruits.

Mrs. p. V. Hathaway read the following ])aper on Ornithology.

THE BIRDS.

BY MRS. P. V. HATHAWAY.

We are debtors to the birds. Even in winter, the Black-capped
Titmouse, the Blue-jay, and several species of Woodpeckers, arc busy
searching for the eggs and larvae of insects, and the Sparrows are eating
up the weed-seeds. With each returning spring, come the flights of
migratory workers. The [)lowed fields are flushed with the breasts of
the Robins, and shining with the bronze backs and scarlet-crested wings,
of the Blackbirds. Every plant-eating insect, whether in the form of egg,
larva, chrysalis, or perfect insect, destroyed in the spring, saves the crop
which it is liable to attack, whether grain or fruit, from the ravages of
hundreds, perhaps thousands of destroyers later in the season. Of
course this is not strictly the case with these slow-growing larvae which
require several years for their development, the white grub of the May

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 239

beetle for instance. But the destrur tiun of a single one of these vora-
cious larwc often saves a valuable plant, sometimes several, from ruin.

Cro out, if you will, and watch the birds a while each day. Certainly
nothing could be more advantageous to their reputation, and nothing
would be more likely to bring large money returns to mankind in the
end. For if you look at the matter thoughtfully, you must become con-
vinced that birds are indispensable to successful agriculture and horti-
culture.

Dr. Jenks of Massachusetts demonstrated by actual dissection to as-
certain the contents of the crop, that the food of the Robin during .March,
.April, jNIay, and part of June, consists entirely of insects and their larva?,
mostly of very destructive species. During the latter part of June, and
the months of July, August, and September, there is a mixed diet of
fruit and insects, the insects being in large proportion. After July, the
fruit is almost entirely wild, and even in June and July, the bird
does not go to a distance to obtain the tame fruit. Late in the season
his food is grasshoppers and similar insects. Dr. Brewer noted a pair
of Robins which fed their young until they left the nest, entirely on
cut-Nvorms. The same fact has been observed by other eminent author-
ities. The domestic pigeon feeds its young very largely on canker
worms, and no doubt the Turtle Dove and Wild Pigeon have been do-
ing us the same great service, and have been blindly considered by most
people as only good to shoot at. The Bluebird eats all kinds of insects,
and has a preference for some of the most destructive species, as the cod-
ling moth and its larva, c anker worms, and caterpillars. Tn the crop of
an Oriole were found three hundred grain-weevils.

Last June 1 observed the rose-breasted (trosbeak engaged in
destroying the potato bugs. .Skimming lightly over the plants, he caught
the insect, then alighted on the ground to linish it. Several gentlemen of
my acquaintance whose farms are frecpiented by this bird, have noted
that he is diligent in the work of destroying this insect.

A pair of Golden Orioles which I wat<;hed a year ago last summer,
visited their nests with insect food twenty times an hour, and they
worked from the earliest morning light until almost dark in the eve-
ning. The Robin visits his nest about as often, and generally with a
beak full of insects. A pair of K.ingbirds came over twenty times an
hour, and usually with several insects at a time. The Woodpeckers
visit their nests much oflener, indeed there seems to be a continuous
stream of provisions passing in at the floor of the dark nests in the trees.

This direct testimony is not the only evidence in favor of the birds.
In Kurope, where the whole subject has been more deeply studied than
here, it has been observed that in certain districts where there was a
marked decrease in the number of birds, there was a marked and dan-
gerous increase of destructive insects. Vast sums of money have been
expended to arrest, by hand-picking the insects, the work of destruction
in valuable t'orests, but without avail. .\nd it is well known that a rea-
sonable number of certain birds, native to the country, and feeding

240 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

largely on the destroyer, but sadly thin in numbers, would have prevent-
ed loss. There has lately been a plague of insects in Paris and the
adjoining country. This has been attributed by French observers to the
destruction of birds during the siege. Facts bearing on the same point,
and equally convincing, have been noted in our country.

Wherein then lies our remedy against those insect foes which threat-
en the forest, the fruit, and even the grain crops of some parts of our
country.' Our real remedy plainly lies in increase of birds. To ac-
complisli this, there is but one way, better protection, a more tender care
for the life of the bird. It is idle fear that even with the best protection
that can be given, they will increase beyond the real demand for their
services. There are so many dangers that beset, so many accidents that
may befall the young birds, that it is not often that a pair of birds are
able to rear a whole brood. There are snakes and quadrupeds ready to
devour. There are a few kinds of birds, very useful themselves at other
times, which do not object to eggs or young birds. A great many, es-
pecially in nests upon the ground, are lost during fierce storms.

But perhaps there is no other enemy which so seriously threatens
the bird as the domestic cat. It is searching night and day, and eggs,
young birds or old ones are ee^ually acceptable. One often sees half a
dozen or more lean, half-starved creatures at a single house. It certain-
ly looks as if birds would not thrive well about such places.

The horticulturist, whether he wills or not, is one of the natural
protectors of the birds. The deciduous forest trees and evergreens, the
■fruit trees, shrubs, and vines, are retreats and homes for the birds.

Is it feared that by an increase of birds a few more cherries and
berries will be lost ? We can raise more fruit, and raise it easier than
ever before, for we shall not have to contest every plum and apple with
the enemy. It must be plain to every one that the injury which birds
have done to fruit during the last twenty years, would not equal the loss
by the codling moth in a single season.

Because man plants must he reap all of the fruit ? Must his ener-
getic little helper never even taste.' Man did not give life to the germ
Avhich he puts into the ground. He does not supply the sun-force that
makes the plant grow green and tall, that paints the fruits, and fills them
with delicious flavors. Let us kindly share these gifts of God with our
winged helpers. It is but a pittance that they ask or take.

We are debtors to the birds for the music of nature. They are the
voice of the hills and valleys, and the woodlands that can only rustle.
On May and June mornings, 1 hear the quiet happy strain of the
Meadow Lark, come up from the near lowlands long before the break of
day. In the early twilight a dozen Robins sing, and as I walk, one flies
so close that it almost touches my head. Among the low trees sounds
the " E-er e-r te-dee-dee-chip-chij)-dear-dear," of the little Field Spar-
rows, as clear and pearly as the dew drops themselves. Where the
vines and willows droop along the creek the Catbirds are singing.
Many a one of them has sung almost tlie whole night through. Perhaps

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 241

you do not know that in the white, moonlit nights of the last week of
May, the Catbird is a real nightingale. T have heard liini sing at all
hours of the night from eleven until morning. With the broadening
light, high up in the tree tops sounds the hilarious chorus of the Brown
Thrushes.

Away in the woodlands the Wood Thrushes awake in the dim twi-
light. Their song is full of quiet joy and pure aspiration. I have
known people who could talk the gossip of the hour with the clear
voices of these birds about them. There are persons, no rloubt, who
would tell idle stories at heaven's gate. The little Nuthatch pipes soft-
ly. The Wood Pewee calls sadly, " Pe-o-wee ! pe-o-wee ! " But here
comes one with a shining rose leaf on his breast, the Rose-breasted
Grosbeak. His rich song, with iust a touch of tender sadness in it,
seems to float on the mists of the river. He loves the vicinage of water,
and is rarely found far from it.

We are debtors to the birds.

On motion, Robert Douglass, A. Bryant, Jr., and A. R. Whitney
were appointed a committee on the President's Annual Address.

Mr. D. C. Scofield read the following paper on Timber planting.

TIMBER WASTE.

D. C. SCOFIELU.

Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen :

Your Committee fli;irged to report on "ornamental and useful
trees" beg leave to present the following.

This phrase embraces a wide held; in fact .ill thai ui;i\ be said of
trees, from the cluster that atlorns the home-lot to the Ijoinulless torest.

Trees have been the theme which has animated the discussioni^
anfi imparted to this Society an importance and influence for good for
which the generations o\ all coming time will ("ill von blessed.

Your reccjrd is before the world, iiorn in Ml. ( arroll, consecrated
in this city to the high oHice of leadershii" in the onward progress of
civilization, human happiness, and national prosperity, voii stand Ixffirc
vour ( f)untrv iind world as the beacon-light, pointing to innnortality.

Vou (jccupy to-day another stand-point in relation l(; this*sul)jc( t.
from that of five years ago, when you met here in deliberative counsel
for the first time, and discussed this great (jucstion ; a (piestion which
expands and rises before you, year by year with iina/ingly increased
importance.

Till then, but little had been said, and less done in regard to this
matter. r)uring a period of more than thirty years, the lumbermen of
the country had sounded the alarm tli;it the forests of this country were
fast passing away, and that the requiem ot thrir departing glory would
be sung by the next generation. ^ et no remedy was proposed, and
none hoped, even for a rescue from the impending ruin.

17

242 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

The last of the pine timber on the Hudson had disappeared ; the
valieys and pine-clad hills of the Susquehanna, the Chenango, and
Delaware had been nearly disrobed, the northern forests from Maine to
Oswego were fast receding, tens of thousands of acres of the finest hem-
lock timber on the continent were annually denuded for the bark alone,
and the timber left to perish.

This work of forest destruction was hastened onward to its con-
summation by the pioneers of the forest lands, till only a limited supply
for the indispensable uses of the farm remained, and in some districts
the same improvident waste continues.

In the progress of improvements, a new use for timber appeared.

Railroads Avith their endless demand began to sweep' away Avhat
seemed to be a scanty supply, which with strict economy was scarcely
sufficient for the present generation. Yet, this new mode of transporta-
tion has become an imperative necessity.

The forests melted away before them. Increasing Avith more than geo-
metrical ratio from year to year until now, when there is more than sixty-
two thousand miles of railroad ttack in the United States, which if ex-
tended one continuous line, would reach twice and one-half times around
the globe, and require for one single relay of track more than one hun-
dred and seventy millions of ties or sleepers, equal to twenty-four mil-
lions two hundred and eighty-five thousand seven hundred and fourteen
annually; to supply which want more than one hundred and fifty thou-
sand acres of the best timber is used, and every seven years in the
aggregate, more than a million of acres of our finest forests are swept
away.

Add to this, the enormous amount of the article consumed on the
locomotives, costing yearly more than seventy-five millions of dollars,and
the annual supply of more than two hundred and fifty millions of feet
fcf lumber for railroad bridges, depots, and other structures, the lines of
telegraph poles running parallel with every line of road, and you have
before you the startling fact, that the wood of more than two hundred
thousand acres of woodland is yearly consumed by railroads alone.
Great as this railroad demand appears, yet the building ol fleets of mer-
chant ships, and vessels of war. the ten thousand lake, river, and canal
boats, tlje building of towns, and cities, the untold amount of wood ma-
terial used in tlie mechanical departments of industry, swell the amount
to amazing proportions — nearly a million feet of lumber being used
annually in the manufacture of one kind of sewing-machine alone.

Add to this, the the incomputable .amount of wood and wood-ma-
terial used by nearly thirty millions of the population engaged in farm-
ing industries, Avhich in fact is greater than all other in the aggregate, and
you have before you an array of wood consumption, the computation of
which would make the strongest intellect lo reel.

I forbear to dwell on the waste and utter destruction of one-fifth
of our finest pine forests by the fiery deluge of eighteen seventy-one, of
the conflagrations of the mighty cities of Boston, and Chicago, of towns

ILLINOIS HOKTICT-T TURAL SOCIETY. 243

and farm buildings without number; the yearly destruction by fire and
storm of fleets of ocean-ships, lake and river vessels, all, all gone ! anni-
hilated by one fell swoop, of una\ertable destruction.

Sir: The beginning of the end has come.

Let the increasing waste and destruction of this material continue
in proportion to the increasing want of the accumulating millions of
population, and consequent increasing improvements, in t;xtcnded lines
of railroads, manufacturing, and all other wood-wants; let Congress
contmue to forge bars to shu» out foreign wood material, and shut us
in to our limited resources a quarter of a century more, then the sun of
our prosperity will stand still in the commercial heavens, the clouds of
adversity will hide its glories, the onward march of human prosperity
will fade away and be lost in one long and fearful night.

Terrible as these statements appear, yet it is but a dim picture o^
the dark panorama of facts to which, if unaverted, we must soon stand
face to face.

But, thank God, the star of hope has arisen and in response to the
long and loud cry of alarm, a voice is heard from the four quarters of
the land, "" What shall we do ?"

From the Department of Agriculture, from the President in his chair
of state, from railroad companies, from every department of human
industries, this inquiry comes.

Who is responsible for the answer.'' Who shall presume to lead in
mstructing the cnfjuiring millions in a matter of such momentous im-
portance, the result of which — if wise — will tell on the prosperity and
well-being of the generations of all coming time ?

I refK-at— Who shall undertake this work .^ W Im. inore than you.
should assume this responsibility .' You, who ha\e sounded so long and
loud the alarm of desolation and ruin of a Ibrestless, treeless country.

The great awakening for wliich you have so long labored and prayed
has begun, and you are called upon to-day to answer; to answer wisely,
j)romptly. and immediately, and send it abroad as wide as the eni|uiry
has come.

Thi<- IS not a time for adulation, of "folding ihe hands to sleep."
Then l«!l t7(Y/V7«, immediate, determined, and um easing action, he the
watchword of this sixth anniversary of vour consec raiion.

The eyes in your < ountrv are lurnrd toward mmi. anrl mav divine
wisdom guide you in all your counsels.

Your committee therelore recommended the immediate apijoint-
menlof a committee who shall report some plan, as in their judgment
shall be most practicable, for the General Go\ernment to adopt, pursuant
to the suggestions which appear in the President's message to encour-
age the planting of tbrests by the pioneer on lands where they do not
exist.

Also a plan best adapted for states and railroad companies to en-
courage and aid the new settler within their borders, and on their lands
to plant timber. Also, that they report the particular method of plant-

•)44 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

ing and cultivate young timber-plantations, the varieties of trees, to
plant ; some plan by whicli may he obtain the plants and seeds so cheaplv
as to come within his reach. Also, report an estimated cash value of
such forest plantations at the respective ages of five, ten, twenty, and
thirty years. Also the best timber to plant for railroad sleepers and
telegraph poles; and the length of time required to grow them of suffi-
cient size for these purposes. Also to urge upon Congress the impor-
tance of repealing the acts imposing duties on foreign forest-tree seeds
and plants, also on foreign lumber.

All of which your committee respectfully submit.

d. c. scofield.

Samuel Edwards.

Arthur Bryant, Sr.

THE LOCUST.

A. BRYANT.

The report of the Committee on Timber and Ornamental trees, read
at the last meeting of this Society, contained notice of the most valua-
ble and desirable trees suited to the climate and soils of Northern
Illinois. In the present essay, it is proposed to recommend the resump-
tion of the culture of the Common Locust, ( Robhiiapseudaiacia) and to
give some reasons for the opinion that it may be done with a reasonable
prospect of success. It is well known that a few years since, a species
of borer ( Ashopalus robinur.) peculiar to the Locust family, ravaged the
State, making with few exceptions, a clean sweep of all trees of the
kind. This of course discouraged its cultivation; and it may be doubt-
ed whether any locust trees have since been planted in the state.
When the insect had completed its destructive ravages it disappeared ;
and the locust trees which have grown up from suckers from the old
trees appear to be untouched by it. It was known in the Atlantic states
as far back at least as the beginning of the present century; but its ex-
istence does not appear to have prevented the cultivation of the treeV
Certainly the locust groves on Long Island are but little if at all injured
by it. There seems to be reason to believe that if it should reappear in
Illinois, it will be less destructive than heretofore. It appears to be
generally true that in their firsi inroads upon a jjart of the country where
they were previously unknown, insects and vermin of all descriptions
commit greater ravages than at suljsecjuent times. Thus the canker
worm at its first appearance in the orchards of Northern Illinois about
eighteen forty-five, did far greater mischief than it has ever done since,
although it is still among us. The rose-bug afterwards overspread the
country, and did much damage to fruit trees; but soon entirely disap-
peared. Many of course remember the plague of fleas, thirty or more
years since, when they pervaded the whole land, as omnipresent as the
frogs of Kgypt.

It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the great value and durability of
locust timber — they ;ire already well known. The growth of the tree

ILLINOIS HORTICUl-TURAL SOCIKrV. 245

is rapid, and a grove, if felled at the proper season, will reproduce itself
from suckers. It is to be hoped that its cultivation may l»e again tried.

Arthur Bryant.

Arthur Bryant, Sen., read a paper on the same subject, mostly
in relation to the destruction of the locust by the borer. His remedy
was the j)lanting of the black walnut, butternut, and other useful trees.
The two named would not cost more than corn for four or five years,
while ash, larch, and some others might cost for five years fifty to sixty
dollars per acre. The planting of deciduous trees should be four feet
each way, and conifers eight feet. He would plant llie Lombardy pop-
lar between the evergreens, in order to compel an upright growth, and,
after a few years, cut out the poplars. The common black cherry is also
a valuable tree. He would not use the black walnut ;is a screen to the
orchard.

Mr. Iv. K. ScoFit.i.Li took decided exceptions to the planting of the
poplar among the conifers, or, in short. aniouLj an\ nther trees.

Mr. Bryant stated that the common sugar -maple was superior to
the black sugar-maple for the making of sugar. Sugar may be made
from the silver maple, and also the ash-leaf maple The red or common
soft maple is not common in the State, while the silver maple is com-
mon in almost all of our bottom woodlands.

In the planting of the European larch, they may be planted four feet
apart, and not thinned until the trees are large enough for railroad ties,
when one-half of the trees should be cut out. The matter of thinning
must depend on growth and other conditions That the larci.. is very
durable, there can be no question

Mr. Hill, ot Dundee,— an old larch-planter from the hills of
Scotia, — staled that, in planting this tree, three thousand plants vverc
planted to the acre. Plants, planting, and care for three years cost
about twenty dollars per acre. One man can plant an acre a day.
The plants should be planted very early, before the buds had started;
yet it is possible to plant it at a later time in the season. Tlie white
grub is the worst enemy of new larch plantations.

A gentlemen suggested that the skunk would destroy the grub, it
permitted to do so, and that this pleasant little animal should not be
disturbed.

Mr. Hill stated that the larch grown in Scotland was almost in-
destructible, and was much sought after for railroad ties. Samples of

246 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

tamarack, or American larch, were also shown ; but it was staled that
this tree made a very feeble growth on dry land, while the same land
was well adapted to the European variety.

Mr. Douglass gave a concise mode of planting. The two main
points are, to plant early in the spring ; and, in planting, to press the
earth firmly on the roots. This rule also applies to the planting of all
coniferous trees.

Mr. Dunlap stated that he had planted three acres of the larch in
the spring of eighteen seventy-one. and not more than three per cent,
were lost in planting, but many plants were destroyed by the white grub.
The cost of planting and culture was about twenty dollars for the two
years; a'dd to this thirty dollars per acre for the plants, and the total
cost for that time is about fifty dollars per acre. He had a plantation
of larch fifteen years old, standing four feet each way, that in no wise
appear crowded, and they promise to grow in this close proximitj' for
some years to come, and pcriuips uatil they reach a size suitable for ties/

SECTIONS OF THE LARCH. -

Mr. Robert Douglass, of Waukegan, presented sections of the.
European larch. C)ne was a section of tree thirteen years old, from the
larch-forest of D. C. Scofield, of Elgin, of about one foot in diameter^
showing an annual growth of nearly one inch. Another section of
Scotch pine, from seed sown by William Hill, of Dundee, Kane County,'
was of yet larger growth. This wood bears a good polish, and, for fin-
ishing, will prove popular, as it is well adapted to the use of varnish.
The Venice turpentine of commerce is extracted from the wood of this
tree, which is pretty good evidence of its durability, as turpentine is a
great protector of timber from decay.

Mr. S. Edwards from the Committee on Timber Ornamental Trees..
Read the following paper :

TIMBER PLANTING.
Mr. President : ■

From the many able and exhaustive papers, which have been read
within a few years past, before this and kindred societies, it has seemed
impossible to prepare anything new for your consideration on this great
subject of Timber Planting — one which should engage the zealous labors
of every patriot, ]..hilanthropist, or Christian — for the religion which is
satisfied with anytliing less than earnest efforts for the highest physical
well-being of the race,, stops short of imitating the example of our Great
Teacher.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIF.TY. 247

The vix^i amount of timber products annually consumed is really
beyond our comprehension, though we may make and write in figures
approximate estimates. Enormous as the quantity is at present, there
is good reason to believe it must rapidly increase. Much of the territory
of the Eastern States which but recently had a supply for home use and
even for export, is dependent upon other localities, until our region of
country from which timber is being cut to supply our market, is rapidly
being contracted in its limits.

Every year adds to convictions of the importance and imperative
necessity of engaging our jjeople in this work, and wc- should really be
thankful for severe winters with terrific gales of chilling winds; these
keen, arguments may fall with telling effect upon our j^eople, aiding
us in arousing them iri the name of hiunanity to now begin to plant
timber.

Present low prices of farm products, with prices of lumber not ma-
terially lessened, may heljj to turn attention to growing forests, where
returns for our labors are seemingly certain to be remunerative.

Several of the citizens of Bureau county engaged for a long time in
stock'feeding by which thcv have accumulated ;unple fortunes, have be-
gun planting forests of f^uropean Larcli mi theii prairie homes, though
they own a surplus of timber

They are among our most cautious men and are confident ot its
proving to be a good investment

It will probably maintain its present position as the leading variety
for general planting. It was my mtention to have brought a specimen
tree ovei forty feet in height, but want of sleighing prevented takmg it
twelve miles to railroad conveniently.

The more I see of its symmetrical rapid growth, the more does it
commend itself to admiration.

We are all aware that where small sap-wood of it, when green, has
been planted in the ground, it has (as any schoolboy should have been
able to predict ihat this or any other variety of tree would,) very soon
rotted.

The Black Locust is well known as a durable timber ; yet under
similar circumstances it rots veiy soon, as I have repeatedly proved.

It is well to advise early plantmg, before trees begin their growth
in spring.

From my own experience, would advise fall jilanting, where a large
amount of it is to be done and plants two feet or more in height are
used. It would be best to turn a furrow to the trees to prevent their
heaving out or other injury by frost. This can be leveled down in cul-
tivating, with no extra labor.

White Pine, Scotch Pine, and Norway Spruce have been planted to
the extent of six acres, and are highly prized for either timber or shelter
belts.

