TRANSACTIONS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILL. 341 



below have their fruit destroyed. This year, I had a half crop on high 

 bluffs, while my neighbors on low lands had none. I don't believe in 

 Mr. Scofield's theory about the feeding roots. These feeding roots are 

 renewed annually ; it is all a mistake to suppose that the nutriment is 

 absorbed by these small roots which live over winter. By cutting off 

 these you multiijly the feeding hairs, and it is much better that these 

 draw their nutrition for the tree four or five inches below than at the 

 surface, as they are less affected by drought there. 



Dr. Ennis thinks that pruning brought his trees into bearing. Of 

 course, the check given in pruning will do that very thing ; so will borers; 

 yet we would not recommend borers in orchards on this account. Always 

 remember that any thing which checks the growth and vigor of a tree forces 

 it into bearing, and remember also that this is usually done at the expense 

 of longevity and the future value of the tree. 



Mr. Nelson (of Wilmington) — The statements of difference between 

 orchards on prairie and timber lands, made by Mr. Scofield, do not hold 

 good in Will county; I can see no difference either in the health or 

 fruitfulness of orchards in respect to prairie or timber land. I have 

 noticed, however, that orchards on level lands have borne better, during 

 the past dry years, than those on rolling lands. This year of excessive 

 rains the reverse was true, and I raised more apples in my orchard, on 

 high, rolling, prairie land, than all the county beside. It is a rich prairie 

 soil, and from twelve to eighteen inches thick above the reddish-brown 

 clay subsoil. Across the Kankakee river, on a sandy soil, the Yellow 

 Bellflower has borne profusely, while with me it does not bear much. 



The Secretary explained that most of the apparent inconsistencies 

 and contradictions in the remarks of the different speakers were such in 

 appearance only, both sides being correct very often and generally, there 

 being so great a diversity of soils and modes of cultivation. He explained 

 that the geological formations of the State are such that many orchards, 

 but a short distance apart, are under entirely different conditions as to 

 soil and subsoil, and that what would be true in one might not be true in 

 another; hence it was of the utmost importance, in giving experience in 

 horticulture, to state all the conditions as far as known. 



The President — All who have lived in this State twenty years will 

 agree that there are occasional winters which damage our trees. But this 

 fact is not confined to the West ; we find the same true, to a certain 

 extent, in the East ; yet we have a trying climate, and should study and 

 work to so master the situation as to succeed. Tliis we can do and are 



