340 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Kane county, which had been neglected and become barren ; but when 

 the owner commenced a system of pruning and cultivation, his orchard 

 recuperated and became productive. 



D. C. ScoFiELD (of Elgin) — Our orchards of five to ten years old, 

 on prairie land underlaid with gravel, are healthy; but they then begin 

 to decline unless cultivated and manured. We, on the prairies of North- 

 ern Illinois, must look mainly to timber-land orchards to furnish us with 

 fruit. It is demonstrated that trees can't produce crops every year; they 

 must be fed or we must wait for them to recuperate. 



He cited the case of an orchard which had been sickly and barren, 

 being rejuvenated by shallow plowing and manuring ; and that a subse- 

 quent examination showed that the manure had induced the formation of 

 a net-work of fibrous roots near the surface ; these should not be disturbed 

 or broken by plowing, as they feed the trees. 



Mr. McWhorter — In Mercer county there is not the difference 

 between the timber and prairie lands which has been mentioned as found 

 in this portion of the State. We have there a good depth of good soil, 

 which is underlaid with clay ; we sometimes reach the clay in digging 

 post-holes, though the soil is often much deeper. I have observed that 

 orchards in timber begin to bear sooner than those on prairie, but in old 

 orchards have not observed any difference ; I have, however, seen very 

 many trees dying from effects of borers, when the owners did not know 

 what was the matter.* In these dry years the orchards on nearly level 

 prairie lands have fared better than those on high, rolling lands. 



Mr. Minkler — Give me climate right, and I will risk the soil. My 

 soil is prairie, adjoining timber — black clay soil, with a reddish brown 

 subsoil, and about ten or twelve feet below the surface we strike blue clay, 

 which goes to a depth of one hundred and thirty feet, and I do not know 

 how much further. In some parts of the region about Oswego the subsoil 

 is gravel, which, I find, is not as good for trees ; they have dried out, and 

 died more on these lands during the past excessively dry years than on 

 the clay subsoil. 



In answer to a question, Mr. Minkler said that the forest trees had 

 died more, within two or three years, than he had ever observed before. 



Mr. Wier — The frost line has often much to do with the bearing of 

 fruit trees — those above the line of spring frost escaping, while those 



* No doubt, the death of a large portion of the trees referred to in this and other 

 discussions as dying is due to the work of insects, resulting from the neglect of the 

 owners. — Editor. 



