54 TRANSACnONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



VARIETIES THAT DID WELL THE PAST SEASON IN THE NOETHWESTERN" 



PART OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 



It is very plain to you all why I shut this report up to so small 

 a territory. Last year our committee in his abler paper placed 

 Miner first and said o£ the Crescent, he had no farther use for it. 

 Mr. Jackson gave results from his own farm, and immediate vicinity. 

 Unless your committee can visit different parts of the State during 

 the fruiting season, is it not better that he should speak only of 

 what he can verify. 



The Crescent, which is of no comparative value on Mr. Jackson's 

 farm, is entitled to first place in the locality given. In number of 

 quarts per acre it is about twenty per cent, ahead of any variety 

 grown this year. A black, deep, rich soil, that, under good tillage 

 produces from sixty to one hundred bushels of corn per acre, seems to 

 be the place for the Crescent plant. 



Bubach No. 5 took the second place, not in productiveness, but 

 in money value. This berry, the very perfection of color and form, 

 captures the buyer. The yield was third, not second, but second in 

 money value. I am inclined to think that this berry will take first 

 place next season in money value, and second place in quantity. 



Mt. Vernon took third place in money value and second in 

 quantity. 



Sharpless did better than usual this year, getting fourth place 

 by right. It is one of our very best fertilizers. 



Manchester did better than usual. Champion did well. 



Downing, as a fertilizer, is valuable, but in fruitfulness and 

 value takes the lowest place this year ever given it. Downing always 

 moves a little nearer the front following a moist season. I have but 

 to mention Jessie and Jersey Queen to complete a short valuable 

 list. It is barely possible that we will have no use for Jersey Queen. 

 No. 5 may be Queen in the northern half of Central and all of 

 Northern Illinois, and it is barely possible that Jessie will prove her 

 royal prince; but the fruiting of all Jessie plants this year placed 

 the Jessie in a far lower grade. The plant is slow in taking hold of 

 the soil, sets its runners rather late for fruiting, and in a backward 

 season may fail altogether on first crop; but the second year of 

 fruiting may be the surer one for this variety. The berry is large, 

 but not so showy as Bubach's No. 5. 



New beds of this variety look well this fall and promise a far 

 larger yield than at this same time last year. While the Jessie did 

 not make as many plants as last year they are stronger and older, having 

 set earlier in the season. I am not ready to condemn the Jessie; it 

 has had a big advertisement to struggle under the newspaper. Mulch- 

 ing was put on a little too thick for the native modesty of a western 



