76 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



planting vineyards and orchards and filling them with the choicest of 

 fruits, I cannot believe that the Egyptian or Israelite of 4,000 or 

 5,000 years ago, who is to-day being dug out of his long resting 

 place and ground up and used as a fertilizer upon the hills and in 

 the valleys of more advanced and civilized nations, ever feasted upon 

 the choicest horticultural products of to-day. Surely the genius, 

 investigation and forethought, the science and progress of the 

 present age must develop something unknown to the ancients of 

 Solomon's time. We certainly have new ways of committing mur- 

 der; we have new methods of robbing banks and plundering houses; 

 we have new schemes by the hundreds for swindling the honest and 

 unsuspecting horticulturist out of his scant profits; we have new 

 combinations of liquids and potions for stealing away the senses of 

 men and making them roaring drunk, and while the devil has been 

 so active, aggressive and evidently so successful in his warfare 

 against the pocket-books aud souls of mankind, is it possible that 

 the labors of such men as Worder, Downing, Dunlap, Turner, Hall 

 and others shall have been in vain ? 



Nay, verily it cannot be ! their efforts have certainly met with a 

 great measure of success, which we to-day enjoy aud generations to 

 follow will rise up and call them blessed. But in the great struggle 

 for something new is it not possible that we may have been led to 

 neglect the cultivation of some of the old but better varieties. May 

 not this feverish anxiety to swell our bank accounts have led us to 

 plant early and abundant bearing trees or plants at the expense of 

 quality. For instance may not the greed for filthy lucre have 

 induced some and perhaps many of us to plant the Ben Davis instead 

 of the Jonathan apple. I mention these two varieties for the reason 

 that to my mind they represent the two extremes of quality and 

 usefulness, I never think of the Ben Davis, without a cold chill run- 

 ning up my back, and as an article of diet, I would consider a sponge 

 equally as desirable; while the Jonathan seems a foretaste of the 

 angel- food which we all exjject to enjoy when we cross that river 

 over which there shall be no returning. 



During the past few years this apple, has to me, been a great 

 source of comfort and delight. When financial reverses have over- 

 taken me, and ruin stared me in the face, 1 have eaten a few Jona- 

 thans and ray troubles seemed but a dream. If our children were 

 exposed to the mumps, measles, small-pox or whooping cough a few 

 Jonathan apples always served to drive the disease away or tide 

 them lightly over it. During the late political campaign when the 

 fortunes of my adopted party seemed on the wane, I resorted to the 

 same remedy, and the clouds immediately lifted and the rainbow of 

 promise appeared in unusual brightness. 



If the bread fails to rise, the stove smokes, or the fire is back- 

 ward in going forward, my wife sits quietly down and eats a Jonathan 



