STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



25 



the committee will notice. I feel assured you will take pleasure in viewing 

 their lovely tints and beautiful forms, and in their artistic arrangement. 



The President. — There is only one failing in these beautiful memen- 

 toes of God's goodness, with which, with lavish hand, he decks the bosom 

 of Mother Earth, one only fault — they are not immortal. (Sensation.) 



REPORT UPON ORCHARD CULTURE. 



Reports from the Committee on Orchard Culture — Messrs. Ham- 

 mond, Robison and Pearson — came next in order, and were called for 

 by the President. 



A. C. Hammond, of Warsaw, read the following report : 



To advise wisely and intelligently, on a subject of so much impor- 

 tance as orcharding, especially when our field is the State, extending over 

 almost seven degrees of latitude, fanned on its southern borders by the 

 soft breezes of the Gulf, on the north swept by the fierce, blasting winds 

 of the arctic circle, with a soil as varied as the climate, from the rich 

 drift-deposits of the river-bottom and the Loess formation of the bluff, to 

 the rich, black soil of the great prairies, is an undertaking of great mag- 

 nitude, and one from whicTi I would gladly escape ; but to neglect duty 

 is unmanly; to shrink from it is cowardly. I will therefore perform my 

 allotted task to the best of my ability. 



The year just passed has not been a profitable one to the orchardist. 

 The terrible cold of January injured nearly all the peach, pear and cherry- 

 trees, as well as cut off the entire crop of fruit, and probably killed 

 twenty per cent, of the apple-trees in Northern and Central Illinois. 

 Then we had a late frost, that cut off at least two-thirds of the apple-crop. 

 What apples we had, however, were of good size, and unusually well 

 colored, but ripened two or three weeks earlier than usual. 



About gathering time (the twentieth of September) the weather 

 turned excessively hot, the mercury ranging from 80° to 92° in the shade 

 for nearly a month. The effect of this August weather was to ripen and 

 rot apples that were gathered, and to cause those on the trees to drop, 

 causing great loss to growers and dealers. The year may therefore be set 

 down as an unsatisfactory one, although in some sections the crop was 

 fair, and some orchardists have made money ; yet the measure of success 

 has not been large enough to tempt, to any great extent, those seeking 

 investments to plant commercial orchards. Yet we now and then find a 

 man who has the courage to brave torrid heat and arctic cold, floods, 

 drouths, tornadoes and ten thousand insect enemies, and in the face of 

 an over-stocked market and low prices to plant a commercial orchard. 

 The first and most difficult question for these men to decide is that of 

 varieties, and on this point hinges the success or failure of the enterprise. 

 For a number of years past planters have gone wild on Ben Davis, and a 

 very large proportion of the orchards planted have been — perhaps univer- 

 sally — of this variety. 



