TRANSACTIONS IIUKTICL LTLKAL SUCIKTV UF NOinilEKN ILL. 343 



Mr. Nelson also bore testimony to the absolute necessity of follow- 

 ing the advice of the President, in thoroughly protecting the wounds 

 whenever necessity required the amputation of branches. 



Mr. Wier said that if the sap-wood was entire, the discolored or 

 dead inner-wood was preserved intact, like the fruit in the cans on the 

 tables before us. He now had one orchard which had been pruned, and 

 the trees had rotted, while the unpruned ones had not. 



ESSAY ON ORCHARDS. 



The President announced that Mr. A. IJ. Ai;stin, of Downer's Grove, 

 would read a paper on orchards. 



Mr. Austin then read, as follows : 



Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen : 



As requested, I will make a few remarks on "Orchard Planting and 

 Culture," and will confine myself, principally, to the apple orchard. 



I do not suppose that any thing that I shall advance will be new to 

 the older members of this Society, if to any of you, as the subject has 

 been so well written up before ; what is here said will be from my own 

 stand-point and surroundings, in DuPage and surrounding counties. 



The ground to be planted to an orchard should have a good natural 

 drainage. This is of great importance, as fruit trees will not long sur- 

 vive with wet feet, or where their roots are for any length of time 

 immersed in water. If the drainage is slow, or the ground flat, the trees 

 should be set on the top of the ground ; that is, holes must not be dug, 

 but instead place the roots of the trees on the surface of the ground and 

 throw loose earth over them; afterwards throw the furrows in, plowing 

 towards the trees. This will raise a ridge on which the trees stand, the 

 water passing off between the rows. I find orchards, even with this care 

 on level or flat land, not as healthy or productive as those on ground roll- 

 ing, or uneven enough to cause the water to run off with rapidity. Noth- 

 ing answers for natural drainage. Where the subsoil is porous, the 

 foregoing remarks on surface drainage do not apply — the water passing 

 naturally through the subsoil. With us the light clay or barren land has 

 produced the most fruit. The prairie or black soils make the larger and 

 better looking trees ; but with care in selections of varieties this differ- 

 ence will disappear. It is very important that the riglit varieties are 

 planted. We may do all that is possible with our orchards; if we do not 

 start right in this particular they will be failures. 



I wish to emphasize this : If our varieties are not rii^/it our orchards 

 will be failures. By right varieties, I mean those that will stand our win- 

 ters and bear annual crops. A second or third rate fruit, the trees of 

 which bear annual crops, is worth far more than a superb fruit, the trees 

 of which bear now and then only a few specimens. We plant orchards 