American Arbor-Vitae succeeds finely on wet soils and Ked Cedar
on dry ones.

248 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

The Larch lias proved with me a good nurse tree for evergreens.
The American does not grow as rapidly or straight as the European.

The White Willow is being planted in groves to shelter stock, and
for fences is growing in favor. Willows are used for live fence posts in
Massachusetts— letting in rails as ordinary post and rail fence, when
trees are four to five inches in diameter.

In Onondaga County, New \'ork, i have known fence of this kind
with Lombardy Poplar posts to last thirty years, which is longer than
that tree lives in Bureau County.

A neighbor planted in 1863 a luindred rods of small cuttings of
white willow for lence; it is a good one as protection against cattle.
They were cut down to three and a half feet last spring, yielding as he
informed me, fuel for a year, besides material for a corn crib and other
uses: one load or more were sold for stakes six feet in length, with which
a live fence is made immediately available.

This style offence is growing in favor. The hedge can be cut in
three years, from present appearances, giving as much material as at
the first cutting.

The T;.ilip trees planted in 1846 on both high and low land,
heretofore higiilv esteemed ;\<. a valuable timber tree, are now over fifty
teet in height. Last spring it was found that they were seriously, and
it is feared fatally injured, probably by the combined operation of drouth
and excessive cold.

The Chestnut succeeds v\'ell on high land, and it is desirable for
every family with proper soil to have a few trees of it, but I cannot
recommend it as a variety for general planting on rich prairies ; have fears
that many will be disappointed who are being induced to plant it.

Ash-leaved and Silver Maple are rapid growers, being planted
largely.

The Oaks, Walnuts, Ashes, and Hickories should all be largely planted
— any trees except Lombardy and other poplars. I would allow some
of them on waste lands if compelled to use them or none.

Our State and district Horticultural Societies are doing a great
work, agitating the public mind on this subject, but we need the active
labors of eveiy one alive to its importance, in holding primary meetings-
in every school district.

How many of our people know how to properly plant and cultivate
trees ?

How very few are fully convinced that timber-growing is one of
the most profitable uses for which land can be used.''

I was glad to see the humanitarian sentiip.ent manifested in the call
for this meeting, with reference to this subject, that we are expected
here to inaugurate a glorious revival.

In going to our homes, may we carry home the spirit here exhibited—
no longer from false notion.s of modesty hide our light under a bushel,
but show a heartfelt interest in our endeavors to save our land from the
terrors which seem certainly to await us, unless we now step forth man-
fully and avert them.

ILl.TNOIS IfORTICni.TriRAl. ^^OCIETV. ^49

Mr. H. II. McAfee oftercd the following resoliilion wliich was unani-
mously adopted :

Resolved that the Northern Illinois Horticultural Society.believing that the interests
of Agriculture and Horticulture deserve every assistance and encouragement from the
governing power, and recognizing the immense value to general science, as well a-i the
valuable assistance rendered to the productive interests of the investigations of the
European e.xperiment stations, (Versuchs Stalionen), we eaincstly ask the Legislature of
Illinois to consider the propriety of establishing three or more experiment stations in
different part-, of the State to be devoted to investigations in scientific subjects connected
with Agriculune and Horticulture, (and to be connected with the Illinois Industrial Uni-
versity.)

Mr. S. Edwards offered the following Resolution which was adopted
unanimously.

•' Resolved that we deem it highly desirable that tHe number of Students of the
Industrial University be limited to out from each Congressional District and that they
be elected by the people."

Adjourned to 7, P. M.

EVENING SESSION.

Mk. Jonathan Periam addressed the meerinj on the subject of
growing Vegetables, which was discussed by Messrs. (ialusha, Hill, and
others.

Mr. H. H. McAfee read an essay on Vegetable Physiology as fol-
lows, which led to a general discussion as to wha: are species and what

varieties.

VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY.

All facts concerning growth: the action of various organs; the ger-
Tnination of seed ; root absorption ; leaf absorption ; elaboration, change
and use in the vegetable structure of organized matter; the rejjroductive
function and embryonic growth of the young plant ; and finally, the
processes and products of the decay of plants are embraced within the
province of Vegetable Physiology.

In fewer words, it is the consideration of every process in the life
or deat>i of the plant, as well as the causes and results of those pro-
cesses.

The magnitude of the subject is as great as the many interests which
connect man and the other animals with the vegetable world.

As vegetation stands between animal life and inorganic matter, the
connecting link, capable of taking such inorganic matter and buil.iing it up
into new chemical combinations, suitable for the nutrition of animals, we
see that the physiology of the plant is the very basis upon which rises
the whole fabric of animal existence. The plants devour the earth, the
very rocks, and the gases of the air, and organize them into forms which
serve for the food of animals, which in turn become food for other ani-
mals, indefinitely.

250 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

Nowhere in the researches of science is man brought more squarely
and clearly face to face with the working of that wonderful, mysterious,
incomprehensible force which we name the vital force, or life principle,
than he is when he observes the beginning of the life of the plant.

And right there, where the very simplest form of plant life, the sin-
gle cell, stands on the boundary between dead matter and vitalized mat-
ter, the two forms of organic matter, the animal and the plant, seem to'
meet. The simplest form of plant life is the single cell, increasing its
numbers by gemmation or budding ; and the simplest form of animal
life is also the single cell, which also generates its young by gemmation
or budding.

The unicellular plant and the unicellular animal are so near alike
that the best of naturalists are yet confused and nonplussed, when they
endeavor to work out the dividing line between plants and animals.

And the history of the plant of most perfect organization seems to be-
but an epitome of the long gradation of advance from the unicellular'
plant up to the perfect plant of to-day. A mass of nitrogenous matter,
called protoplasm, a cell-wall to contain it, that is all we find in those-
primary forms. Reproduction is carried on by gemmation or budding,-
that is, by the formation of a minute cell upon, or near the surface of the
parent cell, from which it parts to take -up a separate existence and- be- '
come in turn parent of many more gems or young cells. .■■iiyi

In such a case the procreative element by which the young of tfee-
species are called into being is a unity; it is a-sexual, there being no
such thing as gender about the plant.

It is only when we have ascended a way in the scale of creation
that we find the young plant springing from two parents; and when we
have come to this point we find flowers and seed first appear.

A new affinity, a new attraction, a new fitness of individual for its
fellow comes into play when the peculiar form of buds which we call seeds
are first formed.

The youngling is no longer the offspring of one parent, but it is
a compound offspring, having two parents ; reproduction which in all
simpler forms of plants is a-sexual now becomes bi-sexual. We stand
upon pretty firm ground when we assert that all living forms originate in-
either single cells (a-sexual reproduction) or in the union of two simple
cells, the pollen cell, and the ovule, (bi-sexual reproduction). And in
the higher plant organizations, the phenogamous, or flowering plants,-
both systems of reproduction exist; the a-sexual function is retained;
and the bi-sexual function is added to it. Every bud is a young plant
generated a-sexually, while every seed is a young plant generated bi-sex-
ually; and the spores of the cryptogamia are to be classed among the
gems or a-sexual reproductions.

Bearing in mind these distinctions, we gain much light upon the
apparently obscure subject of plant variations. The bud, the offspring
of one parent will be the continuation of that parent in all properties,
characteristics, and peculiarities, as a general rule, and unless some casu-

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 2«51

ally occurs in the life ol the parent, ur ;it the time of tlie origin of the
bud it will always remain practically the same. We graft and bud for
generations of single plant lives and still the diritinctive characteristics of
the subject remain with no great apparent change, except perhaps a
weakening of vitality.

But the exceptional phenomenon ot bud variation occurs often
enough to show that the a-se.vual young may be different from the j)arent,
if the proper influences are brought to bear to change them. What in-
fluences are necessary to cause a plant to produce sporting buds, no one ex-
actly knows, but they occur, and occur most frequently in plants which are
furthest removed from their natural habits by high culture, change of
locality and climate, and fornaer crossing or hybridizing.

VVhile bud variations are comparatively rare (though they are very
much more common than is generally supposed) the variations from par-
ent forms which appear in seedlings, are so common that for many plants
to breed true is a rarity.

The seed is made up of two elementary principles or forces derived
often from two separate plants, each of which is liable to be so influ-
enced by surrounding conditions, that it shall permanently impress upon
its oflspring traits of character not discoverable in either parent. The
bud on the other hand has only the one parent to inherit from, and only
the most serious circumstances can impress the parent to [produce the.
sporting bud.

Now what occurs in crossing and hybridizing.' Here are not only
the two parents but they are more or less dissimilar in forms or charac-.
icrs, hence the union of their elements may be more or less unequal m
any one or more of a thousand different ways. This unbalancing of the
constitution may cause to appear what seem to be new traits of charac-
ter, but really what may be peculiarities which e.\isted in either parent but
more masked or moditiSd by other prominent habits.

Crossing leads to a multiplicity of variations, and just as the cross is
more or less a violent one, (between veiy dissimilar forms) the variations
will be more or less pronounced or more or less numerous.

Hybridizing, (the intercrossing of species) more violent yet, often
so shocks the vital force that the jjrocreative function is lost. The plant
fails to breed and is only reproduced from buds.

Greatly to our shame as a nation, with all our princely endowments
for the aid of the rural science education, we are yet doing nothing to
gain an insight into the immense subject of plant-breeding, at least 1 have
not been able to hear of any fair series of experiments undertaken with
a view to develop such knowledge.

True, a few of us who cannot afford the outlay of time and means,
do. in enthusiastic moments, try to pry away into the secrets of Nature's
laboratory, but generally the work is too great for the force applied, to
achieve much.

My friend Peffer, of Wisconsin, has dug out some interestmg facts
in plant-breeding which I hope he will favor us with, as they are the best
fruits of careful, long continued labor and observation.

252 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

Mr. McWhorter wished to ask Mr. McAfee what he understood
by the term " species " }

Mr. McAfee replied, that as the best scientists scarcely ever agreed
upon the definition of this term, he considered himself at liberty to
frame a definition to suit himself. So he defined a species in botany to
mean any form of plant which constantly breeds true, reproduces itself
without variation, except it be at rare intervals. He believed species
might sport either as seedlings or by bud variation, but would call a plant
much given to sporting and having no great fixity of character a variety ;
when the character becomes fixed, permanent, not changed, it wnuld be
a species. With Dr. Asa Gray's definition in his lessons in botany,'
where he says, " Hence we must conclude that species are separate crea-
tions," he cannot agree.

Mr. McWhorter slated that Dr. Gray has modified his views of
species, and that he now believes them to be fixed varieties.

Mrs. Loomis, of Freeport, and A. Bryant, Sr., of Princeton, and J.
Periam, of Chicago, each questioned the propriety of Mr. McAfee's def-
inition, but on being asked for their own definition of species, each
declined to define.

Mr. A G. TuTTLE, of Baraboo, Wisconsin, addressed the meeting
on Hardy Varieties of fruits for the Northwest. He finds the same varie-
ties grown in Wisconsin as in Northern Illinois. Spoke very highly of
Walbridge apple : very prolific, good keeper, fine quality. From March
to May quality not equaled by any other grown ifi the West,

Adjourned till Thursday, A. M. twenty third.

THURSDAY,

Session opened with prayer by Mr. S. Edwards, Sen.
G. S. Pefter, of Wisconsin, addressed the meeting on Hardy Varieties
of the Apple as grown by him at Pewaukee, Wisconsin.

HARDINESS IN FRUITS AND PRINCIPLES OF PLANT BREEDING,

Mr. President., and Brother Horticulturists :

This is the first time I have gone from home, out of my own state
to attend such a meeting as yours, and I am here on this occasion in the
hope that by comparing notes and discussing principles we may all re-
ceive benefit, each teaching and learning in turn, the useful knowledge
which may thus become common property.

I have been much pleased with the essays and discussions thus far,

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 253

and more particularly with some of the remarks of last evening. Having
been called upon at thai time to speak of my experience I promised to
do so more fully this morning, and especially in support of the principles
then laid down by Mr. McAfee on the subject of c^ossing and Hybri- >
dizing.

Many varieties of plants will fertilize themselves and will reproduce
themselves, and especially is this true of plants which have both male
and female organs in the same flower, but to become self-fertilized the
plants must be isolated so that crossing is not possible. As was said
last night the apple may produce seedlings just like the parent, but to
do so it must not have any opportunity to receive pollen from another
tree. Of the first apples raised in my orchard, when there was not
another blooming apple tree within two or three miles, so that pollen of
another variety could not come to the flowers, the seeds produced trees
which bore fruit identical with the parent. That is, seedlings from a
black Gillifiower bore true black Gilliflower apples. But at the second
fruiting of that black Gilliflower tree, when other trees in the same
orchard began to bloom, the seeds were crossed, and trees raised from
them were of mixed sorts of apples. These crossed fruits sometimes re-
sembled the parent apple in form and appearance, but not in flavor,
texture, keeping qualities, or time of maturity.

On the subject of hardiness there is not very much to be said. The
samples I here present for your inspection tell a plain story. Even the
hardiest varieties of fruit if tried by such winters as the present, or as
those of 1864 — 1865 and 1856 — 1857 may sometimes fail, especially if
from the nature of the preceding summer the wood was not fully ripened
in the fall. These samples show the discoloration which follows hard
freezing, and in proportion to the discoloration the tree is more or less
injured. Wood that has the most sap in it in the fall, or which is not
perfectiv matured and ready for winter, suffers with a less freeze than
would affect the better ripened wood.

Mr. Tuttle remarked that the fruit raisers of Minnesota think they
ran raise all the kinds of fruit that we can. They may try to do so, but
in the end they will have to do as some of us have done, and are doing.
that is keep trying to see if they are hardy enough to stand, and then
reject the lender ones as fast as we find them out.

The varieties for the Northwest must be such as will go through
the hardest winters, as these samples of Duchess of Oldenburg (best).
Tetofsky, .Mexander, el( ., which I show you, have done this winter.
The hardest seasons are the true test, and the fruits whirh with'^tnnd
their severity are worthy of our conlidence.

Here I have, along with the samples of hardy ap|)les, some wood
which shows i)Iainly that it is either half-hardy or tender, for instance,
the Rhode Island Greening and Fall Pippin you can see are entirely
frozen to death, and they may well be (ailed tender, for although top
marked on hardy seedling stocks they are killed nearly to the place of
union with the stock.

254 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

Mr. Peffer exhibited wood of a large number of varieties of apples
to illustrate his position that the extra severe winters like the present,
will cull out everything except the very hardiest kinds. (Jssf. Rec.
Sec^

The ojily true way to have hardy varieties is to raise them from
seed, saved from hardy parent trees. It is easy to tell at any time
whether a tree is perfectly hardy in any locality, if the tree is old enough
to have stood the test of the extraordinary seasons mentioned above
Select a limb old enough so that its growths will count back past any of
these severe terms and then count the rings inward from the bark till
you have the growth of eighteen hundred and sixty-four or of eighteen
hundred and fifty-six or of eighteen hundred and sixty-nine or of eighteen
hundred and seventy-two, and observe if the growth is discolored or
any way injured. If it is not injured you may be sure that it will take
a worse season than the one you have counted back to to hurt it. Now
if the fruit of this tree that is proved to be hardy, and that of all the
trees near by, which might pollenize it, is also good, you are safe to let_
seedlings from the seeds of the selected tree come to bearing size, for
the chances are that you will get some new varieties which are both
good and hardy, but if the new sorts should when fruited prove inferior,
you lose but little time, for they may be top marked into better sorts

Any youngster can be taught to graft and so any one can be taught
how to raise seedlings by artificial crossing or fertilizing, with a fair
chance of raising fruit to his own liking.

I think the time is not far off Avhen this bleak northwestern country
will raise more i^ood fruit than the middle and eastern states, but the
fruit must be of different varieties from those grown at the East, that is.
varieties produced here and specially adapted to all the conditions of
the climate.

I have here samples of fruit of which I know the parentage ; and
the characteristics of the progeny are such as bear out my theory of the
influence of the respective parents upon the offspring. The seed which
produced the Pewaukee was saved from a Duchess apple, those which
produce my No. 17 and 14 from Clark's Orange, those which produce.
No. I and La Belle from Tallman Sweet, those which produced .\llen
Russet from golclen Russet, etc. ; in each case the hardiness of the mother
tree is almost exactly reproduced in the seedling, while the quality and
flavor vary as the male parent varies.

These varieties we raised from seeds selected and saved in our
early days, when fruit was a rarity in Wisconsin and we had not the experi-
ence we have now. Those we raise now, we can tell by knowing their
parentage quite nearly what they will produce.

To improve varieties of apples by crossing we must chcose for the
female parents, the style of tree, the size of fruit, and the hardiness we
desire ; for the seedling will have a tendency to resemble the mother
tree in those respects.

For thf male parent select the trees which, in time of maturity of

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 2oe5

fruit (earliness or lateness,) flavor of fruit, and productiveness, meet
our requirements.

A jar of glass or a paper bag should be placed over a spur or group
of spurs of the male parent tree just before the flowers come to perfec-
tion, (just as they are opening). Then a spur of the female parent tree
which the jar or bag will go over should have the anthers removed from
the flowers before they are fully open and early in the morning. The jar
or bag which should have covered the spur, it was on over night, should
then be taken together with the spur in it, and put over tht spur from
which the pollen sacks have been removed a few minutes before. Close
up the jar or bag, and as soon as the dew has dried from the leaves,
disturb or shake the jar or bag and it is all done.

I must tell you of an experiment I tried in the year eighteen hund-
red and fifty-seven. In eighteen hundred and fifty-six we had a very
large crop of fruit of all kinds in our garden of one acre ; twenty varie-
ties of apples, eleven of pears, forty-two of plums, one of apricots, one
of quinces, three of grapes, one of peaches, three of crab (Siberian) apples.
The winter following was as hard or harder than the present one. All
the tender varieties died, and the idea struck me that as those varieties
which were not hurt by the severe winter must be the hardiest, I had
better save seeds in hopes of getting hardy seedlings.

I had three Westfield Seek-no-Farther in one row ; beside the first
tree on the east (twenty-two feet away) was a sweet seedling, bearing
fruit of fair size and good keeping qualities. This last tree bloomed
very profusely. On the north was a Golden Crab, on the west a Bald-
win, and in the next row (west) a Dominie (forty-four feet away), and
on the south another Westfield Seek-no-Farther. The Baldwin died
in the spring, so it did not blossom.

Thus the trees on each of the four sides were of different varieties.
I saved tlie seeds which came out of one of the nicest of the Seek-no-
Farther apples. It had eleven seeds which appeared good, and from
these I raised nine yearling trees which I set out in my orchard in
eighteen hundred and fifty-nine.

They have all borne fruit tor four or five years. Seven of them are
sweet apples (good keepers), but of no account, as they are loo small.

One is part crab (Siberian). The be^t one of the lot is a fair sized
fruit and resembles the Dominie in shape, and in form of calyx is just
like it, in flavor not quite so acid,- but the flesh is more yellow, quite
firm, sprightly and crisp, keeps about the same as Dominie. So out of
the seeds uf one apple from which T have nine bearing trees, seven I
know had the seedling sweet ai»plc for their male parent, one was sired
by the crab, and one by the D(miinie, and none of them are true Seek-
no-Farther like the mother tree, although the tree at the south was of
that variety. This case shows me that seedlings are made up of their
parents, but, though other pollen is plenty so that other seeds growing in
the same capsule may have been fertilized from other trees, only the
pollen from one variety can act upon a stigma so as to fertilize a seed.

256 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

So though all the seeds in one apple may be different one from the
other in such characteristics as are inherited from the male parent, they
will yet all take after the female parent in hardiness, shape of tree and
size of fruit.

Mr. Pefter further stated that the stigma of the apple is ready for
impregnation some time before the pollen sacks in the same flower are
ready to open so that self fertilization becomes the exception and cross
fertilization the rule where several kinds of apples grow near each
other. Hence it is a rare case that apples are produced like the parents,
the earliest flowers open being less likely to mature fruit than are the
later blooms, and those early flowers are the only ones likely tu be self-
fertilized. Mr. Peffer's many and careful experiments furnish us with
another case where amateur effort is procuring valuable knowledge of
vegetable physiology all the time, while the aristocrats of science are
merely speculating and guessing, mstead of going to work like Mr.
Peffer and proving by actual experiment. [Asst. Rec. Sec.)

S. G. MiNKLER presented the following report on Fruit Trees :

Mr. President^ Members., and Friends of the Northern Horticultural Society :

Your Society has made it my duty to make a report as one of your
committee on Fruit Lists.

I am at a loss to know what I am to report, whether on varieties
or the crop in general. I conclude the latter. Therefore I must say that
this year, like the preceding, has been one of the bountiful years in
horticultural products. This year also, like the preceding, has been the
driest of the forty years of my residence in Illinois.

The Apple crop in the Fox River Valley has been very fine, indeed
I think the finest, that I have ever known. Not more plentiful than last
year perhaps, but exceedingly exempt from insects. The early varieties
of apples were exceedingly free from codling moth.

I remarked to a friend that Mr. Wier's codling moth trap had caught
all the insects. He expressed his purpose to find them so fine.

The winter fruits were somewhat affected though not as much as
last year. The early apples brought a good price. But the late summer
and fall apples were a drug on the market ; in fact they were sold for
twelve — twenty-five cents per bushel. And I have seen men peddling
from house to house in the city of Aurora with apples in one end of the
wagon and a barrel of cider in the other, half bushel measure in one
hand and a gallon measure in the other, trying to find customers.

And hundreds of bushels, yes a thousand, rotted on the ground or
were fed to stock. Barrels could not be obtained to put cider in, and
no sale if you could. But things have changed. Winter apples are in
good demand at one dollar per bushel, and have been since November.

Brethren, I am convinced that we have planted too many summer
and fall varieties.

The Pear crop was very unsatisfactory; trees blighted badly, and I
could see no difference between grafted trees and seedlings in that
respect. I am about discouraged in. planting pears.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 257

Cherries. — The cherry crop was beautiful ; perfectly free from the
curculio. And they remained on the trees a long time without deteri-
oration ; probably on account of the weather being so dry.

Strawberries. — Strawberries have been a light crop on account of
the dry weather. Prices remunerative.

There is not half the breadth in cultivation there was two years ago.

Currants and Gooseberries. — A light crop.

