116 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



coming year. Those orchards that have been cultivated, and those that have been pas- 

 tured by hogs, have shown the best results — more apples and less imperfect fruit. The 

 time of the blooming of the apple was cold and rainy, and the fruit failed to set largely. 

 Of the kinds that succeeded here we mention the Rambo, (anet, Ben Davis, Red Can- 

 ada, Baldwin, Hubbardson's Nonesuch, and the Wagner. All other varieties produced 

 lightly. 



" The weather has been very wet the past season, and, we hope, damaging to the 

 insect tribe. 



" Our trees generally are in good condition now for a bountiful crop next year." 



A. A. Milliard, of Brighton, in the same county, writes briefly as 

 follows : 



" I will say, so far as I am posted, the fruit crop in this county has been nearly a 

 failure for several years. Apple trees have blossomed very full, and bid fair for a good 

 crop, but the late frosts and the cold nights no doubt affected them, so that a large part 

 of the bloom dropped off. As the result we have had a limited crop. Pears and 

 quinces failed about the same. Small fruits — strawberries, blackberries and raspberries 

 — bore well where the plants were not injured by previous drought." 



John E. Detrick, of Sparta, sends the following report of 



RANDOLPH COUNTY. 



" In this section there was an excellent prospect for all kinds of fruit until the six- 

 teenth, seventeenth and eighteenth of April last, during wtiich time there was a continual 

 cold north wind blowing, and ice formed during each night. The thermometer ranged 

 from six to twelve degrees below freezing. The morning of the seventeenth was the 

 coldest, and the ground was frozen to the depth of fully one inch. Peach trees, and 

 early varieties of pears, had commenced blooming, and apple trees were budding. 

 Gooseberries and currants had pretty large leaves, and were full of fruit. All unpro- 

 tected vegetation was frozen, and, according to the natural order of things, it was 

 reasonable to suppose that all the fruit was killed, but it was not. Grapes were also 

 budding and showing leaves, and were frozen, if such a degree of cold as the thermom- 

 eter indicated can freeze them. Notwithstanding the freezing, however, there was more 

 or less fruit. Some pears adhered to their stems and matured fully, but I noticed a 

 tendency of the flesh to soften round the core while appearing perfect outside; while 

 some had no lilemish whatever, and were entirely perfect and well flavored. 



" Peach trees of the hardy varieties made considerable show of fruit after the 

 freeze, but the fruit dropped from the trees at various stages of growth, and only a few, 

 one here and another there, adhered and ripened. The crop was a failure in this county. 



"Of apples there was not an average yield, but the fruit was better than that of 

 the previous season. Some favorably situated orchards, in the hilly and timbered por- 

 tions of the county, produced fair crops, while in orchards not so favorably situated the 

 crop was a failure. 



"Cherries may be said to have been an entire failure. On some trees a few blossoms 

 opened, more on the Morello than any other variety, but very few adhered and ripened. 

 Pre\ ious to the April freeze the buds indicated a good crop. 



" There were some currants, but rather a small yield. The same may be said of 

 strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, none of which, however, are cultivated veiy 

 much in this county. The much abused gooseberry, which fills a place among the early 

 small fruits, had a hard time of it during the freezing weather, but was quite abundant 

 and acceptable under the circumstances. 



" Of grapes, the Concord and Clinton did best in this section, but the yield was 

 rather small. In some places the leaves of the Delaware, and in part the Clinton, 

 neither of which, however, are very much cultivated, became diseased with a warty 

 excrescence on the under side, and when the grapes commenced changing color most 



