STATK IKiliTiri'I/n KAl, S(triKTY. 57 



THE APKIl. STORM IN SOUTHERN H.LINOIS. 



The Secretary read the following interesting letter from ex-Prcsident 

 Brown : 



Villa Ridgk, Pulaski Co., 111., Dec. 13, 1875. 



O. B. Galusha, Sec. 111. State Hort. Society : 



Afy Dear Sir : Your favor of the 8th inst. is received. I regret that 

 I can not be with you at Quincy this week, but hope that the attendance 

 at the meeting may be so large that my absence may not be noticed. 



You ask me to send you " something in reference to the fruit crop, 

 or some special fruits, of this vicinity." I can think of nothing that 

 would be of interest to the Society, unless it might be a brief account of 

 the remarkable storm that visited this region about the middle of April. 



For several days prior to the 17th, the weather had been cool for the 

 season and dry. On the morning of the i6th, the mercury had fallen to 

 34°, and a steady north wind continued blowing all day. At nine 

 o'clock P. M. the mercury stood at 34°, the wind still blowing. On the 

 morning of the 17th my thermometer indicated 25°, one of my neigh- 

 bors reported 23°, another 24°, and another 20°. Ice was formed half 

 an inch thick, and every thing green was frozen stiff. At this time 

 peaches and plums were just going out of bloom ; pears and most varie- 

 ties of apples were in full bloom, though of the latter there was a consid- 

 erable number of blossoms not quite fully expanded. Of course I sup- 

 posed every thing was dead beyond redemption ; but in this I was mis- 

 taken, for upon examining the buds in the afternoon, after the sun had 

 thawed them out, I found that not more than one-third of the peaches 

 were killed, and a much larger proportion of the pears and apples had 

 survived. The next night was calm and the temperature very much mod- 

 erated, but on the morning of the i8th there was a sharp frost, with the 

 mercury at 29°, and strange to say there was more damage done than by 

 the freeze of the night before ; but the buds were not all killed, and the 

 result was that we had an average crop of apples and a partial crop of 

 pears and peaches, some varieties being full enough, and others yielding 

 more or less, down to nothing at all. 



In this connection an account of an experiment made by my neigh- 

 bor, Mr. E. J. Ayers, will be interesting. His peach orchard consists of 

 about five hundred trees, planted sixteen feet apart. Into this he hauled 

 cord-wood, depositing a small pile in every other row each way ; and 

 with a handful of kindling wood for every pile, and a few gallons of coal 

 oil to make the fires burn readily, he awaited the cold snap that he knew 

 might come. On the night of the i 7th he started a few fires, but soon 

 saw that it would be useless on account of the high wind which blew the 

 heat, first one way and then another, in such a way that tlie buds on the 

 trees near enough would be alternately freezing and thawing. He gave 

 it up for that night, but the next night, it being calm, he fired all the 

 heaps, and the result was entirely satisfactory; the smoke next morning 