Since the above was written, I have examined the nursery stock, and
find no bad effect from the severe cold of this winter, except the peach
wood is badly discolored. Probably the reason is that we had no warm
days to excite the sap previous to the hard freeze.

Respectfully submitted,

S. G. MiNKLER.

On motion of Capt. E. H. Beebe, of Geneva, the following amend-
ments to the constitution were adopted.
Amendments to the Constitution.

article fourth.

The officers shall consist of a President, four Vice-Presidents, one Corresponding
and two Reading Secretaries, all of whom shall be elected at the Annual Meeting, and
shall serve for one year from the first of February, and until their successors are elected.
An Executive Committee to serve for one year, and until their successors are elected,
shall consist of the President and (our Vice-Presidents, three of whom shall be a quo-
rum for the transaction of business.

The above shall be substituted for Article Fourth of the Constitution.

Addition to By-Laws.

Section viii. — Persons reading papers shall be restricted to twenty minutes of time.
Speakers shall not address the Society more than twice on the same subject. The first
time to occupy not more than ten, and the second not over five minutes, unless the So-
ciety shall order otherwise.

On motion of S. G. Minkler, the following resolution was adopted:

Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting, that all fruits should be sold by
weight.

Dr. W.M. LeBaron, State Entomologist, was introduced, and ad-
dressed the meeting as follows :

This meeting of the Northern Horticultural Society, occuring as it
does, about midway between the busy portions of two seasons, furnishes
a very suitable time wherein to take a retrospective view of the experi-
ences of the past, its successes and its failures, for the purpose of draw-
ing lessons therefrom, for the guidance of the future.

These retrospective views are always very useful and interesting with
respect to my own special department of practical entomology, because
no two seasons are alike in this respect. Noxious insects in their prev-
alence, surge forward and backward, like the waves of the sea, one
year overwhelming us with the most serious losses, and then leaving us
perhaps for a number of years comparatively unharmed.

i8

258 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

Insects vary extremely in the method and the degree of their preva-
lence. Some, like the codling moth and the plum curculio, are always
with us, but varying more or less in abundcince from year to )''ear.
Others, like the Hessian fly, the chinch bug, and the army-worm, come
upon us at longer or shorter intervals, being swept away in the interims
either by adverse climatic influences, or by the agency of natural enemies,
or, in extreme cases, by our abandonment for a season or two of the
damaged crop. Some, like the oyster-shell bark-louse, seem to be
undergoing a slow but sure process of extinction ; whilst others, like
the grape-leaf and root-louse, may be insidiously increasing upon us,
as its representative in Europe has already done to a very serious ex-
tent.

The astonishing multiplication of certain kinds of insects in particu-
lar seasons is well calculated to excite both our wonder and alarm.
Scarcely a year passes that some destructive onslaught of this kind does
not occur. Last season the famous army-worm overran various por-
tions of the country, especially northern Wisconsin, and several of the
south-eastern counties of Iowa. These insects are so called because
they march like an army of soldiers, all in one direction, turning aside
for no obstacle. At Peshtigo many wells were rendered useless by rea-
son of these worms falling into them by the thousand, when the varia-
tion of a foot or two from their straight line of march would have car-
ried them safely past. Three years ago the tent caterpillar of the for-
est swarmed in such profusion in southern Illinois and in Kentucky,
that in several instances railroad trains were reported to have been
stopped by the myriads of these insects swarming upon the road, and
greasing the rails with their crushed bodies.

Both of the caterpillars just mentioned, however, are usually restrict-
ed to small sections of territory, sometimes involving but two or three
counties in their ravages. Far difi'erent is the case with the notorious
chinch bug, which, year before last, swept over forty thousand square
miles of territory, and was estimated to have destroyed thirty millions
of dollars worth of spring wheat and barley. You all know what chinch
bugs are, and most of you have probably seen them accumulate in par-
ticular localities, so that you could shovel them up by the half bushel.

I have just said that the enormous multiplication of these and some
other insects is well calculated to excite our astonishment. The question
which naturally occurs to every one is, where do these legions of insects
come from so suddenly.^ for it sometimes seems as if the very dust under
our feet had become vivified into crawling vermin. The answer to this
question is to be found primarily in the enormous prolificacy of certain
species of insects, the females of some species being known to lay five hun-
dred eggs or upward. It would also undoubtedly be found, if we had traced
the matter carefully, that the increase has not been so sudden as it appear-
ed. They do not really spring out of the dust, but must all have come by
a regular process of generation. A certain species of insect may be pret-
ty numerous one year, but not sufficiently so to do serious damage, or

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 259

€xcite particular attention, but come to multiply them the next year by
five hundred, or even two hundred and fifty, supposing but half of them
to be females, and we become painfully conscious of their presence.

The insects which I have just named, however, are not those which
are to-day of the greatest interest to the horticulturists of northern lUi-
Bois. The two insects which I believe have the highest claim to this
■distinction, are the oyster-shell bark -louse and the canker worm. These
are both long known insects, but to each of them a peculiar interest at-
taches at this time, and especially in this northern section of the State.

The oyster-shell bark-louse, which was formerly the worst scourge
•which the apple orchardist had to contend against throughout all the
northern states, has been, for a considerable number of years past, ap-
parently in a process of gradual extinction. This is emphatically a
northern insect, never having been known to do much damage south of
the thirty-ninth parallel of latitude; and for a considerable range north
of that line, this insect does not appear to flourish. Mr. Walsh, in his
report of r868, speaks of having received apple twigs infested with bark-
lice scales, from as far south as Macoupin county in this State, but he
found that under most of them the eggs had been destroyed, as he had
reason to suppose, by acari, or mites.

Farther north, in the latitude of Chicago, another minute parasitic
enemy of the bark-louse is found to prevail, which is more destructive
to it than even the acari. This is a beautiful little chalcis fly, less than
the twentieth of an inch in length, of a lemon yellow color, which your
speaker had the pleasure of discovering in the fall of 1870. This fly is
so minute that it would in all probability have escaped our notice, were
it not for the fact that after its larvae has devoured the eggs of the bark-
louse under the scale, the perfect fly makes its escape by cutting a per-
fectly round hole through the scale, and these holes constitute indelli-
ble marks which last for several years, that is, as long as the scales ad-
here to the tree, and which thus enable us to estimate with mathemati-
cal certainty what proportion of the bark-lice are by this means
destroyed. It appeared from observations made in the counties of Kane
and DuPage, that more than half of the bark-lice had been destroyed
by the larvce of this minute fly.

The great difficulty in contending with bark-lice has arisen from what
might be called their centrifugal instinct, that is, their disposition to
disseminate themselves outwardly upon the terminal twigs, where our
destructive applications can but very partially reach them, liut where
man, with his clumsy appliances is baflled, these tiny parasites are in
their element. They follow their victims, as weasels follow rats, to their
ultimate resorts, and having found them, they adhere to them with a more
than brotherly tenacity. They enter the domicil pf their victim with-
out ceremony ; sit down at his table without being bidden ; devour his
substance without compunction ; and finish their rei)ast by killing and
eating the host himself. I will not undertake to defend their course
upon strictly moral considerations. But I do not advise any one to in-

260 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

stitute proceedings against them on this account, until they shall have
had time to cl^an out the bark-lice.

I have been in the way of receiving, every year that I have held my
present ofifice, packages of apple-twigs from different parts of the coun-
try, and amongst others from northern Illinois and the southern part of
Wisconsin, and it is evident from these specimens, that the natural ene-
mies of the bark-louse are not operating here so extensively as in the
more southern latitudes. Many abortive scales are found even here,
but also many scales full of sound eggs, so that if the process of ex-
termination has commenced here it is evident that it is progressing
much more slowly than we could desire.

But the interesting point to which I wish especially to call your at-
tention, and to which what I have thus far said is only the prelude, is that
upon the infested twigs received from these more northern sections, I
have not been able to find any trace of the work of the parasitic chal-
cis fly, and the important question, therefore, arose whether these friend-
ly insects might not be transported to these parts, and thus an opportu-
nity be afforded for them to extend the range of their beneficent opera-
tions. But the idea of transporting and colonizing these minute flies,
so small, indeed, that they can scarcely be seen by the naked eye, with
the expectation of being able to determine by any subsequent observa-
tions whether the experiment succeeded or not, appeared, at first sight,
to be extremely impracticable. Fortunately, however, for the experi-
ment, it was found that this little parasite passes the winter in the larva,
or grub state, under the scale of the bark-louse, after having devoured
its legitimate occupant. These grubs pass the winter, as a matter of
course, in a torpid state, and therefore require no food until the warmth
of returning spring restore them to activity. If, therefore, twigs could
be taken from trees where this insect was known to have been operating,
and taken in sufficient number to ensure a certain proportion of the
parasite larvae, and transported during the winter, or very early in the
spring, to the desired locality, and be there tied in little bundles to the
branches of trees infested by bark-lice, it would seem that the conditions
essential to a successful result would be fulfilled.

This experiment has been actually performed. With the co-opera-
tion of my friend, Capt. Ed. H. Beebe, who took a lively interest in this
matter, several dozens of twigs were taken from apple trees in my own
neighborhood, where this friendly parasite was known to abound, and
carried to his place of residence in the northern extremity of the State,
and there tied in small bundles to a number of trees badly infested by
bark-lice, and where no trace of the chalcis flies could be found. The
only way in which it could be determined whether the experiment suc-
ceeded, was by dete(;ting at the end of the season, or at some subse-
quent time, the presence of the minute round holes in the scales of the
bark-lice, which are the infallible indices of the operations of the chal-
cididae. When it is considered that these holes are so minute that the
search for them has to be made by the aid of a magnifying glass, and

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 2G1

■when we remember that at most, only a dozen or so of these flies were
let loose in three different orchards, each of which contained several
hundreds of trees, some idea may be formed of the dehcacy of this
experiment, and of the difficulty of determining with certainty whether
it had succeeded.

In May, 1872, a little more than a year after the commencement of
the experiment. Captain Ueebe carefully examined the trees upon
which the chalcis larvae had been placed, and discovered and transmit-
ted to me for examination a number of twigs, some of the scales upon
which exibited the characteristic round holes caused by the exit of the
chalcis fly. In July, of the same year, I visited Galena, and in company
with Capt. Beebe, submitted one of the trees experimented upon to a
pretty thorough examination. Additional traces of the chalcis flies
■were discovered, and still others were sent to me by Capt. Beebe later
in the season.

The success of this interesting experiment may therefore be said to
have been proved as nearly as any exijeriment of this kind can be,
within so short a period after its commencment. If it shall be found
by future investigation that similar marts exist in other localities at
a distance from those experimented in, the jjresumption will then be
that either this or some other species of chalcis, had already found its
way in small numbers to these more northern sections. But if, on the
other hand, these marks shall be found to become more numerous,
year by year, in the neighborhood of this experiment, whilst they shall
not be found at a distance from it, the success of the experiment may
be considered as demonstrated.

If future observations shall confirm the success of this experiment
which already presents so encouraging an aspect, every one will admit
that it will furnish one of the most interesting instances on record of
the application of science to practical purposes.

This experiment of transporting and colonizing the beneficial para-
sitic insects, is therefore not only a very important one in itself, but it
derives additional interest from its being, so far as I am aware, the only
one of the kind which has ever been attempjted, and I am hapj^y to have
the opportunity of contributing this sketch of it to the transactions of
the Northern Horticultural Society of Illinois.

The lecturer then gave a brief sketch of the history and treatment of
the canker worm, which has been particularly destructive for a number
of years past in several of the northern counties of this state. But
these remarks were made without written notes, and the substance of
them has been already published in the author's second annual report
upon the injurious insects of Illinois.

In response to questions, Dr. LeBaron replied, that the female can-
ker worm, being wingless, is very localized, in comparison with other in-
sects. It spreads principally by being carried on clothing and the va-

262 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

rious vehicles in use. He would deal with them by smearing the
trunks of the trees with tar. Should be particular in the application.
The time of travel about one month. Hence, by frequent application,,
large quantities can be destroyed by jarring the limbs, when the worms
will drop off and hang below the branches. Syrange with solution of
Paris green. The worms go into the ground in the fall. Many or-
chards have got rid of them by late fall plowing, and letting hogs into
the orchard.

No danger of distributing it by cions. The eggs are not deposited
on twigs, but mostly in the scales of the bark on the trunks of the trees.

It is not a new thing ; has been in Macoupin county for many years.
A. Bryant had it thirty years ago. Heard of previous to his experience
with it.

T. Hunt — It was in this (Stephenson) county thirty-five years ago;
disappeared soon after, and is now at work again.

G. M. Bliss — Have it with us at this time. When a boy used tar,
and in some instances the tar girdled the tree.

LeBaron — Coal tar is injurious; pine tar is not. Have tried a num-
ber of experiments with kerosene ; have anointed trees all over with it;
have used lard, linseed oil. Found the kerosene to kill the first buds. By
July have used it freely on young trees without injury. Have tried all
kinds of tar with kerosene, and it did not kill any of them when used in
July and August. I put it on the trunks only. So far as my experi-
ments go, I know of no tree killed by the use of kerosene.

The canker worm kills the tree when permitted to work on it three
years in succession. The insect is fully prepared for its ravages in the
spring, it matures the season before.

On motion of R. Douglas, the following resolution was adopted :

Whereas, Under the present constitution of this State, it becomes necessary, in
order to continue the office of State Entomologist, that an cxprt'ss appropriation shall
be made lor this purpose ; and

Whereas, We believe that this office is of great importance and benefit to the
Agricultural and Horticultural interests of the State ; therefore.

Resolved, That the Northern Illinois Horticultural Society earnestly request the
General Assembly to make such appropriation as may be necessary to maintain said
office.

The Committee on the President's address, submitted the following
report which was unanimously adopted :

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

Your committee would respectfully call attention to the able address
of our President, especially to his remarks on timber-culture and tree-
planting.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 263

We would heartily endorse his recommendation for the appointment
of a committee to prepare a circular embodying a statistical statement
in reference to cost of tree-planting, culture, growth and profit to be
derived from timber-growing.

We feel assured that much good can be accomplished by having the
matter properly presented to the public. And it may be the means of
inducing the railroad companies to interest themselves in the matter.
We would suggest that this circular be brought, and distributed as soon
as possible.

We would recommend the following persons as such committee :
Milton Ellsworth, H. D. Emery, Jonathan Perriam.

In regard to other subjects spoken of in the address, your committee
have thought proper to refer to them in the form of sundry resolutions,
which we now offer.

ON TAXING NURSERY STOCK.

Whereas, The last Legislature passed an act taxing Nursery Stock, which are
growing crops as much as any other product of the soil, and

Whereas, The law discriminates unjustly against this class of productions, there-
fore

Resolved, That it is the sense of this Society that the law ought to be repealed, and
that we will use all just influence to bring about that result, and that a copy of these
resolutions be presented to the members of the Legislature, for immediate action
thereon.

ON FOREST TREES.

Whereas, The cultivation of forests is one of the most important necessities of
the West, and especially the prairie region and the great plain beyond : therefore,

Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to prepare a bill to be presented to
Congress, relative to this subject, or take such action in the premises as they may
deem necessary.

Committee on Forests: D. C. Scofield, D. L. S. Peninngton, H. H.
McAfee.

TO ENCOURAGE TREE-PLANTING IN ILLINOIS.

Whereas, The continued destruction of the great forests of the country, is con-
stantly causing a greater and greater appreciation in price, of almost all the valuable
kinds of lumber ; and, feeling as we do, the necessity of some general law to
encourage tree-planting, for its various economic uses, and influences ; therefore.

Resolved, That we respectfully urge upon the Legislature of the State, the speedy
passage of an act to foster this great necessity of the whole prairie region. And would
recommend that a committee be appointed to take charge of the whole matter.

On motion of L. K. Scofield, the following persons were appointed
a committee on behalf of this Society to confer with the E.xecutive
Committee of the State Horticultural Society, in relation to the passage
of a law, relating to the mutual interests of the various horticultural
societies of the state.

E. H. Beebe, Geneva; D. C. Scofield, Elgin; S. J. Davis, Freeport;
J. Perriam, Chicago ; A. L. Cumings, Galena.

264 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

The Society proceeded to the election of officers for the ensuing

year ; the following is the result :

S. G. MiNKLER, President.

R. Douglass, S. Edwards, ) ,.■ -r, • -i^^^.,
' ' y Vice Presidents.

L. Montague, E. H. Beebe, )
D. W, Scott, Recording Secretary.
R. Little, H. H. McAfee, Reading Secretaries.
S. Woodman, Treasurer.

The Society decided to hold its next annual meeting, January 27-30,
1873. Adjourned till four o'clock, P. M.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

The President announced the following Committee on Printing:
R. Little, A. R. Whitney, H. H. McAfee, J. D. McCall, D. W. Scott.
On final Resolutions : S. Edwards, C. W. Richmond, T. McWhorter.
On motion of E. H. Beebe the following Resolutions were adopted :

Resolved, That the Corresponding Secretary have printed five hundred copies of all
Resolutions passed at this session referring to Legislative Action, and that he forward
copies to each member of the Society, with the request that they forward the same to
their Senators and Representatives, urging their attention to the same.

Resolved, That the Corresponding Secretary of this Society have printed three
hundred copies of the Resolution passed by this Society in relation to the Industrial
University, and all other resolutions pertaining to legislative action. That he forward
a copy to each member of this Society, with the request that it be forwarded to their
Representatives and Senators in the General Assembly — that they may take the same
into consideration, and give such action as they may deem advisable.

On motion of D. W. Scott, the Executive Committee are empowered
to send delegates to the National Pomological Society.

On motion of S. Edwards, General Atkins is requested to furnish
the Society with a copy of his address.

Adjourned to seven o'clock, P. M. ,

Resolved, That we request General S. D. Atkins to write out his welcoming ad-
dress for publication in our transactions.

EVENING SESSION.

Mr. H. H. McAfee read the following Essay on Floriculture, from
J. W. Robson of Kansas :

PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE.

BY JOHN W. ROBSON, ABILENE, KANSAS.

The love of flowers is universal. It is developed at a very early age,
as we have often seen in the eager eye of the child, when with nimble
fingers it pulls the beautiful gem to pieces. We see it in children of

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 265

more advanced age, who gleefully, hand in hand, wander through the
woodland wild, in search of flowers, or in meadows sweet, engaged
in making floral wreaths, or daisy chains.

This love of the beautiful never becomes extinct in the human soul.
It may be crushed by the cultivation of selfish feelings; it may be par-
tially extinguished by wolfish greed and the eager haste to be rich ; but
away down in the human heart the latent spark remains. We see this
exemplified when the weary, worn-out man of business, tired of acquir-
ing wealth, begins to look around for some quiet spot where he can
plant shrubs and flowers, and make himself a home.

Can we not, as a society, bring this latent principle into healthy action
by bringing such influences to bear upon the minds of men as will lead
them to drink at those pure fountains of pleasure, and here find the re-
laxation they need from the sterner and more uncongenial pursuits of
wealth .' This is a (question wliich deserves our serious consideration.

A writer has beautifully said : " Floriculture is the most rational ot
all recreations. It teaches forethought, industry, and' economy of time.
It exalts the mind, invigorates the frame, and constantly reminds us of
the great God, whose hand is imprinted on every leaf and flower, and
who, in His bountiful goodness, rewards us with the fruits of the
earth."

To teach the farmer to manage his garden, and his children to cul-
tivate flowers, is to find them innocent gratification and ultimately lead
them to purity and happiness.

This we believe to be our mission, to teach men that they were not
born to plod and drudge; that tliey were not sent here with eyes blinded
to the beautiful creations around them ; or ears stopped to the music of
nature ; or, when the fragrance of opening flowers, as it floats upon the
morning breeze, is wafted toward them, refuse to inhale it lest they
might enjoy it.

You must not, gentlemen, think us crazy on this flower (juestion, for
we do think that the adornment of our homes contributes in no small
degree to the improvement of a people, by the moral influence it exer-
cises upon them. Whatever makes home pleasant and attractive, les-
sens the temptation to stray into the paths of evil, and protects its
inmates from falling an easy prey to the snare of the tempter.

As the work of this society is missionary to some extent, we can do
much in educating the taste of our peoi)le, more especially the farming
population, as they possess greater facilities for beautifying their homes
than any other class. Each of us might go to work during these leis-
ure days of early spring, and encourage our neighbors to fix up things
generally about the house, to go to the woods and river bottoms, and
dig up maples and elms and plant them around the homestead, not only
to make // more beautiful, but to protect themselves from the summer's
heat and the winter's storm.

We think when dealing out arguments in favor of home adornment,
.we ought to say as little as possible about money being necessary for its

266 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

accomplishment. Get in the thin edge of the wedge first, by recom-
mending those kinds of trees and flowers that can easily be obtained ;
and these, teaching silently, will cultivate a more refined taste, and in-
spire a longing for all that is beautiful in the tree, or shrub, or flower.

We could influence, also, the younger members of the family, by giv-
ing them a few simple lessons in flower-culture, and stimulate them to
increased effort by bestowing a plant, or a few packages of seed. We
can teach them how to plant and how to sow, direct their attention
to those plants which are of easy culture, and yet bloom long and abun-
dantly.

It is wonderful how flowers will adapt themselves to circumstances,
and still be beautiful. One of the most graceful objects we have been
privileged to see, was an old-fashioned teapot, minus the spout, sus-
pended with twine from the centre of a farm-house window, containing
a fine specimen of ground ivy, which grew as luxuriantly as if suspended
in a basket of the richest terra-cotta. An old tin pan, that had lain
around the yard amongst other unsightly objects, was converted into a
" thing of beauty " by enclosing it in bark, setting it upon an old stump
which stood in the shade, planting in the center blue and scarlet cardi-
nal flowers, surrounded with a ring of spleenwort, maiden-hair and
shield fern, while round the edge grew ground-ivy and moneywort in
rich profusion. A number of old white lead kegs cut in two and cov-
ered with bark, made the finest baskets for trailing lobelias and Seeum
Loeboldii we have yet seen, and were admired by all who saw them.
An old family washbowl, in which a large family had performed their
ablutions for years, enclosed in rustic work, was made the receptacle
for a fine specimen of Abutiloii Vexi/Ian'i/in, which throve amazingly
and bloomed in vast profusion. An old nail keg was cut in two, thus
making two tubs. These were ornamented with the thin bark of the
white cedar, and fantastically coiled around the rims and sides with the
stems of the wild grapevine. In one was planted a scarlet geranium
(Queen of the West), with an edging of Lobelia Paxtonii. In the other
a brilliant colored coleus surrounded with a dazzling scarlet nasturti-
um. Both were floral gems all the summer and the fall.

