STATK JrORTTfn.TT'nAT, SOrtETY. Ill 



MADISON COUNTV. 



Capt. E. Hoi.i.isiKK, ofAlton, writes as follows: 



" The depressing influence of short crops generally, and total failure of some in 

 pariicular. has been the rule ihe past season ; yet I learn of the jilanting of some orch- 

 ards iif Apple trees, and plantations of small fruits, and a more hopeful feeling for the 

 future. Th-'re have been as many as usual, and perhaps more, Strawberries, Raspber- 

 ries, and Blackberries, planted, but I do not learn of any Peach trees having been set, 

 or to be set in the spring. Apple trees will be planted quite largely next spring. The 

 hot-bed gardeners will do about the usual amount, and all seem determined to push along 

 notwithstanding the hard tinier." 



J. T'.AisioFR, of Highland. Madison coiintv. sends the following- 

 report : 



" You might have found, easily, a reporter more able to inform you about the con- 

 dition of horticulture in this county, and pariicularly in that part of it in which I live. 

 Though taking a very great interest in this particular branch of agriculture, but nul often 

 leaving my home, I have seldom an opportunity to see what is done in this resi)ect in 

 ])laces outside of my immediate neighborhood. But as you have honored me with your 

 request, I shall try and give you the wished-for information as well as I am able 

 to do it. 



" It seems to me that it can not be doubted that horticulture has progressed con- 

 siderably for some years in our county. When one sees the thousands and thousands of 

 young fruit and ornamental trees, and other plants, distributed by nursery-men and their 

 agents every fall and spring in all our towns, and perhaps as many more sold at the 

 nurseries themselves ; when one sees on nearly every farm a fine and thrifty orchard 

 growing, some fine shade trees planted, and a garden with beautiful flowers, shrubs and 

 vegetables; when one sees such gardens and trees even on nearly every town lot, where 

 they are even better tended than in the country, one must be convinced that our popula- 

 tion has a growing taste for horticulture. Times and circumstances have changed in 

 this respect. Some twenty-five or more years ago there were more farms without than 

 with orchards and gardens to be seen ; even in our towns large patches of hazels and 

 briars were about the only ornamental shrubs, and wild prairie flowers (though by no 

 means devoid of beauty, and many of them well worthy to be set by the side of cultivated 

 ones,) about the only floral adornment to be found. 



•' People who could afford it went to Bond county, where old and extensive orch- 

 ards even then existed, to buy their provisions of fruit. Then the hard-working 

 farmer and mechanic of the town had more pressing wants ; he had to till his fields and 

 work in his shop from early dawn till night to provide for the most pressing necessities 

 for himself and his family; they could not afford to buy trees or fence up a garden. The 

 immigrant from Europe was familiar enough with horticultural objects, and few of them 

 were devoid of taste in this respect, but they had to wait for better times and easier 

 circumstances ere they could afford to satisfy it. 



" Now times have changed. Now nearly every farm, with the exception of a few 

 recently established ones, has its orchard, producing apples, peaches, and even some 

 pears; it has its garden, with flowers and vegetables, and many of them even a larger or 

 smaller vineyard. As I have already mentioned, every fall and spring a large number 

 of new trees and vines are planted, and instead of having to go abroad for a supply of 

 fruit, the farmer raises it himself, and provides the inhabitants of the town with it. Only 

 in years of failure, as the present one, there may be a scarcity of it in some respects. 

 As far as I had occasion to see, apple orchards that bore a full crop this year were a 

 rarity; peaches could be found only on a few seedling trees ; the Concord grape, and a 

 few others, rotted very badly ; pear trees bore, with a few exceptions at most, only half 

 a crop ; cherries were very scarce. This nearly general and so exceptional failure in the 



