280 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Many apple growers have heretofore erred greatly in planting too 

 many varieties, thus getting many unproductive and unsalable kinds. It 

 may be well to avoid running to the opi:>osite extreme of planting but one 

 or two varieties ; these could not furnish a supply during the season to reg- 

 ular customers, and the variableness of our seasons would sometimes cause 

 particular apples to be non-productive, when in an orchard of more vari- 

 eties some would do well. Often the causes rendering one kind of apple 

 unproductive are harmless to another. It is very unusual, indeed, to have 

 all of our eight or ten best varieties barren in one year, and it is equally 

 rare to have them all produce full crops in any one year ; hence, I would 

 recommend varieties enough to give an annual crop, or as nearly so as 

 may be possible. 



I feel a hesitancy in naming varieties, and calling them best or most 

 profitable, as the one this year doing best may do worst of all next year, 

 and may even for a term of years do badly, and then again fully redeem 

 its former good character. I will, however, name a few of the varieties 

 that have recommended themselves to me by "their fruits." * * * 

 These are, Carolina Red June, Maiden's Blush, Fameuse (Snow), Stan- 

 nard, Rambo, Jonathan, Smith's Cider, Ben Davis, Winesap, Willow 

 Twig, Rawles' Janet.* ^ ^ ^ ^ -^^ ^ 



Apple Groiving for Profit in Central Illinois. — For profit in a com- 

 mercial orchard, the above named eleven varieties will be found to com- 

 prise most of the desirable kinds, and will furnish a succession of fruit 

 that will be salable. But this must not be considered a list to be univer- 

 sally planted, even in Central Illinois. In certain locations more of one 

 and less of another should be planted, some added, and some stricken 

 out altogether. No one set of varieties can be best for all locations. 

 For my own location and market, in Tazewell county, I would strike out 

 the Rambo, and would plant one-half the orchard in Winesap and Wil- 

 low Twig, equal numbers of each ; and the other half I would plant in 

 the eight remaining varieties, and least of all in the two productive and 

 fine apples. Maiden's Blush and Fameuse, as they ripen while apples are 

 usually cheap. 



Planting. — Select good, well-grown, three-year-old or four-year-old 

 trees ; if grown near where they are to be planted, all the better. Pur- 

 chase only of a careful, honest nursery-man or dealer, if such can be found. 

 Accidental and unintentional mistakes in varieties are of equal loss in 

 the orchard. The fewer hands the trees pass through before planting, 

 the less liability to get varieties mixed. 



In selecting trees, choose those with smooth, stocky trunks and 

 evenly distributed tops, with the roots mutilated as little as possible in 

 handling. 



Setting out should be carefully done in the spring of the year, as 

 soon as the ground is in good working order. Twenty-four or twenty- 



* The omissions here are descriptions of the varieties named and the peculiar 

 characteristics of each; but as these have been often given in preceding volumes, they 

 are omitted here. — Editor. 