As we are anxious to make this a thoroughly practical essay, we will
devote a few brief paragraphs to the cultivation of annual flowers.
These are the flowers for every man's garden, their culture being so
simple if properly understood. They are not only among the most
beautiful ornaments of the summer flower-garden, but the ease with
which they are cultivated, and the long time they remain in bloom, give
them the highest claim to our attention and care. If their culture is
simple the small amount of trouble they give to the grower, as well as
their comparative inexpensiveness for their rich array of beauty, render
them objects of pleasure to every lover of flowers. Those charming
objects of the flower garden, (green-house plants), which require yearly
propagation by cuttings, and the labor of watering and potting, besides
the wintering of such, is not within every man's means. But a few dimes

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 267

expended in seeds, and a little pleasant labor in the spring, will give an
amount of enjoyment beyond belief, and that most desolate wilderness
about the farm — the farmer's door-yard — could be made to bud and
blossom as the rose.

The reason why annual flowers are so frequently a failure is owing in
a great measure to the intricate and expensive directions which are giv-
en by seedsmen and florists in their annual catalogues and floral guides.
To be successful in raising good, sturdy plants for i)lanting out in
the flower beds and borders, the seed-bed must be prepared in the fall.
Make a box of twelve-inch boards the size of your sash, fill to within
three inches with good fresh soil, lay a few boards over the whole, and
leave it till spring. When warm weather comes in February, remove
the boards and put on the sash. By the beginning of March the soil
will be in good condition for sowing the seed. Stir up the surface a lit-
tle, breaking all the lumps, and making the surface as smooth as possi-
ble. Take a piece of lath, and with the edge make little drills three
inches apart; making very slight impressions for the smaller seeds and
deeper ones, about the eighth of an inch in depth, for the larger. After
sowing, fill the drills with finely sifted soil ; water slightly if the weather
be warm, and the work is completed. When the seeds appear above
ground give plenty of air during warm days, and when the plants get
strong, remove the sash altogether, replacing it at night. About the
beginning of May, the plants will be large enough to handle. They
should then be planted out in their summer quarters. Those who can
not afibrd a sash, will find calico oiled, tacked upon a wooden frame, an
excellent substitute.

If you want a constant brilliant show of flowers, choose the Aster,
Balsam, Dianthus, Delphinum, Petunia, Portulaca, Phlox, Scabiosa,
TropcTolum, Ipomea, Thunbergia, Double Zennia and Verbena. To
every one who is possessor of a home, we say, plant flowers ! Plant
them by your doorstep, in front of your dwelling, in every nook, and
waste jjlace in the yard, plant them all around the dear old homestead,
train them up its walls. Forget not to throw in your mite towards pro-
ducing and shedding sweet aroma everywhere. Thus you will gladden
and bless the hearts of your children, and before you are aware, will
incite praise in your own hearts towards the great Infinite Source of
loveliness and beauty.

Every one who loves flowers will find some convenient jilace for them,
whether that place be in doors or out ; and if no place can be found
outside, the windows of the sitting-room can be made beautiful and
redolent with perfume.

Window gardening is becoming decidedly popular, still there is a
wonderful lack of success in this department of home decoration. This
does not arise from want of taste, or the want of desire on the part of
the fair portion of our community, but there are two reasons why ladies
are not generally successful in making their windows gay and attractive
during the winter months.

268 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

I St. Attempting too much. This is the cause of many a failure ; it
will never do to try and cultivate so many species of plants which are
not adapted to the close atmosphere and uncertain temperature of the
sitting room.

2d. Making a bad selection. It is the general practice to grow Ver-
benas, Geraniums, Fuchsias, Heliotropes and Roses, intermixed with
Coleus, Begonias, Achyranthes and other tropical plants, thus giving
the preference to tender, soft wooded species, while those which are
hard wooded and hardy, and evergreen besides, are entirely neglected.
These we consider the best for window decoration during the long win-
ter months, and will yield lasting pleasure and satisfaction to every one
who attempts their growth : English Ivy, Acuba Japonica, Myrtle, Ever-
green Privet, Laurastina. American Yew, Pendulous Arborvitas, Tom
Thumb Arborvitas, Berberis Aquifolia, Berberis lUicifolia, Daphne Al-
pina. Daphne Cucorum, Maherina Odorata, Sollga Heterophylla,
Vinca Minor, Vinca Major, Vinca Major Variegata, Gaultheria Procum-
bens, Louicera Aurea Reticulata. To these add a few Double Daisies,
Chinese Primrose, Mignonette, Hyacinth and Sweet Alyssum.

Here is a window garden which will not soon fall into the " sere
and yellow leaf," and which only needs to be seen in the depth of win-
ter to be admired.

Be careful in the application of water. Too much moisture is the
bane of plants kept in the house. Saucers should never be kept full of
water, as the absorption of too much moisture is destructive to the roots,
and consequently plants bacome unhealthy. It is best to keep them a
little too dry, than to give so much water as to produce that soddened
condition of the soil which we so often see. Choose fine days during
winter, when the thermometer stands above the freezing point to set
the plants out of doors for a few minutes, and with a rose watering-pot
or syringe wash off the dust which has accumulated on the foliage, and
thus restore that " emerald hue " which is so grateful to the eye, when
the outside world is covered with snow.

For pot-culture during summer, some of the free flowering varieties
are well fitted. A few well grown Pelargoniums should be added, as no
other flower can exceed the richness of their color. The Heliotrope,
though a modest flower, fully compensates us for the want of color by
the delicious fragrance. The Lemon Verbena {Aloysia Citriodoms)
will be needed for the same reason, the fragrance of the leaves being
the principal attraction. This, being deciduous, can be easily kept in
the cellar during winter.

Fuchsias are general favorites and will remain in bloom all sum-
mer; choose those varieties which have massive, heavy flowers. Cuphea
Platy Centra should have the sunniest spot. Grow it in a small pot and
it will bloom in perfection. Another handsome and free flowering
genus are the Lantanas, with brilliantly colored flowers of every shade,
constantUy changing in hue, these when confined to the narrow limits
of a flower-pot will bloom more profusely than in the open ground.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 269

Roses must not be forgotten. Do not be carried away by expen-
sive novelties in your selection. Devoniensis, Souvemr ik la Malviaison,
Saffrano, Hermosa, LaPactole and Agrippina, are hard to beat, and are
the most satisfactory and abundant bloomers we know, and only need
to be grown to become general favorites. Petunias are remarkably
adapted for pot-culture, especially the double varieties, as they bloom
more profusely than when planted in the open ground. Take Madame
Mallaise and William White for your first trial and thus prove the cor-
rectness of our statement.

For hanging baskets we would select the different varieties of Ivy-
leaved Geranium, Maurandia Barclay and Cerastium Tomentosum,
Linaria Cyrnballaria, and the many fine varieties of Lobelia Evinus.
One word of caution — do not run after novelties : too many have suf-
fered shipwreck on that rock. Begin cultivating those flowers you know;
or that some reliable floricultural friend recommends. Let novelties be
twenty years old before you purchase, rather than make a failure. Be
satisfied with those plants which others have been successful in grow-
ing, and have made a source of pleasure; and all fears of failure will be
dissipated and success certain.

One word with regard to soils, and our task is ended. Had all the
writers who have treated this subject but gone and studied under dame
Nature, there would have been less mystery. We hold that well rotted
sod, decayed leaves and charcoal rubbish is all that is needed for the
tyro.

We love Floriculture. It has been the pursuit and the joy of our life.
We know of nothing more conducive to health and happiness than the
cultivation of flowers. We have not followed their culture for pelf, but
for their beauty, their sweetness alone. To us they have been a con-
tinuous source of enjoyment, and have had a refining influence on our
soul. No wonder, then, that we devote our spare moments in efforts
(very humble efforts we confess) to teach our fellowmen that floricul-
ture is a real blessing, and one of the greatest agents in Nature for civ-
ilizing and ennobling humanity.

On motion, the Corresponding Secretary was requested to tender
the thanks of this Society to Mr. J. W. Robson, for his very valuable
essay.

Mrs. Harris, of Galena, read the following ]japer on Landscape
Gardening:

LANDSCAPE GARDENING.

We are fully conscious of the boldness of attempting to grasp this
theme.

Has not the lamented Downing, in a large, beautiful and elaborate
volume exhausted the subject .' And has not one of the brightest
luminaries of our society promised to shed his beams upon it at the
present meeting? And yet, even yet, we dare throw a woman's mite
into the store of council upon it.

270 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

Every one knows that a large proportion of what is written on
Landscape Gardening is entirely over the heads or beyond the pockets of
the common people. Authors "have written for the millionaire, rather
than for the million."

We will not attempt to define the limits separating the garden
proper from the landscape garden. The one necessarily runs into the
other. We would merely premise by saying that with the garden of the
millionaire we have nothing to do. He has no need of us. With large
territory, an unlimited supply of money, and the services of skilled
artisans at command, he can create beauty and even grandeur in any
location and in any style which he is pleased to adopt.

This very unpretending paper refers to simple cottage homes, and
is addressed to the possessors of a few square rods, or a few acres at
most, of ground, with but little leisure time and less spare money. The
most that we hope to do, is to help these a little in their efforts to use
their limited means to the best possible advantage — to aid them in em-
ploying the treasures which Nature has thrown in their way, thus, by
blending, to domesticate Nature, whilst they enlarge and glorify art.

In the very simplicity of our subject lies the main difficulty of treat-
ing it profitably.

UNITY.

A garden, like a landscape painting, a poem, a sermon, or almost
any other work of art, must have unity and perspective — a central
object to which all other portions have a correct bearing, a unifying
spirit or soul, pervading and giving life and expression to the whole,
and perspective, which is the result, as it were, of a kind of assorting
process, by means of which objects of secondary importance are grouped
and thrown into the distance.

With the garden, the central object is of course, the dwelling, —
the unifying spirit is the home-love located there. This home-love,
reaching out into the love of flowers, of trees, of landscapes and of all
things beautiful in nature, creates the garden. All this is simple
enough; — so simple as to deserve the name of truism.

The art consists in carrying out harmonious designs and exquisite
details, whilst remaining " en-rapport " with the genius of home.
Retaining the warm expression of home-life — with its visions of fireside
comfort, — of grand-mother's arm-chair, the baby's cradle and the chil-
dren's play-ground, — preserving, we say, the home aroma without the
homeliness of the good old times, to develop, enlarge, enrich and
beautify your grounds, with treasures of garden, field and forest. This
is your aim.

It is impossible to draw patterns for our neighbor's plantation as
we would for a patch-work bed-quilt. General hints are all that the
wisest can give.

Permit us again to refer to the painter's art.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 271

LIGHT AND SHADOW.

These are the pigment with which you are to convert your grounds
into a living, glowing picture. In the skillful management and disposi-
tion of these, lie the first and the last lessons of the landscape garden-
er's art. Here you want bold, strong lights, ?nd deep, sharp shadows.
Yonder, a soft blending of sunshine and shade, running imperceptibly
into each other.

Your dwelling is in the foreground. You must have jutting angles
and over-hanging eaves, to give bold, effective expression to this part
of your picture. The trees that are nearest the buildings should be
solitary and symmetrical, throwing clearly defined shadows on the
smooth-shaven lawn, " like pictures in monochrome " on a " canvass of
pure green." Here you want also broad, clear sunshine, giving effect
to the few bold shadows, making home bright and cheerful, its atmos-
phere clear and bracing.

Yonder, near the borders of your territory, you will plant trees of
smaller growth. They should sometimes be in twos or threes, some-
times in clumps, whilst in one or two favored nooks a small thicket has
a fine effect. In these latter the largest specimens should be in the
centre with the smaller ones sloi)ing off at the outer sides, thus making
softened lights with a delicate play of flickering shadows. In this man-
ner you may produce fine perspective effects, with very moderate dis-
tances. This arrangement, it will be clearly seen, will make the grounds
look larger than they really are, at the same time that the most perfect
unity of design is secured. Artificial perspective may also be produced
by arrangement of tints; having trees and shrubbery of strong hues in
the foreground, and those of the softer, greyer tints in the distance.

Where such a course is practicable (it will mostly be so in country
places), setting out a few pine trees in the adjacent pasture fields, in
situations calculated to harmonize with the shrubbery inside of the
garden, will blend the latter with the surrounding landscape — will, in
fact, adopt the whole landscape as an enlargement of your own garden
domain.

It is well known that this effect is greatly heightened by extending
rows of trees indefinitely along the sides of highways leading past and
through your grounds. Here, if nowhere else, as a matter of taste,
would we have trees in straight, even rows. Here the Lombardy Pop-
lar {Popi/liis), even one of the least beautiful of all the trees that
Nature has made, finds a fitting place. In truth, so long and intimately
has it been associated with highways, and with the common people (as
its name implies), that we regard any landscape in a cultivated region
as incomplete without a row of these trees somewhere in view. We
also regard as incomplete any landscape garden which does not adopt
the adjacent highway as a part of itself, throwing the beautiful mantle
of its own hospitality, in the form of cooling shade and refreshing fruits,
over the weary and thirsty traveler.

272 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

LATITUDE.

As a part of the home spirit, it is well that latitude be consulted in
style of building, and in improving grounds.

Not merely in an economical point of view, but for fitness of ex-
pression, we would choose at the north sheltered situations, warm brown
tints (in the walls), pointed gables with deep protective eaves, windows
with heavy mullions and diamond panes, and a liberal supply of the
conifera, which match these so well, planted around.

At the south, the arbor^e that belong to that region, with a style of
building in keeping with the same. Low, broad roofs, wide verandas,
windows wide and large, and so constructed as to look as if there were
no glass in them at all, only an open space to court the lazy breezes.
Palms and round Magnolias with their varnished, flapping leaves, make
suitable shade around such a home.

The people of the North, and those of the South of Europe,
taught this lesson centuries ago, — they learned it from Nature herself.
But with our cosmopolitan tastes we build Italian villas and Grecian
temples at the North ; and, I doubt not, if we should travel South we
would find gothic structures there. Don't suppose that we would have
all dwellings on the same parallel of latitude of the same pattern. By
no means. • But, " a word to the wise is sufficient."

*

NATIONALITY.

We must say that we love to see American trees about the dwell-
ing of an American citizen. One whose pride is in his birth-right, the
glorious right of suffrage, whose wealth is in his strong right arm, and
the honest toil which makes him lord of the soil, — it is fitting that he
should find in the forests of his native land the decorations of his
home.

We have trees plenty, beautiful as any country can furnish, large
and small and middle-sized, evergreen and deciduous, foliage light
and silvery, foliage dark and glossy; and for rich tints in autumn, every
one admits that we can challenge the world.

For large trees, what can surpass some of our Oaks and Maples, our
Elms and Buttonwood, our Tulip-poplar {Liriodcndroji), our Birches
and a host of others ; or for trees of smaller growth, our Judas-tree
(Cercis)^ Fringe-tree {Chionanthus), Sassafras {Lams), Horse-chestnut
{^sculus), Csila-mbsi {Catalpa), and so on to the end of the catalogue of
deciduous trees, and of the evergreens, Pines and Spruces, and Arbor
Vitaes and Cedars. But you do not desire us to produce a copy ot
Humphrey Marshall's "Arbustum Americanum."

One oak in particular we beg leave to mention, as having been
the special favorite of our much esteemed friend. Dr. Darlington, a
man well known to lovers of Botany. We allude to the Scarlet Oak
{Quercus Cocci}tea),\\iw% described, " a native of the middle states — a
noble tree, often eighty feet high. The leaves, borne on long petioles,
are a bright, lively green on both surfaces, with four deep cuts on each

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 273

side, widest at the bottom. The great and peculiar beauty of this tree
we conceive to be its property of assuming a deep scarlet tint in autumn.
At that period it may, at a great distance, be distinguished from all
other Oaks, and indeed from every other forest tree. It is highly
worthy of a place in every plantation." — Downing.

Oh, if we could only plant or build old trees — trees of from fifty
to two hundred years' growth ! What can give such an air of grandeur
to a homestead as two or three of these patriarchs of the sylvan world
standing around, wearing their glorious old crowns so proudly .-' But
one thing we can do, if we have space enough. We can plant one or
more trees of kinds that will live long and grow large. We can give
them plenty of room and good culture, so that in time somebody will
see them fine old spreading trees. But let us beware of placing them
where they will finally crowd our dwelling, or shut out from our vision
some interesting view.

FLOWERS AND SMAT,LER PLANTS AND SHRUBS.

These form no unimportant feature of the landscape, as of the
smaller garden.

Here, in this sunny angle, where two walks diverge, your wife will
have a fine bed of hybrid perpetual Roses. On the other side, which
is slightly shaded, she will plant out Geraniums and other bedding
plants. While, still farther in front, a slight artificial knoll will blaze
with Verbenas. Just in the shade of that north wall will be her Pan-
sies. These are all the flowers proper that she will admit in front of
the house. These bloom all summer long, and will never cease to be

gay.

The Holland bulbs, and annuals, and border flowers generally, — all
those things that are in beauty only for a short season, — will l)c placed
modestly to the right and left, a little in the back-ground. Still further
to the right and left, ranging some distance from the building, will be
her plantations of Lilacs and Snow-balls, Weigelia, Spireas, etc.

Half retiring under the sheltering base of the veranda, will be some
of the more hardy and serviceable species of native ferns, decorating
that line which is usually so unsightly. In yonder thicket your daugh-
ter will deposit the store of wild flowers, and ferns, and mosses, which
she is ever and anon bringing home from her ramble in the woods,
until ere long you will find a choice botanic garden centered there.

In this retired nook you will plant a Weeping Ash, which she will
train into a shady scat (the only thing the WeejMng Ash is good for).
Around that fine large forest tree, your boys will build a rustic bench
where they may sit back to back, and "crack nuts and jokes." Yon
rough wall and board fence, which cannot be dispensed with, shall be
covered with American Ivy {Atiipclopsis). These bare white columns
of the veranda must be twined with climbing Fumitory {A(ilumia),
and Virgin's Bower {Clematis) both so light and deciduous as to con-
tract little dampness in summer, and to be wholly removed in winter.

19

274 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

FINISH.

In a garden, as in a lady's toilet, it is surprising what effects can be
produced by a few skillful finishing touches.

We have seen an ordinary tree-shaded yard in a village receive an
expression of real beauty, elegance, and refinement, simply from having a
small number of large vases of common earthenware, set in appropriate
positions, each vase containing, grown in earth, four or five fine foliage
plants; each plant contrasting strongly in color with the others, as pur-
ple, silver-grey, crimson, and golden.

Judicious management of hedges of American Arborvitse may be
made to work wonders — clipped low and smoothly where simple boun-
dary lines are desired — planted closely and grown tall for screens, either
to shut out cold winds, or to keep from stables, wood-yards, and such
other domestic arrangements as are more useful than beautiful. We
have seen an ornament perfect in its kind, and very striking, in the form
of an arched entrance through a clipped hedge. It was produced by
leaving one or two trees each side of the gateway uncut, and then as
they grew tall, training them into a complete arch. The object was so
very simple and appropriate, and yet so exceedingly beautiful, that we
could not but wonder that everybody who owned an evergreen hedge
■did not manage to have something of the same kind.

Two ornaments which abounded greatly in antique English gardens,
in the days of labyrinths and other quaint devices, we think deserve to
be retained in a greater degree of favor than they now enjoy. We al-
lude to "Aloes in tubs," and to low evergreen edgings. Of the former,
the common " century plant " {Agave Americana) is one of the finest
varieties, both on account of its large growth, its heavy, architectural-
like leaves, and its fine variegated color. A huge plant of this, stand-
ing on the stump of a tree, in some sunny spot, is to our eye a prettier
and more suitable garden ornament than a marble statute imported from
abroad at great expense. Besides, it costs nothing but the time and pa-
tience required for its raising, for you can beg, or buy at trifling cost,
young plants anywhere. Vases of foliage plants must, of course, have
shade.

Both these sorts of ornaments belong comparatively near the build-
ings. If scattered around the outskirts, they look like stray babes in a
wood.

EVERGREEN EDGINGS.

We know that in old time the dwarf box was used to such a degree
as to grow tiresome. No fear of that here in Northern Illinois. But
the low Juniper (savin) is as hardy as can be, and the beautiful heath-
leaved Arborvitae ( T/iuJa Ericifolia) which is more dwarf and dainty
looking than either Box or Juniper, promises to stand our climate well.
We do not admire flower beds hedged in with any sort of wall, but as a
boundary line between the green sod of the lawn and the gravel of the
walk or drive, nothing can be neater, prettier, or more tasteful every-

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 275

way, than a low edging of evergreen. The tiny liedge, and the walks
combined, running through the length and breadth of the garden, form
as it were, a line, by means of which the different objects are threaded
together, thus aiding (though in a mechanical way, as it were,) in unity
of construction ; and considering the slovenly propensity so common in
folks and animals, to step off the gravel just over and upon the grass,
thus obliterating the boundary line between walk and lawn, we consider
it quite indispensible to perfect neatness. Having thus arrived at the
subject of

WALKS.

What shall we say of them that has not been said many times over al-
ready .'' Shall-.they be straight or curved ? We have no objection to
traveling m a straight line when it is most convenient to do so. We
rather think that it is the natural way for sober people to go. Hence
we leave the "turpentine walks" for those who /lave //^/ but need to sign
the temperance pledge. Yet we would not overlook the fact that " the
curve line is the line of beauty." We regard that as the best walk
which, avoiding right angles, when practicable to do so, leads with the
most easy and natural curves from one object of interest to another, on
through the grounds. Just one straight walk we do dislike (and yet
that one is often unavoidable,) in a direct line from the front door to the
front gate. Think how embarrassing to the bashful suitor, calling at the
sunset hour, a time when all the family are congregated upon the veran-
da, enjoying the evening air, to be compelled to enter that straight gate,
and travel the whole length of that (narrow.') way, under the concen-
trated fire of the eyes of papa, mamma, and all the brothers and sisters
and visitors. He would prefer a side entrance, screened by shrubbery ;
and he would be right.

