300 TRANSACTIONS OF THE MARSHALL 



and ere long we can show a pretty good muster-roll. The monthly 

 meetings at the homes of the members are usually well attended, 

 and after the business is over it is the custom for host and hostess to 

 entertain the Society with a social good time in which we do not 

 lack for the good things in life, a bountiful lap supper being gener- 

 ally provided, or an oyster supper, or some singing and music, etc. 

 We heartily enjoy our privileges as Horticultural Savans(?), espec- 

 ially when it comes to the practical part of it, testing plates of those 

 choice seedlings brother Graston speaks of, as well as those other 

 equally fine ones our president brings out now and then from the 

 dark recesses of his fruit cellars. 



We are all enthusiastic fruit and flower and vegetable lovers — 

 most of us regularly engaged in one or the other of these branches 

 for a living, — are all zealous in the promotion of our Society, and 

 we intend to make a fine showing of our labors by the time we are 

 one year older. 



We should have preferred to make a better report this time, and 

 would, if a little longer time had been given us for its preparation ; 

 but next year, as we said before, look out for a big report of good 

 work from the Marshall County Horticultural Society. 



APPLE GUOWING IN MARSHALL COUNTY, ILLINOIS : HAS IT 

 PAID IN THE PAST: WILL IT PAY IN THE FUTURE? 



[Note.— This Essay was prepared for reading at the February Meeting of the Marshall County 



Horticultural Society.] 



BY A. H. GASTON, LACON. 



In the study of political economy, or, the way to become rich 

 and prosperous, is to hav^ something to sell. This will apply to 

 individuals, towns, counties, states or nations. 



We can now see the best opening for apple-growing, for money 

 making, of any branch of business that is within the reach of the 

 masses in Marshall County, 111., or throughout the great Northwest. 



Some fifty, or more, years ago, amongst the most prominent 

 apple-growers of Marshall County was John Wier, one mile east of 

 Lacon. On the farm now owned by his son, H, E. Wier, said John 

 Wier planted an extensive orchard of apples. The leading varieties 

 he and other pioneer orchardists planted at that time were the Early 

 Harvest, Maiden's Blush, Ram bo, Vandevere Pippin, Yellow Bell- 

 flower, Gilpin, Rawles' Janet, Domine and Roman Stem. The 

 Roman Stem proved to be the best paying of the then known winter 

 varieties. Mr. Wier had trees of this variety that often bore the 

 enormous crop of forty bushels per tree of good merchantable fruit, 

 worth from fifty cents to a dollar per bushel. There were several 

 years that he sold as high as five thousand dollars' worth of apples 



