ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.— ANNUAL MEETING. 317 



for grapes; the crop light; the wood not often matured, which forebodes a 

 light crop next year. 



Some very touching resolutions were offered and unanimously passed con- 

 cerning 'Arthur Bryant, Sr. He is an old and valued member, and is not 

 likely to live moie than a few days. 



Much of Illinois seems to be adapted to the iron-clad apples, such as Ben 

 Davis and Rome Beauty ; to the Wild Goose plum and toughest grapes ; to the 

 Snyder blackberry and Duchesse pear. Pear blight is rampant ; insects arc 

 terribly sharp and profusely abundant. The markets are good, and this spurs 

 on the fruit growers to supply St. Louis, Chicago, and the North, with early 

 fruits. More and more attention is given to selecting favorite spots for cer- 

 tain fruits. Efforts are now seldom made to raise the best fruits on every 

 farm. It does not pay. This is a country of great and severe extremes of 

 -weather. It is dry or wet, hot or cold, and often windy. 



The rust of blackberries and raspberries is a prominent foe. Some think 

 they have combatted it successfully with potash ; but more experiments are 

 needed. In many places they only attempt to take two to four crops of berries 

 and dig out the briars, and plant in a new spot. Grape vines which overbear 

 never recover. A complete failure of peaches every other year is by no means 

 •considered the greatest calamity. The trees get a rest and the cnrculio is much 

 reduced in numbers. A dead curculio, like a dead Indian, is considered the 

 -safest. The apple crop this year has been very good. Long lived orchards of 

 apples, pears, or peaches, are not generally profitable in Illinois. Fruit from 

 young trees is the best. Some of the old trees die ; others dwindle and become 

 unprofitable. Of many sorts of apples the trees are set close and dug out 

 when about twelve years old, at least by some growers. A young orchard is 

 most profitable. Peach trees are allowed to bear three or four crops and are 

 then dug out. Trees are not set on the same ground till after one or more 

 ■crops of some other sort. Old trees are likely to become weak and break to 

 pieces because the wood becomes tender or rotten. Secretary 0. B. Galusha 

 had tried to kill the white grub in his strawberries with salt, but it did not 

 succeed. 



A lively discussion followed on the value of stripping the bark from apple 

 trees to induce bearing. Several had failed by getting one crop and killing 

 their trees. It should be tried with caution, taking care to see that the tree 

 is Avell fed and not allowed to bear heavily. Experts favored taking off care- 

 fully a circle of bark four to twelve inches long as early in the season as the 

 bark would slip well. Buds then set for a crop the next year. To saw about 

 a trunk is dangerous unless care is used. 



E. C. Hathaway, an expert, thinks corn and peas are fit to eat two days 



• earlier for getting seed one degree north, and so on, two days for every degree 

 north. There was a good exhibit of potatoes. It was quite generally believed 

 that the Beauty of Hebron and Early Ohio were not surpassed in Illinois. 

 The Early Ohio was preferred in southern Illinois, because it kept better in 



■spring. Professor Burrill had found soft soap and kerosene in equal quanti- 

 ties well mixed, then diluted with twenty parts of water and sprinkled on 



• cabbages, a good remedy for the cabbage worm. 



Tree agents now sell about all the trees and plants. People seldom buy 



directly of nurserymen. Tree peddlers are often cheating the people. Tree 



growers regret it nearly as much as the purchaser, whose regret is almost 



■certain to come when his plants begin to bear. Ignorant men are not always 