L.VSTLY,

Though perhaps we should have made it firstly, in laying out a garden, as
in other affairs, of life we would say, accei)t the situation — "take what
the gods send " and make the best of it. If you find yourself located
upon a level prairie which never saw a rock, don't try to deceive your-
self and your friends by piles of stones, hauled there with great labor and
painstaking, to make believe it is something else. Accept the (juietly
beautiful as your type, and improve accordingly.

If, on the other hand, you have chanced to light upon a picturesque
location, with steep hill-sides, abrupt rocks, and deep ravines, improve
your wealth in keeping with itself. Don't (juarry down your rocks, but
decorate them. Don't fill up your ravines, but fringe the sides with the
vegetation which belongs to them. In short, adhere to the principles
of the art as laid down by Pope — " the study of nature ; the genius of the
plan, and never to lose sight of good sense."

E. H. Beepe, from the Committee of Conference, reported that said
committee from this society Iiad unanimously agreed with the Execu-

276 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

tive Committee of the State Society, to the form of bill that should be
presented to the Legislature.

Mr. T. McWhorter presented the following paper on Geological
Revolutions :

GEOLOGICAL REVOLUTIONS.

There are many physical changes constantly going on around us
of which the cause is apparent to the most careless observer. If you
see a fresh bed of sand and gravel in the bed of a river, you do not
hesitate to conclude that it was deposited there by the last flooding of
the stream. If you observe that this fresh deposit overlaps an older
deposit of the same material on which young willows and cottonwoods
have started to grow, you conclude at once that this older bed of gravel
also had the same origin, by a flooding of the stream of older date.
Back of this still, you may trace evidences of floodings of still older
date. Now, in forming these conclusions concerning the natural origin
of these beds of sand and gravel, you have taken the first steps in
geological reasoning. You account for these beds of river-drift through
known causes that are familiar to your observation.

Again, when you see the little rivulet with every shower of rain
wearing its channel deeper and deeper, you do not hesitate to conclude
that this little streamlet has made for itself the channel in which it
flows. You extend your observation to larger streams, where you see
the'same phenomena on a larger scale. From the little streamlet to the
majestic river, you can not doubt but the valleys through which they
flow have been worn to their present condition l3y the abrading action
of water.

And finally, you observe that the whole surface of the country is
more or less water-worn into ravines, and natural drains, by which sur-
face water is conveyed to larger rivers, and thus to the ocean. You at
once conclude that all these ravines and valleys have been worn to their
present condition by the gradual action of water in finding its way to
the ocean — in short, by such causes as you see constantly in operation.

Thus it is in all geological conclusions. A long series of observa-
tions, with a diligent study of the physical changes constantly going on,
and a careful comparison between such phenomena and the various
changes revealed through the rocky crust of the earth, have gradually
resulted in the conclusion, that all the geological revolutions of the
past ages have been effected through such known agencies as are in
operation at the present time.

Now, at first thought this seems impossible. But the more we
study the physical changes constantly in operation, the more compre-
hensive the whole subject becomes.

Careful observations have revealed the fact that the earth's surface,
that seems so firm and substantial, is not really so ; but is subject to
slow oscillations or changes of level ; that in some localities the land is
slowly subsiding, while other sections are being gradually elevated.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 27

For example, it is well known that, at the present time, Greenland is
subsiding, while Scandinavia is being elevated. These oscillations are
extremely slow — not generally to exceed one or two feet in a century ;
but when long continued they must effect momentous revolutions in
climatic changes, and also in the configuration of land and water.

Now these oscillations of the earth's surface, and various other phe-
nomena, prove that the outer portion of the earth consists of a flexible
crust ; for if it was solid to the center, it could neither bend down, nor
rise up; — hut It ^/ocs />e//t/. Such oscillations of the earth's crust are
among the known physical changes that are constantly going on at the
present time ; and the geological record bears ample evidence that such
changes have been going on in all i)ast time. It is now conceded that
it is mainly through these slow oscillations of the eartli's crust, accom-
panied by the abrading action of water, that the most extensive geolog-
ical revolutions of past ages have been effected. The configuration of
land and water has been ever changing. Hence the present geography
of the earth bears no resemblance to any remote age of the past, and
probably no resemblance to any remote age of the future.

Every portion of dry land bears unmistakable evidence of having
been in past ages, for long durations of time, beneath the oceans, and in
most cases, of several successive changes, from ocean to land, and from
land to ocean again. Probably every portion of the earth's surface that
is now covered by oceans has been, in past ages, in the condition of dry
land ; and, as we have reason to believe, will, some time in future eter-
nity, again form portions of other continents.

All rocks known to geologists (except the igneous rocks of trap-
dykes and volcanic rocks) bear evidence of having been formed of the
accumulations in the bottoms of former seas. Accumulations are being
formed into rocks in our present oceans as in all past time, and by a
like process. The wash and wear of continents are being transported
by rivers to the ocean ; this sediment is carried by currents and spread
over the floors of the ocean ; and mingled with this sediment are pre-
served the forms of life that exist in our great seas. All the ledges of
limestones on the earth have originated from material that has passed
through the secretions of low orders of marine life. Mollusks and co-
rals are at work in our present seas in collecting material for building
up ledges of limestones, as in all past time. This is especially a chalk-
making period. For sixteen hundred miles of the ocean plateau on
which the Atlantic cable is laid, microscopic forms of life are incessantly
at work in the manufacture of chalk. These low forms of life are not
distinguishable under the microscope from those of the cretaceous
chalks of Europe.

The earth's surface still rocks beneath our feet with earthquake
shocks, and volcanoes pour forth volumes of lava. It is true that there
is some evidence that volcanic action may have occurred on a larger
scale in former ages ; but the geological record gives no evidence of
more frequent, or more extensive oscillations of the earth's crust, in

278 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

the older ages, than in the most recent periods. On the contrary, the
best evidence of long periods of repose relate to the Lawrentian age —
the very oldest section of rocks known to man; while evidence of the
most extensive oscillations relate to periods most recent.

We have evidence of extensive continental oscillations even as re-
cent as the post-pliocene. All the highest mountain ranges have had
their principal elevation since the miocene or middle tertiary ; and a
large portion of the area of our present continents have been redeemed
from the ocean since the miocene period. At that period Europe was
but an archipelago of islands ; much of Asia and Africa were beneath
the oceans; the Gulf of Mexico extended up to the mouth of the Ohio,
and the whole Salt Lake basin was an inland sea. During the post-ter-
tiary or post-pliocene, Great Britain was twice elevated, so as to form
a part of the continent, and again sunk down so as to form a few small
islands ; and Scandinavia has been twice elevated and covered with
glaciers, and, we may add, if the present upward movement of Scandi-
navia continues, Norway and Sweden will be again covered with gla-
ciers.

In view of such momentous oscillations within the most recent ge-
ological epochs, what have we to justify the notion of present stability,
except that we do not see it move? In short, the popular notion that
many entertain, that former ages were scenes of gigantic revolutions,
and that the earth's crust has now arrived at a state of comparative
rest, is not sustained by any geological evidence.

The Great Western Plains, and Rocky Mountain region has, at the
present time, an elevation of from eight thousand to thirteen thousand
feet above the level of the sea. It is cold and arid, presenting little
encouragement to agriculture. But we have only to go back to the
miocene or middle tertiary, when this region had but a slight elevation
above the sea. It then enjoyed a mild climate, with abundant rain
falls, and was clothed with a rich luxuriance of sub-tropical trees and
plants. It then contained many extensive lakes, the former bounderies
of which are now traced by geologists. Prof. Hayden, in his geological
reports, states that one of these former lakes extended over much of the
plains east of the mountains, having an extent of over one hundred thou-
sand square miles. These bodies of water existed for a long duration of
time. According to Prof. Hayden, the accumulation in the bottom of
one of these lakes has a thickness of several thousand feet.

But, as the centuries rolled on, the gradual elevation of the Rocky
Mountain region was in progress, — rain falls grew less, — those great
lakes began to diminish ; growing shallow first nearest the axis of eleva-
tion, and finally disappeared. Streams and fountains failed. The cli-
mate was changing — the sub-tropical trees and plants worked their way
to a more southern latitude, while a northern flora was gradually taking
their place.

Thus we see how the elevation of the Rocky Mountain region has
transformed a land of former fertility into nearly an arid waste. In a

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 279

geological period comparatively recent, it was a land of broad lakes and
numerous rivers. Huge beasts moved through the forests with heavy
tread, the hippopotamus wallowed in the mud of the lakes, herds of
wild horses, cattle, camels, antelopes and deer, fed on grassy plains,
carnivorous beasts met in deadly conflict, or lay in wait to seize the
the herbivorous animals as they came to the streams to quench their
thirst. The bones of these animals were washed down into the lakes
by the next flooding of the streams, where they were buried in the mud
and preserved for our inspection. The beds of former rivers, that were
once overhung by sylvan scenery, and abounded with fish, are now ob-
scurely traced in arid sands. Sage brush abounds where once rolled
the waves of extended lakes. The petrified form of a huge turtle occa-
sionally appears to tell the tale of former times. No falling rains now
saturate the earth to carry away the alkali that has accumulated from
the decomposition of feldspathic rocks.

Such are among the physical changes that relate to geological epochs
comparatively recent. And let us bear in mind that these changes, of
which geologists have become cognizant, are probably but a minor part
of what have actually occurred. If nearly half of our present continents
have been redeemed from the ocean since, or during the miocene peri-
od, it must be considered more than probable that a corresponding
portion of older lands have subsided beneath the oceans in the same
time. And, we may add, more than probable that regions where the
mastodon and elephant once roved through majestic forests, aye, regions
that gave origin to many of the higher forms of life, may now lie beneath
the waves of our present oceans.

Many people fall into the error of supposing that our geological
maps show the actual outline of the continents for the different geolog-
ical periods. Geological maps are intended to show only the fractional
portion that is now above water that relate to the different periods.
Large areas relate to the sand periods of which we have no knowl-
edge ; because submerged by our present oceans. It cannot be sup-
posed that our present continents exhibit more than a fractional portion
of what was the dry lands of the older ages. Lyell assures us that the
portions of the earth's surface overspread by our present oceans, if ac-
cessible to man, would reveal vastly more of the geological history than
the portion that is above water.

Persons who have had little time or opportunity for geological
study often get the impression that the geological record presents well-
defmed lines, showing the beginning and ending of each geological
period; also the exact line where organic life first began to exist ; and
the exact lines where the different orders of life began to exist. These
are mistakes. No such lines are distinctly defined. It is true that
distinct lines frequently occur in the rocks, caused by local physical
changes. Such lines occur where a portion of the geological record is
wanting, and have only a local extent. Geological ages are only arbi-
trary divisions of geological time. We have no reason to suppose any

280 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

greater physical changes between one geological age and another, than
between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Through the long lapse of past ages,alternate changes have occurred,
from ocean to dry land, and from land to ocean again. Geological
deposits are made only beneath water. When a portion of the earth's
surface is elevated to the condition of dry land it receives no deposits
— on the contrary, the face of continents are being continually denuded
and washed into the oceans.

During the thousands of centuries that lands are above water the
modifying influence of changing conditions effects great changes in
living forms ; hence, when that land is, in time, again submerged be-
neath water it receives another deposit with quite distinct orders of
life, from the underlying older rocks that had been so long above water.
Here would appear an abrupt change in the geological record. Form-
erly such abrupt changes in the rocks were not understood, and were
unhesitatingly taken as evidence of a sudden destruction of living
forms, and the ushering in of a new era by a direct creation of new
forms.

The hypothesis of a supernatural creation has sublimely covered
up a vast amount of human ignorance. But more extended research
tends to show that all such abrupt changes are but breaks in the geo-
logical record and have but a local extent. It is now well understood
that superincumbrance of position does not necessarily imply proxim-
ity of time. Various other conditions which time will not permit me
to set forth, cause abrupt changes in geological deposits.

Our present forests are very distinct from the luxuriant flora of the
miocene age in the same latitudes. Of course the origin of our present
trees and plants was formerly accounted for on that convenient hypo-
thesis of a special creation. It was thought that the introduction of
an entirely new order of vegetable life, in a single geological age,
would admit no other solution. But, to that great American botanist,
Dr. Asa Gray, more than to any other man, belongs the credit of tracing
the origin of our present flora to high northern latitudes. Our present
plants, or their closely allied representatives, are found fossil in the ter-
tiary beds of high latitudes; and their lineal representatives are traced
even back to the cretacious. During the increased cold of the plio-
cene and post-pliocene, this northern vegetation was gradually pushed
southward; and succeeded to the more luxuriant flora of miocene
times which worked its way further to the south. Many of the lineal
representatives of that miocene flora are now found between the
tropics.

Regarding the cause of the general change of climate during the
post-pliocene times, space will only permit me to say, it is mainly ac-
counted for, in the elevation of an excess of polar lands. This exces-
sive proportion of northern lands has made regions of perpetual ice,
where, in miocene times, rolled the waters of open seas warmed by cur-
rents from tropical regions. At the present time, the Antarctic conti-

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 281

nent is conceded to be larger than Australia, and doubtless all covered
with several thousand feet of ice ; then the present continents all
widen out and extend high into nortliern latitudes and form regions of
ice. If, as in former ages, open seas occupied the place of these polar
lands, ice and snow would scarcely be known in this latitude. This
great excess of polar lands, is an abnormal condition that did not exist
in former ages.

Formerly, geologists did not hesitate to point out the epoch of
time in which life appeared on the globe. But more extended researches
have traced organic life through the oldest geological formations known
to man ; hence, while it will not be doubted that there was a time be-
fore organic forms began to exist, this opinion has not the support of
any direct geological evidence.

The oldest geological section known to man, is the Lawrentian sys-
tem of British America formerly considered wholly destitute of any
traces of life, and wrongly called Azoic ; but recent discoveries reveal
traces of low orders of animal and vegetable life, in the very lowest of
the Canada section of rocks accessible to man.

The total thickness of the Lawrentian system is estimated at about
eight miles — all, in the lapse of past eternity, formed in the bottoms of
former seas, from sediment worn from still older rocks — perhajjs from
the wash and wear of still older continents, of which no vestige is
accessible to man ! We must bear in mind that previous formations,
are, in all cases, ground up in the mill of time to make each succeed-
ing formation. Hence we must see that comparatively little can be
left of the older formations. The earth's crust has been so often flexed,
broken, and tilted through the succession of ages, that the oldest forma-
tions have been mostly ground up by abrasion.

When we reflect that since the Lawrentian age the total thickness
of the stratified rocks of subsequent ages are estimated at over ten
miles, we may wonder that this tract of country north of the Great
Lakes lies up to the sunlight of the present time as a memorial of ages
too remote for human comprehension.

Such is the nature of geological revolutions — unnoticable to us,
only because too slow and gradual for our transient observation. We
extend railroads over regions that will be covered with glaciers — build
cities on lands that are subsiding into the ocean, and even over the fires
of slumbering volcanoes! While at no distant future, wealth will
abound on the flood grounds of the Amazon and Mississippi, and orange
groves will bloom in the regions of our dismal swamps. Geological
revolutions are in progress before our eyes through the same agencies as
in all past time.

As in the physical revolutions of the past ages, so also with the
revolutions of the organic world. It has become the incpiiry of the age,
whether the solution of this abstruse cpiestion is not to be found in
knmvn, fiatural causes, instead of supposing such as are unknown and
unnatural.

282 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

As we account for geological revolutions by observing such gradual
changes now in operation, as would produce given results if long con-
tinued, may we not also account for specific changes by studying the
nature of such known divergencies in living organisms as would produce
a specific distinction, if continued for a sufficient duration of time ?

We can conceive of no natural process by which living forms orig-
inate, except through a line of progenitors; and we do know that both
animal and vegetable life are subject to variations or modifications con-
sequent on a change of conditions, under which they exist. And
geology reveals that in all past time the earth's crust has been under-
going a constant succession of physical changes ; hence, that living
forms have been subject to a succession of modifying influences for a
duration of time as incomprehensible as eternity itself. What else
could have been the inevitable result, except an endless diversity of liv-
ing forms?

It matters not that the changes in organic forms are extremely slow :
so are geological changes extremely slow. It matters not that the
present diversity of life is extremely great : so has the time in which
these wonderful evolutions have been effected been incomprehensibly
long. Though great is the diversity of life, through all that diversity
there is a unity of plan, that seems to reveal the bond of a common
relationship.

I am aware that to the minds of many excellent people these ideas
are very repugnant. This is no more than should be expected ; such
has been the case with every scientific discovery that conflicts with
tradition ; people are still nervous lest they may be led to believe
something that is contrary to Genesis. Well, does that account tell us
that God made these things independent of natural agencies.'' On the
contrary, it reads, "And God said. Let the earth bring forth grass," etc.;
"Let the tvaters bring forth abundantly the creatures that hath life."
How did God create these creatures that have life .'' He ordained that
the waters should bring them forth through those inherent laws that are
the out-flow of his infinite wisdom.

And further, we learn that God ordained that the earth should
bring forth living creatures, cattle, and every thing that creepeth upon
the earth. That is what the Bible says about the means or natural agen-
cies, through which God accomplished the physical creation of every
thing that moveth in the waters or creepeth upon the earth.

Strange that people who will go to the Bible to settle scientific
questions do not read it more carefully !

If we are ignorant of the origin of living forms, let us in all human-
ity say so ; and not seek to cover up our ignorance with the hypothesis
of a special creation — something that we know still less about.

In the present lack of knowledge in the sciences in which this
question is involved, with the bias of traditional notions hanging over
the public mind, it need not be a matter of surprise that generally only
vague, erroneous ideas prevail on this whole subject. If we have not

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 283

investigated for ourselves, we might feel excused from expressing any
direct opinions. But, unless stupidly indifferent to the tendency of
scientific tliought, we cannot disguise from ourselves the fact that the
whole current of scientific research is irresistibly leading to an aban-
donment of the old ideas for the more grand and beautiful philosphy of
Evolution — as much more grand and inspiring to the scientific mind
than the traditional notion of a special creation as our present ideas
of a boundless universe transcend the former notions of a fixed earth,
for whose purpose all the heavenly bodies were made to subserve.

I repeat, if we have not investigated for ourselves, when we see
such men as Sir Charles Lyell, Huxley, Tyndall, Lesquereau, the Eng-
lish naturalist, Prof. Owen; the French naturalist, Carl Vogt ; the
world-wide botanist. Dr. Hooker ; the great American botanist. Dr.
Asa Gray, abandon their old opinions as untenable, and accept the doc-
trine of evolution, when we see these views are advocated, and pass un-
disputed before the most scientific bodies of Europe and America, as
was the case at the late meeting at Dubuque, we might at least feel
that this subject is worthy of something more than burlesque. But I
have said more than was intended — may I be pardoned if I have said
too much.

Let me drop a closing thought. How grand is the whole scheme
of creation, when we can view all life as but a revealing, or mode of
operation of the forces and laws that are inherent in nature — ever pass-
ing through interchanges between organic and inorganic bodies !

When we conceive of the production of all the beauties of the
universe through the operation of inherent laws, is not this a higher es-
timate of the being in whom laws originate, than to suppose all things
to have been created by an act of arbitrary power.'' What is the whole
system of nature but the highest possible manifestation of Divine Intel-
ligence.'' What are all the laws that relate to mind or matter, but ex-
pressions of the attributes of that Being whose life pulsates through a
boundless universe, and scintillates in every human soul.-'

Mr. R. Douglass, from the committee on timber culture, read the

following :

TIMBER-PL.-VNTING.

Having determined for what pur])ose timber is most likely to be
in demand, in the locality where the plantation is about to be
formed, whether for fuel, agricultural implements, cabinet work, build-
ing purposes or for railroad ties, bridge timber and fencing material, the
next consideration will be the kinds best adapted to the soil.

As our subject is timber-planting, we will suppose that the above
points have already been decided.

The time is very near at hand when forests must be planted on a
large scale in this country, to replace the native forests, which, in the
opinion of the most careful observers, can not last, at the longest, over
a quarter of a century. But these remarks are intended more for

284 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

the farmer, who requires a timber lot in proportion to the size of his
farm, than for the scientific forester, who will make a specialty of plant-'
ing woods and forests.

Every one will agree that any prairie farm would be improved by
having at least one-tenth of its acres in timber, even for the uses of the
farm, and our object in these few remarks is to show how we can best
accomplish this desirable object; for, aside from the value of the timber
when grown, it may be placed in such a manner as to be of great ad-
vantage, both in appearance and usefulness, protecting the crops from
the prevailing winds, especially valuable in case of the orchard, the
barns, the stock and the dwelling.

We need not go into an elaborate argument to prove that timber
is a protection, as nearly every farmer in the West, when riding across
the prairie in cold weather, has felt the ameliorating effect of even a
little grove of scrub oaks, and not only man, but the brute creation as
well, understand it perfectly. Even the little prairie flowers seem to
take advantage of it, and dare to put on their summer robes, while their
poor relatives on the bleak prairie are still in their winter dresses.

TIMBER-PLANTING ON LANDS VALUELESS.

On many farms several acres are of little value for farming purpos-
es, owing to the surface being too much broken, and uneven, to ad-
mit of the plow, or liable to %vash if plowed. On others, strips or ridges,
so sandy as not to admit of growing a crop of corn, grain or grass,
at a profit over the cost of cultivation. All such places can be cover-
ed with timber that will make a good growth, if the selection is made
of kinds suitable to the various kinds of soil.

On the broken land, if stiff clay, as is often the case, and where the
plow cannot be used, it would be advisable to prepare the holes for
planting the trees in the fall, with a spade or grub hoe, simply breaking
the surface where each tree is to be planted, leaving it to the action of the
frost in winter, for this mode should be used for planting trees that
have been transplanted in the nursery, and are well rooted and stocky.

There will be no necessity for planting the trees at exactly equal
distances where the plow cannot be used. Four to five feet apart each
way would be a good distance for this kind of planting, selecting the most
favorable places to set the trees ; where the surface is partially covered
with tufts of grass or other herbage, the tearing up in the fall will have
destroyed it, and the sods or tufts may be laid on the surface around
the tree when it is planted.

Trees planted on such ground will not make so rapid growth the
first two or three years as trees in good, smooth, plowed ground,
but after once fairly established they will grow quite as well as on more
level land of the same quality of soil.

