SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 137 



quoted by Elliott), says nothing about small fruits, leaving us to 

 infer that our early settlers were beholden to the wild grapes, straw- 

 berries, raspberries and blackberries, — for all of these they were 

 permitted to enjoy. 



Kirtland, Longworth, Ernst, Worder, in Ohio, and Kennicott 

 and a host of other later laborers in Illinois, may be regarded as the 

 pioneers of horticulture in this State, to whose labors and zeal we 

 of the present generation owe most of our knowledge. 



What was the earliest of the horticultural journals in that vast 

 empire, once known as the Northwest Territory, I cannot now deter- 

 mine, or where, or in what years issued : but our own Prairie 

 Farmer, at Chicago, is certainly one of the pioneers of the class west 

 of the Wabash and the Lakes. The fact is well remembered when 

 John S. Wright and J. Ambrose Wight (both of whose names are 

 often spelled as Wright), pioneer editors in Illinois, first ushered 

 their journal to the public in the village of Chicago, — the short- 

 lived predecessor of the Prairie Farmer, about fifty years ago. Since 

 that day scores and scores of practical horticulturists have con- 

 tributed of their labors and experiences to its pages, thus greatly 

 aiding in the growth and beauty and grandeur of this great State. 



I would be glad, had I the means immediately at hand, to run 

 over those pages and cite the names of the most prominent of these. 

 Many of them have rested from their labors and gone to their reward. 

 Their memories and works still remain to cheer and urge us on to 

 greater effort. Illinois, the Great West, the whole country, can not 

 too often gratefully honor the names of Worder, Kennicott, Hull, 

 Flagg, Harkness, Bryant, Overman, Dunlap and many others who 

 have gone before, making clearer, better and brighter the path for 

 us to follow. 



A committee, consisting of Messrs. F. I. Mann, F. Cadwell, F. 

 J. Heinl, were appointed on Final Resolutions. 



EVENING SESSION. 

 Music — "Don't Leave the Farm." 



RURAL ADORNMENTS. 

 BY MARY H. WILLIAMSON, CHAMPAIGN". 



Everything must have a use for the man on his eighty, hun- 

 dred and sixty, or two hundred and forty acres. Too often the use- 

 ful kitchen garden is neglected, because there are no visible dollars 

 and cents realized from it, and useful things are narrowed down to 



