56 TRANSACTIONS OP THE ILLINOIS 



failed. Manchester went the same way. Crescent will not do to 

 ship, but is the best for local market and home use. 



Mr. Mortimer — In my locality Itasca and Haverland to well; 

 we consider them best in quality. The objection to Downing is that 

 .it burns out in our hot, dry seasons. 



Mr. Gray — Plenty of moisture is necessary to successful straw- 

 berry growing. Some seasons one town or county will have an 

 average rainfall, while an adjoining town may be parched with 

 drouth. I vainly tried to grow Sharpless for- three years, but finally 

 planted it on a northern slope where it did well. Mt. Vernon is the 

 best fertilizer I am acquainted with. It is a wonderful grower, with 

 long fruit stems, and every flower is full of pollen. The only objec- 

 tion is, it blooms a little late. 



Mr. Davis — In April, 1887, I planted a field of strawberries 

 and cultivated until the drouth set in, when many plants died. 

 About the first of August I covered them with straw ; in three 

 weeks we had a heavy rain, which thoroughly wet the ground, after 

 which I raked the straw oif the plants, leaving it between the rows ; 

 they grew finely, and I had a magnificent crop of berries, fully one 

 hundred and seventy-five bushels to the acre. 



Mr. Warfield — In 1887 I planted four acres of my seedlings 

 and cultivated until the middle of July ; this season I gathered two 

 hundred and fifty twenty-four-quart crates per acre. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE 0:N STONE FRUITS. 



BY IRA COE, QUIl^CY. 



As one of the Committee on Stone Fruits, my report will be, of 

 necessity, very short. The peach in our section, i. e., th*^ Central 

 part of Illinois, has been a complete failure so long that it required 

 no little effort to find out when we did have our last crop. I think 

 in the summer of 1882 we had our last crop ; since this time the old 

 trees have nearly all died from the extreme cold winters. I know of 

 orchards being planted since which have grown up and died without 

 bearing a crop. 



There are a few fruit growers near Quincy who still have an idea 

 that somehow the character of the seasons will be more favorable in 

 the future for the peach ; that there may be a series of open winters 

 such as we used to have, and hence they keep right on setting out — 