There would be nothing gained by disturbing sandy soil in the fall
for the purpose of spring planting ; indeed it would be a damage to the
land.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 285

Sand ridges may be planted in a similar manner, only the trees
should stand closer together, and be set deeper in the ground. The
object in planting closer is to have the trees protect each other.

If these sand ridges are nearly covered with vegetation they should
be plowed before planting, but if too sandy to produce more than a
sparse covering, the plow would do more harm than good, and the
trees should be planted so as to disturb the surface as little as possible.
Thousands of acres of blowing sand have been covered with valuable
timber m this way both in France and Scotland, but it would not be
profitable to plant such land in this country, and we would not advise
the planting on land so sandy as to be entirely destitute of vegetation.
But if there is enough fertility in the land to produce corn stalks one to
two feet in height it may safely be planted, and in that case the trees
need not be planted nearer than four feet each way, with corn planted
in the intervals, — not for the crop of corn, as we are speaking of land
too poor to produce corn ; but these corn stalks will protect the young
trees from the scorching sun in summer, and from the winds and frosts
of winter. Fortunately for us all, there is very little such land in our
fertile western states, so we will now proceed with the best method
of planting on our ordinary prairie farms.

TIMBER-PLANTING ON THE PRAIRIES.

We will take as an example one hundred and sixty acres of ordi-
nary prairie, and suppose that the farmer wishes to put only one-tenth
of it in timber, which is far too little. This would make sixteen acres
to be planted. A belt eight rods wide on the north and west sides
of the farm will make fifteen and three-fifths acres, leaving the remain-
ing two-fifths of an acre a belt on the north and west sides of the
orchard and buildings.

The distance apart at which the trees should be planted may vary
somewhat, depending on the kinds planted. Coniferous trees may be
planted closer than trees with spreading heads, but in open, exposed
situations it is always better to plant rather close, as the trees will pro-
tect each other from the summer suns and winter winds, will grow up
straight, thereby save one pruning, and will require less time in cultiva-
tion, as they will sooner destroy the weeds and grass by their shade,
and after this will need no more cultivation.

Four by four feet is the best distance to plant coniferous trees.
Deciduous trees may be planted five by five or four by six feet. As
forest planting is yet in its infancy in this country, planters will be
likely to disagree as to the distances apart at which it is advisable to
plant.

In Europe the rule is to plant very close, but there are reasons for
this close planting that do not occur in this country, one is close plant-
ing on moor land without plowing, to shade the ground as sot)n as
possible, and by this means destroy surface vegetation.

In this country, where we are not afraid to work horses among the
trees, the horse and cultivator will destroy the weeds at very small

286 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

cost, and at the same time very materially add to the growth of the
trees.

In Europe they make use of the first thinnings of their forests for
rustic fences, sheep hurdles, and in several other ways that they would
not be used in this country. They have been trained to believe that
"they must plant thick, and thin quick." Our farmers would be loth
to cut down their fine, thrifty saplings before they were of much value
and might leave them too long, and thereby injure the plantation.

It seems to me that American ingenuity will be brought to bear on
tree-planting in this country in such a way as to save much of the labor
required for performing the same operation in Europe. They contend
that in bleak and exposed sites where the lands are not protected by
growing timber or surrounding hills, they must plant very close for pro-
tection, and some of their most experienced planters who recommend
from three thousand to three thousand five hundred trees as " about the
right number to plant on an acre," say, " If the exposure is rough and
bare, five thousand plants are sometimes judiciously used to an acre."
In this country, aside from the advantage we have in being accustomed
to use horses to work amongst our trees, we have a plantation, never
thought of in that country, for if we plant on exposed land, instead of
using a double quantity of trees, we can plant our trees at such a dis-
tance apart as they can be allowed to stand till they have a market
value, giving the protection required by alternating corn hills and
trees.

Supposing we wish to plant on an exposed piece of land, we want to
protect the trees by shading the ground, and at the same time we find
that an extra quantity of trees adds very much to the cost of the plan-
tation. In that case why not plant six by six feet and alternate with
corn? Your strip of land is only eight rods wide, and it will not be a very
costly job to carry the corn that distance. The corn stalks should stand
through the winter, of course, only they might be topped off if thought
best.

Another method might be adopted. Supposing our farmer has
not the time and means to spare to plant the whole of this sixteen
acres in one season, or has not the land ready for more than a part of
it, he can plant his rows four feet apart and his trees one foot apart,
only covering one-fourth part of the land, and let them stand there two
years. They would then be in fine condition to plant the remainder,
would be strong enough to grow without the protection required for
smaller trees, and would be a more economical plan than though he
planted all at first.

PLANTING THE FOREST.

The practical tree-planter would mark off the land at the distances
designed to plant the trees, and plant with the spade, while the farmer
would be very likely to check off his land and then plow furrows one
way, with his one-horse plow, and plant at the intersections. In either

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 287

way, great care should be taken not to expose the roots of the trees to
the sun and wind, and to be very careful to pack the earth very firmly
over the roots of every tree planted.

The roots of the trees can be protected from drying with very little
trouble by having a tub of mud and water in the field in which to im-
merse each bundle of trees as they are taken from the boxes or from
where they lie "heeled in," in the field.

The first season's cultivation will be about the same as for corn,
only the cultivator may be run till August, and in September a light
furrow should be thrown up to each side of the rows of trees, running
the furrows which ever way will be best to carry off the water.

These furrows can lie up to the trees till the weeds have started the
next spring, and may then be i)lowed back. After this they will require
the cultivator twice during the summer, which will complete the second
season's cultivation. They may require the cultivator once or twice
the third season, after this they will take care of themselves.

The committee on fruit on exhibition, reported as follows :

To the President and Af embers of the Northern Illinois Horticultural
Society :

Your committee, appointed to examine and report upon fruits on
exhibition, respectfully submit the following:

I St. Twenty varieties of apples, and thirty-eight varieties of tree
seeds, from A. Bryant, Jr., Princeton.

2nd. Twenty varieties of apples from L. Woodward and A. H. Vail,
Marengo.

3d. Twelve varieties, no name of exhibitor.

4th. Nine varieties, E. Ordwell, Freeport.

5th. Twelve varieties, Luman Montague, Freeport.

6th. Three varieties, S. G. Minkler.

Numerous specimens of Larches and Cedar wood, from R. Douglas
and sons.

Also, Larches, Scotch Pine, and Red Cedar, from William Hill,
Dundee.

Also, Larch from D. C. Scofield, Elgin.

Also, cider wine, of eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, cider vinegar,
seedling, No. 20, Siberian crab, and canned fruit, from A. R. Whitney,
Franklin Grove, 111.

Also beautiful case of foreign insects, by S. F. Dawson, taxidermist,
Freeport.

Also, beautiful and complete Herbarium, from Mrs. V. P. Hatha-
way, Damascus, 111.

Also, ten varieties of seedling apples, which have been tested,
from eight to twenty-four years, at Pewaukie, Wis., by George P. Pcffcr.

A specimen of a new variety of Asparagus, by Wm. R. Fairburn,
Ridal.

We can not let this opportunity pass without referring, with pride,
to this display of fruit, showing we have varieties that are valuable and
productive in abundance. Arthur Bryant, Chairman.

288 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

On motion of D. W. Scott, the following Resolution was unani-
mously adopted :

Whereas, By the invitation of the management of the Freeport Beet Sugar
Factory, this Society has had the pleasure of witnessing, this day, the operations and
machinery in the manufacture of Beet Sugar. Therefore,

Rt'soh'cd, That the congratulations of this Society are due to our esteemed fellow
member, Chas. H. Rosentiel, on the first successful manufacture of Beet Sugar in
this State, and also on the opening up of a new industry which promises in the not
distant future, the profitable employment of surplus labor and capital, and a large
increase of the material resources and wealth of the state, which result is mainly due
to his perseverance and ability.

Adjourned.

FRIDAY MORNING.

Meeting called to order by S. G. Minkler, President.

Prayer by S. Edwards.

Mr. W. a. House, of Rock Island, presented the following com-
munication from the Iowa State Horticultural Society, and ten copies
of their transactions.

Davenport, Iowa, January 22, 1873.
To The Norther7i Illinois Horticultural Society :

Congratulating you on your sacrificing home comforts to attend to
the public interests of Horticulture, it is our pleasure to be engaged
in so laudable a work. Our numbers at this meeting are few but earnest.
We delegate the bearer, Mr. W. A. House, to report the rest. Send-
ing our friendship and good wishes for your success, we regret very
much that our meetings occur the same week. Let us avoid it hereafter.
The law of our state fixes our time the third Tuesday in, January.

We send you ten copies of oar last report, eighteen hundred and
seventy-one and two. Shall be glad to receive yours.
Hastily, without order of our Society,

f remain yours,

Samuel Foster.
Treasurer of loiva State Horticultural Society.

On motion of S. Edwards, the following resolution was adopted :

Resolved, That we cordially reciprocate the kindly greeting ot the Iowa State
Horticultural Society, and are glad to change the time of our annual meeting, to
enable us to enjoy, as heretofore, the presence of many of the zealous practical men of
Iowa.

The President announced the following

STANDING COMMITTEES FOR 1873-4.

Orchards and Vineyards: O. B. Galusha, Morris; M. B. Spafford,
Dixon; A. Bryant, Jr., Princeton.

Timber and Ornamental Trees: L. K. Scofield, Freeport; Dr. A.
G. Humphey, Galesburg; R. J. Douglas, Waukegan.

Floriculture: James S. McCall, Freeport; Mrs. S. C. Harris,
Galena; Samuel Muir, Chicago.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 289

Meteorology: Grove Wright, Rock Falls; N. E. Ballon, Sandwich;
M. S. Ellsworth, Naperville.

Geology: T. McWhorter, Aledo ; Capt. E. H. Beebe, Geneva.

Timber Planting: A. Bryant, Sr., Princeton; R. Douglas, Wau-
kegan; S. Edwards, Lamoille.

Ornithology: Jas. M. Harris, Galena; Mrs. P. V. Hathaway^
Damascus; John W. Robson, Abilene, Kan.

Entomology: Dr. Wm. T.eBaron, Geneva; Dr. Henry Shimer,
Mount Carrol; D. B. Weir, Lacon.

Botany and Vegetable Physiology : H. H. McAfee, Freeport :
Jonathan Periam, Chicago; (ieorge P. Peffer, Pewaukee, Wis.

Landscape Gardening: H. H. McAfee, Freeport; J. P. Bryant,
Princeton; A. ^L Carpenter, Galesburg.

On motion of Isaiah Bonham, of Chicago, the following resolution

wa^ adopted :

Resolved, That there be added to the list of standing committees of this Society,
one to be denominated the Committee on Marketing and the Utilization of Horticul-
tural Products.

Chairman appointed M. L. Dunlap, Champaign; M. B. Spafford,
Dixon; J. Periam, Chicago, as said committee.

On motion of L. Woodward the following resolution was adopted :

Whereas, There is in the prevailing names of our fruits, a confusion that is
much against the standing and progress of our pomology,

Resolved, That we deem it advisable to appoint a committee to co-operate with
those of other societies in this work of correcting our nomenclature.

The Chair appointed L. Woodward, T. McWhorter, committee.

On motion of L. K. Scofield, the following resolution was adopted :

Resolved, That ilie bill unanimously agreed upon for the re-organization of the late
Horticultural Society, by the Committee of Conference of this society, together with
the Executive Committee of the State Horticultural Society be printed, with the
signatures of each member of that conference, and that a copy be sent to each officer
of the State and of the Northern Illinois Horticultural Society. Also to each mem-
ber of oar State Legislature and to each member of the State Agricultural Board.

On motion R. Douglas, L. Woodward, H. D.Emery, L. K. Scofield,
were appointed delegates for this Society to the Wisconsin State Hor-
ticultural Society.

Mr. Plumb, of Wisconsin, addressed the meeting on horticultural
interests generally.

Committee on Final Resolutions, reported the following, which were
adopted unanimously:

Resolved, That our thanks be tendered to our worthy president for his interest
manifested in the welfare of this Society, and especially lor the kind, capable, and
impartial manner in which he has discharged the duties of its chief officer.

To the other retiring officers, who have discharged their difficult duties so ac-
ceptably, we tender cordial thanks.

20

290 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

Resolved, That we are highly gratified in having so large an attendance of our
friends from Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and New York, with their fruits and their
counsels. We thank them cordially and hope for an annual increase of their
numbers.

Resolved, That the thanks of this Society are due, and hereby tendered.to the officers
of the Illinois Central, Chicago and Northwestern, Western Union, and Chicago,
Burlington and Ouincy Railroads, for reduction in return fares to our members.

Resolved, That in the cordial reception, generous hospitality, and large attendance
of citizens at our sessions, in her model court house, affording the finest accommoda-
tions ever furnished our Society, Freeport has even outdone herself — coupled with
our heartfelt thanks, is the assurance that she will find the prediction true, " The liberal
soul shall be made fat."

Resolved, That we do hereby acknowledge with heartfelt gratitude to Him who
rules over the Universe, and presi^.es in the counsels of men, that He has so manifestly
directed our deliberations ; and that we will ever commit to Him our cause and seek
His divine guidance and protection. S. Edwards,

Chas. W. Richmond.

On motion of S. Edwards, the following was unanimously adopted :
Resolved, That the Northern Illinois Horticultural Society tender special thanks
through the Recording Secretary, Robert Little, to the Board of Supervisors of
Stephenson county, for the use of their magnificent court room, during the present ses-
sion of our Society. No words of ours can properly express our thanks for their liber-
ality, and our appreciation of their energy and regard for the public welfare in provid-
ing this magnificent structure.

On motion of Mr. Plumb, of Wisconsin, the following was adopted :

Whereas, Certain parties have and are now vending certain recipes as specifics
for all noxious insects and diseases of fruit trees, in the foi-m of washes and innoculations.

Resolved, That we do condemn all such, as not worthy of the attention of any
tree-grower, and we believe contrary to vegetable physiology.

The following essays were referred to the Publishing Committee

without reading, to be published with the Transactions :

REPORT ON METEOROLOGY.

BY DR. N. E. BALLOU, SANDWICH, ILL.

Mr. President :

A retrospect of the year would first of all lead us to acknowledge
the kindly dealings of the great Giver, in vouchsafing to us so many
blessings and mercies, in crowning the year with fruits and stores for
our comfort, happiness, and well-being. The conditions of these
health-giving bestowments are propitious seasons, and the exercise of
enlightened culture of the soil.

From mother earth we draw all of our material sustenance, and
with favoring combinations of heat and moisture, sunshine and shower,
our hearts are gladdened with the rich clusters of the vine — the golden
fruitage of the apple and pear.

But while we bend our energies in toil to secure the rich gifts of
Pomona, we are beset with vicissitudes of climate, which often sweep
away at a stroke the promised fruits of a season's toil. The changes
of climate, the oscillations of temperature which roll up and enter the
western borders of country in the form of atmospheric waves, are the
adverse agents of the horticulturist, and often deter him from engaging
more largely in the most delightful, as well as the most lucrative of
employments. ^

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY,

291

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292

TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

COMPARATIVE TABLE OF TEMPERATURE BY SEASONS— 1872.

Mean.

Time of Observat'n

Maxi-
mum.

Mini-
mum.

No. of
frost days

during
the year.

Days

without
frosts.

7 A.M.

2 P.M.

9 P.M.

December

17.6

19-3
22.6

9-5
14.6
16

22.4

23.8
30.8

15-4
19-5
21.2

43
42

50

20

14
14

24
29

25

7

January

2

February

4

Winter

19.S

13-3

25.6

18.7

50

20

78

1 1

March

27.9
48.2
61

22.9
41.9
55-3

34-3

57-7
71-5

26.6
46.2
61

62

80
80

7
23
43

25

4

0

6

April

26

May .-- --

31

Spring -

45-7

40

54-5

44.6

80

7

29

63

June . .

71.6

75

73-4

67.1
70.4
69

81.2

85

74-5

66.6
69.6
63.1

98
98
93

50
62
52

0
0
0

30

July

31

J tii;.

August

31

Summer

73-3

68.8

80.2

66.4

98

50

0

92

September

October

64

48.7

15-4

58.8
40.9
24.4

73
60.5

34-5

61.4
48.7
26.9

93
So

52

25
25

4

0

8
19

30
23

November

12

Autumn . .

45-5

41-3

56

45.6

93

4

27

65

Year

46.3

40.8

54-0

43-8

98

20

134

232

Table first has been elaborated from nearly four thousand observa-
tions, by the use of standard instruments under the direction of the
Smithsonian Institution, at Washington. These observations were made
at seven A. M., two P. M. and nine P. M. They^are a continuation of
Meteorological investigations begun twenty years ago, and form an un-
broken chain, began in eighteen hundred and fifty-two. Together with
the observations of others, they have established the mean annual
temperature in northern Illinois, and the annual mean rain-fall, in the
county of DeKalb, and those counties immediately adjacent.

Many interesting facts may be gleaned in the pursuit of this kind
of knowledge, with patient study and perseverance. The table in
question shows first the march of temperature, which would form not an
imperfect curve, such is the regularity of its ascent and decline from
spring to autumn. What has hitherto seemed in physical nature to
have been capricious and subject to no fixed law, is now referable to
general principles, upon which these changes depend.

The table presents first, three divisions, under heads of Ther-
mometer, Winds, and Weather, and if studied as grouped, will at once
lead to a full understanding of atmospheric phenomena, and physical
changes, with which it deals. First, under the appropriate heading, may

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 293

studied the monthly mean temperature ; highest and lowest degrees,
range of temperature, warmest and coldest days. Next is cloudiness
determined by estimate, ten being perfect cloudiness or any variation
of cloudiness, representing fractional parts. There is much interest
attached to the study of the clouds, and to cloud formations. The
mean cloudiness for the year is four and fifty-five hundredths, represent-
ing a state not quite e(iual to a sky half overcast.

The winds next claim attention. The prevailing winds during the
year have been west, and their prevalence also indicate quite correctly
the storm quarter ; the point from whence comes gales, hurricanes,
and severe rain storms. • The average wind force is two or four
miles per hour. Alas, as with the joys of the world, clouds pre-
dominate largely over sunshine ; the whole number of fair days
amounting to one hundred and fifty-one, while the cloudy days reach
two hundred and fifteen. Of rainy days there were fifty. Rain and
snow fell on seven days, while snow fell on twenty-six days ; the snow-
fall giving a depth of twenty-six and one-half inches. The mean rain-
fall was thirty-eight and fifty-eight hundredths inches. The month of
October produced no rain, what has not occurred for twenty-one years.

The comparative view of the temperature of the season gives us a
more distinct idea of the climate than, taken as a whole, by mean an-
nual computations — Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. The four
quarters of the year are determined astronomically by the relation of
the movements of the sun, in the ecliptic. The passage of the sun
across the ecjuator brings on greater length of days than nights, and
marks the vernal equinox, or inauguration of Spring, which occurs the
twenty-first of March. The Summer solstice ushers in Summer on the
twenty-first of June, and the Winter solstice leads in Winter on
the twenty-first of December. Our almanac divisions are not astro-
nomically true.

Our season has been marked by a long-continued drouth, which
made the year, in many particulars, a very unsuccessful one for horti-
culture, as well as for all branches, directed to the cultivation of the
soil. Insect life, in many forms, thrive most favorably during dry sea-
sons ; they multiply and extend their ravages to almost every species
of fruit, m spite of our best-directed energies for their extinction.

OSCILLATIONS AND CASUAL PHENOMENA.

While the seasons progress, under the earth's annual changes of
surface to the sun, we may note a steady and ujnvard tendency of tem-
perature in spring, and as marked evenness in its decline in autumn.
But, while many of the phenomena of climate are regular in their ap-
pearance, and are not marked by any particular severity, oscillations
come upon us almost without time for preparation to meet their onset.
I allude to sudden atmospheric waves, which have broken over the
shores of Oregon and British Columbia, from time immemorial, and
spent their fury upon portions of the continent lying easterly from the

294 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

trou2;h of the Rocky Mountains, through these waves, pass in their
eastward route, in heavy westerly gales. The annual invasion occurs
in October and continues until January, and accounts for the severe
cold of this latitude, and other localities of the Northwest, within the
track of this invader.

We have an "atmospheric wave " during the spring, summer, and
first autumn month, similar, but in a greatly modified form. It is cer-
tain to roll over us in April, May, and June, and often in July, and
almost certainly does it make its appearance the last week in August,
and never fails to appear in September. During twenty years' observa-
tion, this ugly visitor has rarely failed to put in an appearance, when
visits of the kind would exert the most baneful influence. We are
often witnesses of these atmospheric waves, and are led to exclaim
that our location upon these parallels of latitude is quite inopportune ;
this is true. The changes may always be expected, and could only be
remedied by interposing large belts of timber at near intervals across
the track of the unwelcome visitant.

This atmospheric wave may be anticipated many days, in its ap-
pearance, and every careful provision made to meet the onslaught of
this cold wave. As casual phenomena, we have, during the month of
August and November, shooting stars. This demonstration of the
heavenly bodies is quite regular in its occurrence. Parhelia, sun-dogs,
are attendants upon the sun in cold weather, and this phenomena is a
good cold weather indication.

PROTECTION AND PLANTING OF FOREST TREES.

BY DR. A. G. HUMPHREY, GALESBURG.

To us who have been pioneers of our prairie state, and who have
for years borne the cold blasts of winter, and the scorching heat and
parching drouths of summer, our subject is fraught with intense
interest.

The reasons for protecting the forests we already have, and "for
covering our treeless ocean-like prairies with deciduous and coniferous
forests, are varied and important.

It is fairly estimated that if every tenth acre was covered with forests,
it would decrease the average heats of summer six or eight degrees, and
reduce the colds of winter equally as much or more. It is also ascer-
tained that in addition to producing a very much milder and more
equable climate, the effect of these forests would be most beneficial in
the production of crops, as materially tending to attract rain and to re-
tain moisture in the ground, and thereby causing the grasses and cereals
to grow more vigorously and certainly. Forests in timber belts for wind
breaks keep off the early fall and late spring frost, which often prove so
destructive to our fruit interests.

