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ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Strawberry culture worth many times what it cost, premiums and all. And the good 

 done will not cease with this generation, but will benefit those who come after; will be 

 handed down from parent to child, spreading and widening as the years roll on. And, 

 as we have a full treasury, I think we would do well to expend a like amount in 

 premiums next June. 



Although our success has been all the most sanguine could have expected, still 

 there has been one failure — I refer to the failure of the bill for the encouragement of 

 horticulture to pass the Legislature last winter. But trusting in the justice of our cause, 

 let us not be discouraged nor give up, but talk the matter over with men of influence ; 

 agitate the subject; keep it before the people; and at the proper time send in petitions, 

 and try to send the right men up to the Legislature to receive our petitions, and the 

 time is not far distant when State aid will be granted us sufficient to enable us to 

 publish our proceedings at the end of each year, thereby benefiting many we could not 

 otherwise reach. And in the mean time let us labor, experiment and study, that our 

 discussions and essays may be worthy of publication and a source of knowledge to new 

 beginners. 



We need a botanist to give us occasional talks on botany and to name the plants 

 and flowers that are placed on exhibition from time to time. We also need an entomol- 

 ogist to look after our insect and bug enemies. We need more essay writers, for this 

 stimulates experiment, that we may have something practical to write about. We want 

 a little more energy in attending the meetings of the Society, and more care and thought 

 in bringing horticultural products for exhibition, and more willingness to take part in 

 our discussions, that our meetings may not be dull, but lively and interesting. And 

 above all, we want more fruit, especially for the children. We older ones are prone 

 to forget the intense longings of Young America for the luscious, juicy, life-giving fruits 

 in their season. I am tempted to give, by way of argument, a little personal experience 

 on this point, at the risk of being considered egotistical, and will take for my text 



The First Apple. — I don't mean the apple that grew in the Garden of Eden, the 

 eating of which "brought death into the world, and all our woes," according to Milton, 

 but the first whole apple the speaker ever had the pleasure and satisfaction of eating ; 

 or, I might say, the first I have any recollection of. 



My father settled in Northern Indiana when I was three years old, the country at 

 that time being an untamed wilderness, with plenty of Indians, but no fruit except the 

 wild fruit of the forest. But as soon as father had cleared a place for an orchard (he 

 settled on the heavy timber land) he went into Michigan, 75 miles, and brought the 

 first load of fruit-lrees that was brought to that neighborhood ; and I can assure you the 

 growth of those trees was watched with great anxiety, and it seemed as though they 

 would never come into bearing. I suppose they bore as early as trees usually do, but 

 time moves slowly in our childhood. During all this lime apples were scarce in that 

 part of the country. Once in a while an apple or two would reach us, but the family 

 being large, they had to be cut in small pieces to reach around. But at last the time 

 came ; the trees were in bloom, and a few — three, I think — remained on one tree, and 

 were carefully looked after almost daily during the long summer; and one of these 

 apples it was that I got full possession of in the fall. 



Whether the apples were gathered by my parents, and a whole one given to me in 

 consideration of my taking more interest in the orchard than the other children, or 

 whether I took the matter into my own hands, bound at all hazards to have a whole 

 apple, when one-third was all that justly belonged to me, I am unable at this late day 

 to determine; but the precautions I took to guard against discovery, while eating it, 

 looks, I am free to confess, as though the mode of my getting possession of that apple 

 was at least questionable, for I climbed into the haymow in the old log stable, and 

 secured a comfortable seat, in a hidden place, before commencing the pleasing and ever- 

 to-be-remembered task of eating my first whole apple. It was the American Golden 

 Russet, an excellent variety, but it was hard, being just picked; and although I have 

 eaten many apples since that time I have never eaten one quite so good as that one. 

 And although forty years have past since that (to me) momentous occasion, I well 

 remember with what an intense longing I wished fcr more, and wondered if the time 

 would ever come when I could have all the apples I could eat. 



