SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 285 



rich and fertile prairies of Illinois, destitute of fruit and orna- 

 mental trees, it strikes us rather forcibly that the farmer is at 

 least a victim not of circumstances but of neglected opportunities. 



Now I know that it is easy to invent excuses that farm crops 

 demanded our time and that our attention was called in other 

 directions, so as to preclude the planting out of trees and making 

 the necessary enclosure to keep out live stock. You know very 

 well that a visit to Neighbor Brown's in strawberry time is a 

 very pleasant affair, and that you can easily consume from four 

 to five pounds of his best Concord grapes at a sitting. Oh no ! 

 you haven't time to attend to these things, but Neighbor Brown 

 has, and his fireside during the long winter evenings, you will 

 confess, is a very hom-elike and attractive place to sit and con- 

 sume Jonathan apples and drink cider made from his best Roman- 

 ites. Is it possible that you are so blind to your own interests, 

 and those of your family, as to assert that you cannot afford the 

 time necessary to the planting out of a few fruit trees for family 

 use? Do you bring up your family ^to hard labor, on a diet of salt 

 pork and potatoes, expecting them to follow your illustrious exam- 

 ple as tillers of the soil? If this method is followed you are likely 

 to be disappointed for they will leave the home and farm at the ear- 

 liest opportunity. Make home attractive, surround it with orna- 

 mental trees, plant out an orchard and fruit gardens, take care of 

 them and get the children interested in caring for them, and you 

 will have the question of how to keep the boys and girls on 

 the farm mostly solved. 



Many farmers are deterred from planting fruit trees and plants 

 through ignorance of the culture necessary, and an idea that they 

 are undertaking something beneath their dignity, and, as some 

 express it, they have "no time to fool with such stuff." The latter 

 class we hope, will run afoul of some tree peddler who will deliver 

 him Ben Davis apples for Russians, for he deserves no better fate. 

 To those who wish to learn, we advise them to read the horticul- 

 tural reports or subscribe for some good paper on the subject. • 

 While there is much to learn it is still a very easy matter to make 

 a success of fruit by ordinary methods of careful culture, a know- 

 ledge of which every farmer is possessed of. 



The widespread destruction of apple orchards in central and 

 northern Illinois has discouraged many, and up to this time pre- 

 vented the renewing of the old orchards. Since the bountiful 

 crop of last season, when the old trees bore such fine fruit, many 

 have regained confidence, and many orchards will be set out in 

 the near future. No live man of business sits down and folds 

 his hands when disasters come. On the contrary, he lays again 

 the foundation of a new business more carefully, and with the 

 knowledge which comes of experience, avoids the errors of the 

 past, rejecting all experiments and foolish ventures. So must 

 the fruit grower return to the work of renewing the orchards 