Without their shade, shelter, and ameliorating climatic influence, the
culture of the apple, the peach, plum or apricot, is exceedingly unrelia-
ble and indeed hardly possible.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 295

The forests are the ornaments oi the earth, the embellishments of
the landscape. Whether we look at the sturdy strength of the Oak, the
gentle grace of that " maiden of the woods," the Birch, the majesty of
the Pine, the dome-like beauty of the Maple, the varying symmetry of
the Ash, the spire-like pinnacle of the Fir, or the green fountain of that
loveliest tree of all the temperate zone, the American Elm ; whether
we follow the delicate tracery of their outlines when destitute of leaves,
or look on their foliage, wearing the tender green of spring, the ripe
fullness of summer, or the gorgeous hues of autumn ; whether we meet
them singly, or in those groups that nature or imitative art composes, —
they are always grateful to the eye and cheering to the heart.

Stripped of them, what would be the beauty of the earth.' Had
they no other use, they would hold an office of great utility, for what-
ever appeals to the human heart is in the highest degree useful. " A
thing of beauty is a joy forever," and as it acts on the soul its educa-
ting power enriches man beyond the reach of all that only serves his
economic uses. So that were this their only office they would have a
claim on all who would seek to refine and cultivate mankind through
those instrumentalities that God has made so available to man. And
it would, for this reason alone, be worth the while to clothe the hill-top
with the group on which the eye loves to rests, scatter along the val-
leys and water-courses those fringes that suggest peace and shelter ;
Erect the wall of evergreens between the isolated cottage and the
wintry blast, and lift high above its roof the shadow of the cloud of
green in summer; and brighten the streets of the city and village with
that foliage which transfers to the barren achievements of man some-
thing of the beauty of the works of God.

Aside from covering the earth with beautiful garments, and pleasing
the eye and cheering the heart of man, their chief office is one of utility.
On this point there are several obvious considerations, either of which
would make an ample subject for an essay. The fuel they produce for
man's fires; the lumber they yield for the purposes of his civilization; the
barks for tanning and dying purposes ; the edible fruits and saps he obtains
from them ; (in eighteen hundred and si.xty, in the United States,
thirty-eight millions eight hundred and sixty-three thousand eight
hundred and eighty-four pounds of sugar, and one million nine hundred
and forty-four thousand five hundred and seventy-five gallons of molas-
ses, were manufactured); the pitch that makes the turjjentine and tar; —
these at once suggest themselves as of importance sufficient to demand
attention to forest-culture on the part of the political economist, and
urge him to see to it that law and public opinion protect the standing
forests from unwise destruction, and institute such means as shall clothe
the naked portions of the earth inhabited by man, as far as is consistent
with his agricultural enterprises.

The essential wants of life are sufficient to direct attention to the
subject before us. Surely each community, each farmer, ought to have
within easy reach, if possible, all the fuel needed, all the lumber re-

296 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN

quired, and such products yielded by trees as can be had consistent
with the primary purpose of the soil, to yield those annual plants on
which man and his domestic animals depend.

It is true that the woods alone cannot support mankind in a civil-
ized state. They must be taken off the soil, before his plantations and
cities can exist. But aside from the uses we have named, their value
is immensely great, on such portions of the earth's surface as his wants
do not demand should be cleared. In the great prairie states of Iowa
and Illinois it is especially necessary that the great deficiency of trees
should be overcome, and that they should be planted, or allowed to
grow undestroyd by fires.

I wish especially to make an appeal to our farmers, and indeed to
every person who owns a square rod of the earth's surface. Tiie plant-
ing and culture of deciduous and coniferous trees is receiving too little
attention in the rural districts. I would have every inhabitant so alive
to this subject that they would realize the patent fact that every tree
planted, adds to the material wealth of the country. As a rule the
object of the farmer is to cultivate such crops as can most readily be
turned into money, but if all farmers in a given district should raise
only such products as they could annually exchange for money value,
the real wealth of that district would be little if any increased.

Most happily for our country, a majority of our farmers look a
little further than for simply an annual income; and plant an orchard,
and about their buildings plant evergreens and deciduous trees for
ornament, shade, and protection, which in a few years add very much
to the value of their premises.

While it is desirable for us in the main, to make our labor bring us
immediate returns, yet if every farmer would plant and cultivate his
grounds, with reference to their value fifty or a hundred years hence,
the resources of wealth to the country would be vastly augmented.
This is essentially true with reference to the culture of timber. There
is no farmer who could not devote one, three, five, or even ten acres of
his grounds to timber, and in a few years this would be the most valu-
able part of the farm.

The importance of planting trees and groves of timber, will be
more forcibly realized when we look at the vast consumption of timber
for mechanical purposes and for fuel.

In the monthly report of the department of agriculture for Novem-
ber and December, eighteen hundred and seventy, it is estimated " that
one hundred and fifty thousand acres of the best timber is cut every
year to supply the demand for railway sleepers alone. For railroad
buildings, repairs and cars, the annual expenditure in wood is thirty-
eight million dollars. In a single year the locomotives in the United
States consume fifty-six million dollars worth of wood. There are in the
whole country more than five hundred thousand artisans in wood; and
if the value of their labor is one thousand dollars a year, the wood in-
dustry of the country represents an amount of nearly five hundred mil-
lion dollars per annum."

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 297

This ratio of consumption will in a (ew years, very materially in-
crease the value of timbered land. Then again, the immense beds of
coal that underlie our soil, that are now furnishing hundreds of millions
of tons of fuel annually, may in time be exhausted ; then the wealth of
the country will suffer immensely, unless this or succeeding generations
shall have grown vast forests to supply the demand. It is a curious
fact that with the exception of the white pine, the lumber of trees is
trougher and better when cultivated than of natural growth.

■ But the earnest incjuiry of the farmer is, " Will it pay in dollars and
cents to plant groves of timber."

Consider some facts. One tree was cut, about seven miles north-
west of this city (Galesburg, Illinois), the body of which sold for meat
blocks for thirty-eight dollars, the remainder of the tree was cut into
posts and fuel, and sold for forty-eight dollars, the whole tree bringing
eighty-six dollars. Now suppose that tree to be one hundred years old,
and that three hundred trees grew upon an acre (in heavy forests many
more grow upon an acre), and that each tree would bring forty
dollars, the acre of timber would be worth twelve thousand dollars, or
a hundred and twenty dollars per acre per annum. In the raising of
grain, farmers rarely realize more than twenty or twenty-five dollars per
acre. Considered for a less number of years, the annual ])rofit would
not be so great, yet much more than could be realized from any other
single product, as the following item will show.

Messrs. Henry & Wm. Sisson, living three miles north of this City,
Galesburg, 111., planted two acres to Black Walnuts ten years ago this
last Fall. Most of them came up the next spring. They cropped the
ground for three years to corn, raising nearly as good crops as if the
trees had not occupied the ground. For seven years it has furnished
as valuable pasture as any other two acres of their pasture lands.

Now they have a compact grove, the trees ranging from twenty to
thirty feet high, and of strong, stocky growth from the ground up.
The proprietors of this farm told me more than two years ago that
five hundred dollars would not tempt them to have that grove removed.
This estimate of the value of the timber is two hundred and fifty dol-
lars per acre, while the market value of the land in that vicinity is not
more than sixty-five dollars per acre; and give an annual value of
wood-growth of thirty dollars per acre, and twenty dollars per acre for
crops and pasture since the ground was planted, making a total annual
value of fifty dollars per acre.

Now who will ask, "Will it pay.'" Here are the figures, and any
farmer can do as well with ten or even twenty acres in the next ten
years; and the ratio of value will be greater per annum the longer the
grove is allowed to grow, even if it is a hundred years.

The following are some of the varieties of deciduous trees most
easily trans])lanted, European and American Larch, Silver Maple, Box
Elder, Sugar Maple, and Silver-leaved Poplar, Mountain Ash, and Red
Butt (or Judas tree.) For lawns, white and Burr Oak are desirable but

298 TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN.

difficult to transplant. Chestnut can be successfully transplanted, while
young.

Among our native trees for variety that can be successfully trans-
planted, are the Coffee Bean, River Birch, Hackberry, and Linn.
Black Walnut and Butternut are the most profitable of all, for grove
planting, from the seed. I have not seen it tried ; but judging from
nursery culture, I should think the chestnut could be very successfully
grown in groves from seed.

Of the evergreens, all the most common varieties, as the Scotch,
Austrian, White, and Ponderosa, or heavy wooded pines, the Norway
and White Spruce, and the Hemlock, are desirable. The Balsam Fir
is vigorous and easily grown while young; but seems to be short-lived on
our prairie soil.

The intense importance of this subject in affecting the future wealth
of the country, should be considered by county and state agricultural
societies, and valuable premiums should be offered for the best groves
of a certain number of acres, of different varieties of timber, and of
specified age to encourage and promote this very important branch of
industry.

Who would not be ambitious to do something for himself, and for
future generations in this direction? How many labor and struggle in
political life to have their names appear in the history of our country.
But here the most humble can with little effort write his name in nature,
and hand it down to generations yet unborn, only made brighter and
plainer by the hand of time. And then in the future years the children
and children's children will hold in high esteem and sacred memory
the fathers whose diligent hand planted the grand and beautiful groves
which to them are the source of the highest pleasure and their surest
wealth.

Adjourned sine die.

The next Annual meeting @f the Northern Illinois Horticultural
Society will be held in the city of Sterling, Whiteside County, com-
mencing on Tuesday, January twenty-seven, eighteen hundred and
seventy-four.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 299

LOCAL SOCIETIES.

WARSAW HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

In making this my fifth Annual Report (for eighteen hundred and
seventy-two) of the Transactions of this Society, the undersigned finds
but little ©f special interest to lay before the general reader.

The meetings of the Society have been held regularly through the
year, and all the workins^ members continue to take a commendable in-
terest in the proceedings. The community generally, however, seem to
take but little interest in the work which the Society is doing in their
midst; neither can it be said that much progress is making within our
own limits. The conviction is more and more being forced upon us,
that fruit-growing is a hard road to travel, in view of the numerous
difficulties and impediments to be encountered. The chief of these, in
this region, are the codling moth and curculio among insects, and the
pear blight among diseases. While, regarding horticulture as a science,
it would seem as though its shadows and mysteries only deepen the
more we attempt to penetrate them.

The Apple and Peach crophas been large this year. Of the former
many fell prematurely, and many more were imperfect and not market-
able; of the latter, the quality was generally very poor — consequently
prices ruled very low. Cherries were a failure. Strawberries almost
a failure. Other small fruits generally yielded but moderate crops.

At my recjuest. President Hammond, to whose zeal and active labors
tHe Society owes so much, and to whom it is so much indebted for
whatever of reputation it has abroad, has written out a resume of the
year just closed, with which 1 must close this report. Air. Hammond
says:

" Notwithstanding occasional discouraging circumstances, this
Society is making progress, and may be considered one of the fixtures
of the community. Most of the members have a large pecuniary in-
terest in horticulture, and consequently in the success of the Society ;
and therefore bring to the work not only their own innate love of it,
but an earnest desire to learn more of the mysterious influences that
make our business so hazardous, — to-day crowning our efforts with
abundant success, to-morrow blasting our fondest hopes.

" Perhaps we may, without egotism, claim that we have made a good
record ; yet we have only demonstrated the possibility and necessity of
greater progress in our noble science, which so pre-eminently promotes
civilization and refinement, and adds to the health and comfort of the
people.

" There are a few items of general interest, that it may be proper
to mention in this connection :

300 . TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

"ist. The wholesale destruction of grape-vines, by the drouth of
the autumn of eighteen hundred and seventy-one, and the cold, snow-
less winter following. A large portion of Catawba, Delaware, Iowa,
and all the half-ha-rdy varieties, being killed or hopelessly injured.

* " 2d. The unprecedented failure of the small fruit and cherry
crops.

" 3d. The very abundant Apple crop, and the large per cent, that
was unfit for market, proving conclusively that some way must be de-
vised to utilize the waste of the orchard, if the business is to be made
profitable.

" 4th. Our comparative exemption from the ravages of the codling
moths, indicating that some natural enemy has been preying upon
them; probably our feathered friends."

Below is appended i. Verbal remarks on the question ''^ Pears —
Will they Fay?" made by Mr. Charles Willis, of Hamilton, at the July
meeting; and 2. Report of Committee on Orchards, made at Septem-
ber meeting:

PEARS WILL THEY PAY.'

Mr. Willis said : That since he had commenced pear-planting in
this vicinity, about sixteen years ago, he had planted and had the care
of, for himself and others, perhaps twenty-five hundred trees, standards
and dwarfs. Of these, he would judge fully one-half are now dead.
Of a lot planted in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-five, all are
gone. And of trees planted on his own grounds, seven to ten years
ago, quite a number are dead and a large number of others badly af-
fected with the blight. And how long those yet alive may continue to
live and be a source of profit, he could not say. Yet with all the draw-
backs to which pear-culture is liable, he was prepared to answer the
question in the affirmative. Pear-culture 7vill pay ! He had trees that
had yielded six or eight to ten dollars per tree in one year, and he could
now afford to let those trees die — if die they must. He confessed to an
utter ignorance of the cause or remedy for blight. His trees were
blighted badly this year — more than ever before ; and yet he had, in the
fall of eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, root-pruned a large portion of
them. Of one thing he felt assured- -that if the root-pruning did not
check the blight, it did induce fruitfulness. His trees had good crops
this year. He was satisfied the disease did not have its origin in the
root ; he had examined the roots of badly blighted trees, and uniformly
found them apparently as sound as the trees not blighted.

Mr. Wm. N. Grover — What varieties, say three, would you say
have proven the most profitable, in your experience .?

Mr. Willis — I should name the Flemish Beauty, Bartlett and Belle
Lucrative. They are prolific and early bearers, and the two first are
large and attractive. Certain varieties I would not plant as standards,
the Duchess is one of them. As dwarfs, the fruit is larger and better.
In answer to a question, he stated that, in the Keokuk market, he had
sold as low as three dollars and as high as six and eight dollars per
bushel.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 3Q1

The StXRETARY SAID — In naming those three sorts, Mr. W. had
reference alone to quality and market value of the fruit, as the two
first were notorious for being subject to blight. They were so in Mr.
Darnell's orchard at Riverside, and were so given in the horticultural
papers. The Secretary asked Mr. Stracke to state what varieties had
been the most subject to blight in his orchard.

Mr. Strackk — The Glout Morceau have all blighted and gone.
The Bartletts about one third — standards and dwarfs.

REPORT ON ORCHARDS.

Your Committee "on Orchards has not, perhaps, been as diligent as
it should have been in collecting information, but is prepared to report
the condition of some of the leading orchards in the county.

The first orchard visited was that of Mr. Marlot, in Bear Creek
township. We found his trees in a fine, healthy condition, and heavily
loaded with fruit of extra large size and remarkably free from scab. In
his first planting, he planted largely of European varieties of apples,
pears and cherries, but has now abandoned them as unsuited to our
soil and climate. We found very little pear blight in this orchard,
which the proprietor attributes to his mode of summer pruning, or cut-
ting back, which causes the wood to ripen perfectly. His well kept
grounds, carefully cultivated flower garden and pleasant surroundings
denote the man of taste and culture.

The next in order is the orchard of John R. Tull, of Pontoosuc.
This orchard is one of the largest and most profitable in the county,
consisting in fact of seven orchards, situated like the Imperial City on
seven hills, and less than a mile from the Mississippi river. Mr. Tull's
crop of fruit will be immense this year, and he is much less afflicted
with scab than many orchardists in this part of the county. He thinks
the Roman Sweet Pippin his most profitable variety. Jonathan is very
fine this season, Wine-sajj and Rawle's Janet are also doing well. Mr.
Tull is a zealous horticulturist, and his orchard, nursery, flower garden
and green house are well worthy of a visit by every lover of the beau-
tiful.

The orchard of John Peyton, Esci., is situated on the bluff, four
miles below Warsaw. This has been one of the most productive orch-
ards in the county. The leading variety is Ben Davis, which the pro-
prietor considers his most profitable apple. And your committee can
bear testimony that they never saw trees more heavily laden with fruit,
many of them having already broken down with their superabundant
load of fruit. We find this variety better formed and more highly
colored on the bluff than on the prairie soil. Mr. Peyton thinks the
Willow Twig, Wine-sap and Rawle's Janet the next most profitable
apples, and we found them all carrying a good croj^ of fair-sized fruit,
very free from scab and worms. Indeed, the scarcity of worms in this
orchard struck us as very remarkable ; some varieties not having one
per cent, of wormy specimens. Mr. Peyton prunes judiciously, culti-
vates thoroughly, until the trees become so large as to make it imprac-
ticable, when he seeds his orchards down to grass.

302 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

In sharp contrast to the above stands the orchards of the Messrs.
Grover, on the bluff, two miles above Warsaw. The soil is very similar
(perhaps a little less sandy) yet the same varieties make a very different
showing. The Wine-sap and Janet, for instance, being small and scabby,
and a large portion of them of no value but for cider. We found in
these orchards more wormy fruit than in many others, perhaps twenty
or twenty-five per cent, being infested. We here find the Jonathan
carrying a heavy crop of large handsome fruit. The Maiden's Blush
and Early Harvest have also given very satisfactory results.

We see by comparing the two last named orchards that the same s
does not always produce the same results, and that it is unsafe to form
a theory from one or two, or even a half dozen experiments. Per-
haps next year the case of these two orchards may be exactly reversed.
******

The orchard of Mr. McCune, on the prairie, four miles east of
Warsaw, is producing a full crop this season. Pryor's Red is one' of
his most profitable varieties. Red Canada is, as usual, doing well in
this orchard. It ripens and must be gathered early or it drops badly.
Baldwin very full. Indeed this variety, wherever found, is producing a
heavy crop this year. Is it not possible that this, and perhaps other
discarded varieties may be again restored to popular favor .>* Rawle's
Janets are so small and badly scabbed that they all will be made into
cider. This gentleman is making large quantities of cider and vinegar,
and as it requires so much store room to keep it over winter he is
building a cistern of a hundred barrels capacity into which he will run
it from the press, and pump out as occasion may require.

The Monte Bello still sustains its reputation as an apple of the
very best-quality. The original tree is so full of fruit that it is smaller
than usual, as may be seen by examining specimens on the table.

The conviction forces itself upon the mind of your committee that
the planting of summer, fall and winter varieties that must compete in
the market with peaches, pears and grapes cannot longer be profitable.

A. C. Hammond, Chairman.

WARSAW HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
OFFICERS FOR 1873.

President — A. C. Hammond, Warsaw.
Vice-President — John T. Johnson, Warsaw.
Treasurer — Dr. Charles Hay, Warsaw.
Secretary — Benjamin Whitaker, Warsaw.

Thos. Gregg, Secretary.
January, 1873.

STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 303

ALTON HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
OFFICERS FOR 1873.

President — O. L. Barler.

Vice-Presidents — E. HoUister, G. Hilliard.

Secretary — W. Eliot Smith.

Treasurer — E. Hollister.

Librarian — J. M. Pearson.

CHAIRMEN STANDING COMMITTEES.

John Higgins, _____ Orchards

"E. a. Riehl, - - - - - - Vineyards

Dr. B. F. Long, _• - _ _ Ornamental Trees

Dr. E. C. James, _____ Botany

Maj. Muhleman, _ - _ _ _ Entomology

B. F. Draper, . _ _ _ _ Small Fruits

H. J. Hyde, ___---_ Wines
J. E. Starr, ______ Flowers

E. Hollister, _____ Vegetables
Geo. Hilliard, ______ Birds

F. Starr, ______ Orchard Fruits

* This Society holds monthly meetings, usually at the residences of
members, at which very much valuable information is imparted.

It has been the privilege of the editor to attend several of these interesting meet-
ings, and he regrets, as will the readers of this volume, that no report of the transactions
of the Society has been handed in for publication.

CHAMPAIGN COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
OFFICERS FOR 1872-3.

President — J. O. Cunningham.
Vice-President — B. F. Johnson.
Secretary — Samuel Avery.
Treasurer — Thomas Franks.

This Society was organized in December, 1868; it holds regular
monthly meetings, at which reports from standing committees are re-
ceived; also essays and papers upon topics related to horticulture are
read and discussions had, as arranged by a committee on programme
at the commencement of each year.

In the spring of 187 i, the society began to hold its meetings at the
residences of members, by invitation, and from that time the interest of
the meetings increased, the ladies aiding on the good work.

The membership during the last year was over one hundred.

The annual election of officers takes place in May.

Samuel Averv, Secretary.

304 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

ONARGA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

O, B. Galusha, Secretary of State Horticultural Society:

Dear Str : — In compliance with your request I herewith hand you
a list of officers of the Onarga Horticultural Society ; also a synopsis of
its doings during the year 1872.

OFFICERS FOR 1873.

President — J. B. Clark.
Vice-President — E. D. Robbins.
Recording Secretary — J. L. Burnside.
Corresponding Secretary — W. H. Spurgeon.
Treasurer — H. Pinney.
Librarian — Lyman Pike.

OTHER MEMBERS.

Ida Congdon, F. P. Beach,

M. E. Morgan, J. A. Hall,

J. D. VanNorman, Isaac Ammerman,

Elkina Doolittle, J. W. Owen,

E. C. Hall, R. B. Pangborn,

E. Rumley, B. B. Scott.

J, D. Havens, Henry Kellogg,

Rev. G. R. Palmer, J. H. Atwood,

W. R. Pevins, E. F. Havens,

G. B. Fickle, W. A. Thayer,

Jonathan Owen, J. B. Lowe,

Horace Babcock, W. R. Barnum,

Franklin Graves, W. D. Mathews,
W. A. Lockwood, • J. D. Lawson,

B. F. Case, G. H. VanNest,

Wm, Reed, Charles Torrey,

Rev. Mr. Dwight.

SYNOPSIS OF society's DOINGS FOR THE YEAR ENDING JANUARY, 1873.

Jan. 15, 1872. — Reading and approval of minutes. Reports of
committees. (Nothing of importance.)

Admission of new members.

Proposition of one of the members to manufacture berry boxes.

The exorbitant tariff of the P. C. Railroad Co. was next discussed,
and universally condemned.

P. G. Conden was requested to read an essay at next meeting on
the strawberry and its cultivation. J. B. Clark to read one at same
time on the raspberry and its cultivation ; also, Horace Babcock one on
grape-culture. A resolution was adopted.

Resolved, That strawberry-culture be the subject of discussion at next meeting.

Adjourned.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 305

January 22, 1872. — Reading of minutes. Reports of Committees.
Reading of essays by Messrs. Conden and Clark on the strawberry and
raspberry, and their culture.

