276 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



necessitate very different action at different times and places. This fact 

 is often lost sight of in our horticultural discussions, and 'the result is 

 great wrangling among the brethren, and great confusion of intellect 

 among the uninitiated. 



Climate and soil are the two great factors in vegetable production; 

 and these vary from county to county, and sometimes from field to field, 

 demanding corresponding variations in the practice of the farmer and 

 fruit-grower. Even the changing seasons demand a different practice for 

 the varying phases of the year. 



So, if there is any thing we fruit growers must learn, it is modesty in 

 generalizing from our own experience. I may assert, with truth, that the 

 Newtown Pippin grows and bears well in my orchards in Madison county, 

 on a white soil ; but it would not do for me to assume, as a great many 

 would, that therefore it is a variety to be recommended on the black soil 

 of Champaign county. I must give my one or two facts, you must add 

 yours; and when a large number of experiences are collected, and the 

 qualifying facts weighed, we shall then be able to proceed by a careful 

 induction to conclusions of probable value. We should, I think, be care- 

 ful to remember all this in our consideration of the advantages and dis- 

 advantages of shelter-belts. The evidence on the subject, so far as I have 

 heard it, is contradictory and needs careful sifting. 



So far as the shelter-belt brings the conditions of a forest, we have 

 pretty conclusive evidence in the French experiments of M. Mathieu, 

 translated into the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Illinois State 

 Horticultural Society, that they, ist, increase rain-fall; 2d, prevent the 

 rapid evaporation of moisture; and 3d, make the temperature more uni- 

 form. These, at least, are the immediate and local effects, although it 

 is claimed by opponents that the local benefit is had at the expense of 

 some adjoining region, as the rain-fall and mean temperature are constant 

 quantities. 



We have the evidence of Mr. Tice, of St. Louis, that a dense hedge 

 of Scotch pine, along the west side of the fruticetum of the botanical 

 garden of Henry Shaw, showed a difference of temperature of five degrees 

 between the west and east sides, close to the hedge, and diminishing to 

 one degree at sixty feet from the east side of the hedge. This shows that 

 the wunediate influence of an evergreen hedge on temperature is very 

 considerable. 



Samuel Edwards, of La Moille, Bureau county, noted as a planter of 

 evergreens, states that pear trees among his evergreens are more pro- 

 ductive, and that the fruit is less shaken off by high winds. 



O. B. Galusha, Secretary of the Illinois State Horticultural Society, 

 stated in a lecture at the Industrial University, in 1869, that in 1862, at 

 the time when spring wheat and oats in the north part of the State were 

 just past the bloom, a severe and extended storm prostrated nearly all the 

 grain not sheltered by timber or shelter-belts, and diminished its value 

 nearly one-half. In one locality a single line of broad and tall willows, 

 closely planted, proved a sufficient check to the wind, so that a field of 

 wheat adjoining it upon the east stood erect, and was harvested with a 