A general talk followed as to the best paying method of raising
strawberries. The majority were in fr.vor of thorough culture, while
others thought they had realized more money without any culture, sim-
])lv keeping the weeds mowed off.

Adjourned.

January 29, 1872. — The subject of discussion at this meeting was
grape culture. Various theories were advanced. Mr. L. Dunlap's
spiral training was severely criticized, as not being attended with best
results. The wire trellis, with moderate pruning, seemed the prevailing
and most approved mode of training.

Adjourned.

February 3, 1872. — Society opened in due form. Subject for dis-
cussion,—

Resolved, Thai birds are an enemy to the horticulturist, and ought to be de-
stroyed.

The society was about evenly divided on the subject, and a very
interesting discussion was the result. The friends of the feathered tribe
coming off first best. The following resolution was adopted :
Resolved, That in the economy of nature, birds are helpmates of man.

Adjourned.

February 10. — Subject, same as last meeting. An essay was read
in favor of birds by John Owen, the drift of the discussion being in fa-
vor of birds.

February 17. — Subject, grape-culture first year.

February 24. — Subject, grape-culture second and third years.

March 2. — .A further discussion of grape-culture.

March 9. — Subject, planting and necessary care of an ajjple orch-
ard, how old the trees should be, distance apart, how to plant and prune^
what crops to grow among the trees (an essay was read on the subject)
what varieties to plant.

^L1rch 16. — A continuance of the subject of last meeting. Two
essays read on the subject. A list of apples for this locality made out.

March 23. — Subject for discussion same as last meeting.'

April 27. — A short discussion on pear culture. An essay read.
The balance of evening spent in distribution of seeds from the De-
partment of Agriculture at Washington.

May 4. — Subject, strawberry culture, etc. ■

May 18. — Vegetable gardening.

May 25. — Subject, will strawberries degenerate from any cause .'
Also, the propriety of raising the price of picking berries, with the view
of bringing out a better class of pickers.

December 7. — The evening was mostly spent in the election of of-
ficers for the ensuing year.

306 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS

December 14. — A short speech on entomology by W. D. Mathews,
illustrated by case of insects. Voted to employ Mr. Mathews to give a
series of lectures on same subject.

December 28. — A talk about fruit boxes.

February 3, 1872.— The resolution chosen for discussion, at this
meeting, was.

Resolved, That fruit-eating bird.s are enemies to the horticulturist, and ought to be
destroyed.

The Society was about evenly divided upon the subject, and a very
interesting discussion was the result, the friends of the feathered tribe
coming off first best. The following resolution was adopted.
Resolved, That, in the economy of nature, birds are helpmates of man.

February 10. — John Owen read an essay, defending the birds. A
discussion followed, in which the birds gained friends.

Februarv 17 and 24, and March 2. — The subject of Grape-culture
was discussed, beginning with the planting of the vine, and extending
to the close of the third year after planting.

March 9, 16, and 23. — The planting and cultivation of Apple Orch-
ards was the topic ; and several essays read upon it, and a list of apples
for cultivation, adopted.*

April 27. — A short discussion on Pear-culture; followed by a dis-
tribution of seeds received from the Department of Agriculture.

May 4. — Strawberry-culture, etc.

May 18. — Vegetable gardening.

May 25. — Culture and picking of Strawberries.

December 9. — Election of officers.

December 14. — A talk on Entomology, by W. D. Mathews, illus-
trated by a case of insects. The Society voted to engage Mr. Mathews
to give a series of lectures upon the same subject.

December 28. — A talk about fruit boxes.

W. H. Spurgeon, Cor. Sec.

MORGAN COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

Jacksonville, March 15, 1873.
O. B. Galusha,

Dear Sir: — Yours asking for statistics is received. En-
closed find list of officers and committees of Morgan County Horticul-
tural Society.

President — Prof. J. B. Turner.

Vice-President — Hon. Ed. Scott.

Secretary — A. L. Hay.

Treasurer — Mrs. Kellogg.

Editor and Cor. Sec.—^. W. Milligan.

Librarian — Miss Catlin.

* This list was not furnished for publication. — Ed.

ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 307

Directors — E. T. Miller, I. Baldwin, Jos. Heinl, H. H. Massey,
H. W. MiUigan.

Committee on Culinary Vegetables — R. Mason, Geo. Robertson, H.
H. Massey.

Committee on Preserved Fruits — Mrs. \V. Mathers, Mrs. F. E. Day-
ton, .Mrs. Robertson.

Committee on Vineyards — E. T. Miller, B. H. Chai)man, H. Hum-
phrey.

Committee on Fine Arts — Mrs. 1. L. Morrison, Mrs. E. P. Kirby,
R. C. Smith.

Committee on Ornithology — Dr. N. N. Woods, J. N. Taylor, J. O.
King.

Committee on Botany — Miss Alice Rhoads, Miss Mary Robertson,
Miss M. E. Catlin.

Committee on Flo^vers — J. Heinl, Mrs. M. L. Walcott, Mrs. M. J,
Kellogg.

Committee on Entomology — A. L. Hay, H. W. Milligan, \Vm. Mc-
Dougal.

Committee on Orchards — S. Markoe, W. H. Craven, Hart H.
Massey.

Committee on Shade Trees and Shrubbery — Dr. A. McP'arland, Prof.
J. B. Turner, Wm. K. Dewey.

Committee on Small Fruits — I. Baldwin, H. T. Collins, H. C. Fuller.

Committee on Strawberries — E. Deer.

Committee on Early Vegetables — J. Figuira.

The Society meets monthly, occasionally on the premises of some
of the members, when the season is suitable, but usually in the Court
House, in Jacksonville.

The Society invested some of its surplus funds in the jiurchase of
a horticultural library about a year ago. This consists now of about
one hundred and twenty volumes on subjects connected with horticul-
ture. Yours, cScc, H. W.' Milligan.

INDEX.

Address — By President Starr 47

By President Ellsworth 300

Of Welcome 197

AUlen Fruit — Statements Respecting 115

Aldrich V'erry — Report from 20

Alton Horticultural Society — Officers of. 303

Chairman — Com's of 303

American Pom'l Society 150, 171

Anatomy of Plants : 178

Annual Address of President 47, 200

Annual Meeting Located 125, 264, 298

Apple Nurseries — Discussion upon 66

Orchards — Cultivation of 21, 22

Discussion upon 74

Trees^H eight of 125

Apples — Condemned Varieties of 20

Crop of 16, 17, 21, 24, 25, 28, 65, 123,

125, 13s. 172, 256, 300.

Discussion upon 76

Fungus on 28, 30

In Knox County 15

List of 18, 20, 21, 22, 24,25,64,65,

189, 221

With Notes upon 220

Prices of 15, 16, 21, 28, 172, 256

Scabbing of. '7. i9t 20

Varieties — New, with Descriptions 223

And Notes upon. ..189, 190,191, 192

Autumn Swaar 23

Bailey's Sweet 22, 221

Baldwin 20,23, 301

Ben Davis 15, 17, 77, 301

Bonam 77

Domine 23

Early Harvest 22, 302

Early Pennock 22

Fulton 77

Gloria Mundi 22

Gravensticn 22

Grimes' Golden 20, 77

Huntsman's Favorite 77

Jonathan 301

Kirkbridge White 32

Maiden's Blush 302

Montebello 303

Nelson 78

Northern Spy 22

Peak's Fall 76

Porter 32

Pryor's Red 301

Rambo 32

Rawles' Janet 79, 303

Red Astrachan 32

Red Canada 30

R. L Greening 30

Secknofarther 33

Sops of Wine. 33

Stark 20, 27

Varieties — Notes upon'

Summer Pearmain 22

Willow 22, 301

Winesap -305

Yellow Bellflower 22

Ash Leaf Maple — Recommended 65

Atkins, S. D. — Address of 197

Atmospheric Electricity 230

Averj', Samuel — Report from 303

Ballou, N. E. — Report by 290

Beebe, E. H. — Amendments by 257

Report by. 275

Bee-Keeping Recommended 3i8

Birds — Discussion upon 167, 306

Essay upon 238

List of 166

Report upon 161, 182

Blackberries — Crop of 26,64, '34

List of 64

Varieties of Kittatinny 16, 64

Lawton 64

Blight in Apple Trees 127

In Leaves 19, 30

In Pear Trees 126,256,300, 301

Bliss, H. N. — Paper by 206

Bloomington — Meeting at 6

Bonham, Jeriah — Resolution by : 289

Botany and Veg. Phys. — Report upon 231

Box for Gathering Apples 79

Brown, A. M. — Report from 133

Bryant, Arthur — Paper by 244

Report by 287

Bryant, J. P. — Report from 173

Bureau County — Report of 20, 28

Burril, T. J. — Paper from 184

Canning Fruit 117

Capps, Mr. — Report by 64

Carroll County — Report of 24

Champaign County Hort. Society — Report of. 303

Officers of 303

Report of 95

Chemistry of Decay 103

Cherries — Crop of 16,23,25,38, 257

Discussion upon >6q

Killed by Frost 18

List of .25, 26, 64, 65

Varieties of Early May (or Richmond).

65, 126, 134

English Morello 65

Late Richmond 65

Cider Making — Report upon 112

Clayton, Wm.— Resolutions by 144

Coaling Moth — Decre.-i.sc of 23, 126, 173, 300

New Trap for — 27

Cochrane, J. — Essay by 178

Committee^ Audi ting ■ — 8

Of Conference with Railway Go's 134

On Expressage 10

310

INDEX.

Committee —

Fruits - -•--.- 206

Miscellaneous Articles 132

Postal Matters 9

Secretary's Report 8

Signal Service - 123

Standing for 1873 viii

Transportation .-- 15

Committees of Northern Horticultural Socie-
ty o»

Correcting Names of Fruits 289

Forest Trees 863

Fruits -.--- 206

Marketing and Utilizing Fruits 289

President Ellsworth's Address 241

State Legislation 206

Standing for 1873 288

Taxing Nurser>' Stock 263

Tree Planting - 263

Committees— Reports from

On Auditing. 121

Entomologi' '- iS'i '59

Fruits on Exhibition 118, 287

Geologj' and Soils 141,147

Landscape Gardening 172

Miscellaneous Articles 131

Ornamental and Useful Trees 85, 241

Ornithology 18, 27, 165

President's Address 120

Secretary's Report 85

Timber Planting 283

Transportation 119

Utilizing Fruits 103,108, 112

Vegetable Gardening 80

Constitution and By-Laws xii

Change in— of N. Society 257

Cooper, J. C— Report from 165

Convention— Horticultural 6

Corn— Experiments with 236

Counties — Reports of

Champaign 65

Douglas 65

Ford - 65

Hamilton 127

Hancock - 17

Henry 21

Knox 15

Logan 64

McDonough 18

Sangamon - 64

Woodford --- 16

Curculio— Destruction by .' 22, 23, 64

Daggj', E.— Report from .-. 63

Discussion on Apples- New Varieties 76

Birds 167

Cherries - 169

Decimal Weights and Measures 150

Dr. Humphrey's Report 19

Edwards, S. — Report 30

Grafting 69

Grape Culture 205

Grapes 32. 52

Hybridizing Plants 237

Orchard Culture 74

Mr. Pullen's Report 127

Peach - 135

Diseases of '37

Varieties of - 138

Pruning. - 72

Raspberries 168

Strawberries.- 67

Utilizing Fruits 114

Douglas County— Report of 65

Douglas R.— Report from 172, 182, 283

Resolution by 262

Drouth— Effects of. I27i i35

Drying and Canning Fruits — Report upon 108

Dunlap, H. J. — Report from 65

Dunlap, M. L. — On Bee-keeping 218

Report from _ 112, 147

Durley, Williamson — Report from 21

Edwards, Samuel — Report from 220, 246

Resolution by 249,288, 290

Election of Officers 124, 264

Electricity — Address upon 230

Ellsworth, Pres. Lewis — Address of 200

Entomologist, State — Duties of 151

Resolution respecting 262

Entomology — Report upon 151, 159

Evergreens Injured by Cold.. 25

On the Prairies 98

Executive Board — Meeting of 6

Expressage — Committee on 10

Final Resolutions 170,289, 290

Flagg, W. C— Report by 85

Resolutions by 130, 150

Floriculture — Essay upon 264

Forest Trees — Discussion upon 245

List of 91, 100

Paper upon 294

Ford County — Report of 65

Foster, Samuel — Letter from 288

Francis, L. C. — Report from 64, 121

Freeman, H. C. — Report from 144

Fruits — Notes upon Species and Varieties of

189, 192

Report upon 256

Fungus on Apples 28, 30

On Peaches 137

Galena District — Report of. 23

Galusha, O. B. — Report from 5

Garden Vegetables — Cultivation of 80

List of - 80

Geology — Paper upon 276

Suggestions on 206

Grafting Apples — Experiments with 67

Discussion upon 67

Grape Culture — Address upon 47

Discussion upon 32, 38, 5a

Paper on 203

Grapevines — Blight of Leaves of 23

Grafting of 205

Injured by Cold 19, 20

Winter Protection of.. 32, 35

Grapes — Crop of 16, 17, 18,25, 127, 134, 172

Diseases of i5

Lists of 17, 18, 24, 25, 64, 203

Prices for 18

Varieties

Catawba 16, 17

Clinton 18

Concord '^i i7i '8

Delaware 16

Isabella 16

Ives' Seedling 134

Norton's Virginia 16

Perkins 34

Rodgers 16

Siglar 16, 19

Without Cultivation 52, 57

Graves, H. C. — Report from 172

Gregg, Thomas — Report by 299

Gregory, J. M. — Resolutions by 150 .

Hagerman, Andrew — Report from 18

Hamilton County — Report of. 127

Hammond, A. C. — Report from 17, 299, 301

Hancock County — Report of 17

Hardiness in Fruits.. 252

Harris, Mrs. — Essay by 269

Hatheway, B. — Letter from 27

Hatheway, Mrs. P. V. — Essay by 238

Hay, L. — Report from 80

INDEX.

:;ii

Henry County— Report of 21

Hooton, Or. M. M. — Address of 1

Horticultural Districts —

Reports of 15,20. 63, 125, 132, 133, 172

Horticultural Meeting at Bloomington 6

Societies — Reports from

Alton 303

Champaign County 303

Morgan County 306

Onarga 304

Warsaw 299

Horticulture at Industrial University 184

Huggins, Jona— Report by 4

Hull s New Curculio Catcher 136

Humphrey, A. G.— Paper by 294

Report from 15

Resolutions by 149

Hybridization of Plants 237

Industrial University

Forest Record of. 186

Horticulture at 184

Insects Infesting Vinegar 118

Lecture upon 257

Prize for Collection of 159

Report upon .-..159

Species of Army-Worm 258, 261

Bark-Louse 259

Canker Worm-Remedy for 262

Chalcis Fly '...259, 260

Codling Moth 22, 126, 172, 300

Crown Borer 58,127, 134

Curculio 22, 23

Tent Caterpillar 258

JeflTrics, N. M. — Report from 132

Jo Daviess County — Report of 23

Keim, C. H. — Report from 24

Knox County — Report ot' 15

Landscape Gardening — Essay upon 269

Report upon 173

LeBaron, Wm.— Address by 257

Report from ! 151

List of Fruits 189, ic)2

List of Members of State Society ix

Northern do 195

Onarga do 304

Locating the Annual Meeting 125

Locust, Black — Paper upon 244

Logan County — Report of 64

Long, B. V. — Fruit List by 192

Low Head Trees 31

Lukins, W. E. — Essay by 214

Manures 59

Manuring Vineyards 54, 56

Manny, P. — Paper by. 203

McAfee, H. H. — Paper by 249

Report from 103, 231

Resolution by 248

McDonough County — Report of 16

McWhorten — Essay by 276

Mechanical Structure of Plants 178

Memorial — Respecting Signal Service 133

Meteorology and Signal Service 121

Report upon 38, 290

Milliean, H. W. — Report from 306

Minkler, S. G. — Report from 172, 256

Morgan County Horticultural Society — Re-
port of 306

Muhlemann, J. R... Report from 159

Nelson, W. T.— Fruit List by 189

Northern Illinois Hort. Society — Transac-
tions of 193

Nurseries, Apple — Discussion upon 66

Nursery, Pruning in 72

Officers for 1873 124

Onarga Horticultural Society— Report ol 304

Orchards — Cultivation of. 17, 64, 219

Orchards —

Protection of aS, 30

Report upon 301

Ornament.1l aiicl Timber Trees— Report upon. 85

Useful Trees — Discussion upon 97

Ornamental Planting 19

Ornithology — Report upon 165, 182

Osa^ ( )range for Screens 65

Peaches — Crop of 15, 16, 17,23, 64, 123, 126,434

Cultivation of 18

Discussion upon I35"i38

Fruiting among Evergreens 28

Marketing of 134, 140

List of 65

Prices of 16

Variety of Alexander .-38, 64

Pears — Crop of 16, 23, 65, 134, 256

Pear Orchards — Free from blight 17

Pears — List of '8, 64

Pear Trees — Blight of 126, 256, 300, 301

Leaf Blight of 19, 20

Pears — Varieties of— Bartlett 300

Belle Lucrative 300

Flemish Beauty 25, 300

(ilout Morceau 300

Will they pay, 300

Pearson, J. M. — Report from 131, 132

Peffer, G. S. — Address by 252

Periam, Jona. — Report from 108

Persimmons. — Discussion upon 97

Plumb, .Mr. — Resolution by 290

Plums — Varieties of — Miner 25

Wild Goose 126

Postal rates on Seeds 8

President Starr, address of 47

Parting words of 171

Ellsworth's address 200

Protection by Timber belts 17

Pruning — Discussion upon 72, 128

F*ruit Trees 31

In Nursery. -. 72

Pnllen, B. — Report from 125

Putnam County, — Report of 21, 22

Ouincc — Crop of 64, 65

Railway transportation — Discussion upon 10

Raspberries — Crop of 23, 24, 25, 134

Discussion upon 168

List of 25, 64, 65

Varieties — Division's thornless 25, 169

Doolittle 25, 169

McCormick, 168

Philadelphia 168

Winter killing of 15

Reports from Committees : —

Auditing 121

On Final Resolutions 170

On Fruits 118, 256, 287

On Geology and Soils, 141, 147

On Landscape Gardening, 173

On Meteorology 38

- On .Miscellaneous Articles 131

On Ornamental & Timber Trees, 246

On Ornithology 165

On President's address, lao, 362

On Secretary's Report 85

On Timber Planting 283

On Utilizing Fruits 103, 108, 112

Reixjrls of Counties, —

Carroll 24

Champaign . — 65

DeKalb 17a

Douglas 65

Ford 65

Henry ai

Jo Daviess 23

Cendall 17a

fe

312

INDEX.

Reports of Counties —

Logan 64

\ Putnam 21, 22

\ Sangamon. 64

Stephenson, _ 24

Whiteside 24

Reports of Horticultural Districts

First District, •-172

Second do 20

Third do , 15

Fourth do 63

Fifth do J 125

Sixth do 132

Seventh do 133

Report of Secretary, 5

Treasurer 4, 203

OfWernli, J.. 23

Resolution on Am. Pomological Society 150

On Beet Sugar making .288

On Extending duties of Vice Prest 149

Final 170, 289, 290

On Insect Remedies. 290

On Prize for Coll. of Insects. 159

On Relating to Express, ..120

Sciences in Schools 149

Selling Fruits by weight 116, 257

Signal Stations 130, 249

State Entomologist .262

Transportation 119

Trustees of Ind. University 249

Weights of Hortl. Products 130

Rickords, \Vm. — Report from_ 127

Richmond, A. E. — Report from 21

Robison, J. W. — Fruit list by 189

Robson, J. W. — Essay by , 264

Sangamon County. — Report of 64

Sciences in Schools 149

School. — N. W. Normal 24

Scofield, D. C. — paper by 241

Scott, D. W.— Resolution by _ ..288

. Screens for Orchards 28, 30

Secretary's Report 5

Selling Fruits by weight, 116, 130, 257

Shelter belts — for Orchards 28, 30

Shepherd, .Smiley — Report of 22

Signal Service — Discussion upon 121

Memorial respecting -122

Resolutions upon 130

Signal Stations — Report respecting 129

Small Fruits — Crop of 16, 23, 24, 65

In Bureau County 28

Profi ts of --.- 20

Snedecker, Isaac — Report from 132

Soils — for Orchards 16

Spafford, M. B. — Paper by 219

Spurgeon, W. H. — Report from 306

Standing Committees for State Soc viii

Standing Committee —

For Northern Society -.288

Starr J. E. — Business address of 2

Annual address by 47

Strawberries, — Crop of 23, 24, 59, 133, 257

Blasting of _ 16

Cultivation of 58

Damaged by grubs 65

Discussion upon 57

List of. 57, 58, 64

Varieties of

Colfax 58

Charles Downing.. 58

Cramer's Seedling , 61, 62

Green Prolific 57, 58

Jucunda 57

Knox's 700, .". 58

Pres. Wilder.. 25

Wilson 25

Tice, J. H — Report from 38

Timber-belts — Protection by 17

Planting — Necessity for 28

Report upon 246, 283

Waste 241

Transportation 10

Trap for Codling Moth 27

Treasurer — Report of 4, 203

Trees, Timber — List of 91, 100

Report upon 85

And Tree-planting — Essay on 214

Utilizing Fruits — Discussion upon 114

Report upon 103, 108, 112

Vegetable Gardening 123

Report upon. 80

Vegetable Physiology — Paper upon 249

Vegetables — Cultivation of 80

List of 80

Vice Presidents — Reports from.. 15, 20, 63, 125,

132, 133, 172

Vickroy, H. K. — Paper from 186

Report of Experiments 67

on Fruits 118

Vinegar, Cider — Report upon 112

Vineyard Culture 32, 38, 52, 204

Vineyards in Jo Da-viess Co 23

Warder, J. A. — Notes by — on New Apples .-.223

Letter from 223

Warrants — List of 7

Warsaw Hort. Soc. — Report of 299

Wernli J. — Report from - 23

White Maples — Destroyed by Borers 65, 66

Whiteside County — Report of 24

White, S. S.— Report from 16

Willis Charles — Paper by 300

Woodard, L. — Report from 203

Woodford County — Report of 16

Wright Grove — Lecture by ' 230

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