230 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



spring from them by long use I am not physician enough to say. Perhaps 

 if taken by themselves they would be harmless, or it may be healthful. 

 Still, it may be doubted whether they are altogether innocuous when taken 

 in chemical solution in water. 



As bearing on the interest of horticulture, there can be no doubt that 

 the water of our wells is good for watering plants, better, I should think, 

 than even rain-water. Although rain-water contains, when recent, a trace 

 of ammonia, and sometimes sulphuric acid, it yet soon loses them, and in 

 no case does it contain so many elements that are stimulating to vegetable 

 growth. 



The fact that the clay on which our city is built is being slowly but 

 surely impregnated with our surface impurities, opens up the question of 

 our sooner or later requiring a water supply for our city better and more 

 abundant than can possibly be obtained from our wells. Where, it may 

 be asked, can this be obtained ? From our creeks, rivulets, or springs, 

 it is certainly hopeless to expect it. We must look to the clouds for it. 

 Our annual rain-fall is sufficient, if properly conserved, to afford an abund- 

 ant and never failing supply of the purest water. From this source alone 

 the city of Jacksonville, in this State, has created a lake covering about 

 forty acres, which is estimated as sufficient to supply a city of one hun- 

 dred thousand inhabitants. The water is twelve feet in depth, and at the 

 present time is sufficient for a two years' supply. For $150,000 these 

 magnificent and effective water-works were constructed. In a subsequent 

 paper I shall give an estimate of our annual rain-fall, and show to what 

 extent it may be relied on for a supply of water. 



THE CLIMATE OF GALESBURG AND ITS VICINITY IN RELATION TO 



HORTICULTURE. 



BY PROF. A. F. KEMP, LL. D. 

 [Read before the Galesburg Horticultural Society, and published by request.] 



The materials available for a satisfactory treatment of this subject 

 are neither so ample nor so perfect as I could wish. All that I can hope 

 to accomplish is an approximation to the actual facts of the case. I have 

 been favored by Prof. Livingston with his observations, according to the 

 Smithsonian schedules, from 1861 to 1870, lacking 1863 and 1864. My 

 own observations include 1873 ^'^"^ i874- I ^.m thus able to review the 

 climate for a period of ten nearly consecutive years. 



From these data I shall endeavor to present to the Society, in a gen- 

 eralized form, as accurate an idea of our climate as I can for guidance in 

 horticultural pursuits. I do not expect to say much that is new or of any 

 great practical value. Those who have attended in any degree to horti- 

 culture for a series of years are already experimentally familiar with the 

 special characteristics of our climate. What I may hope to accomplish 

 is to give that definiteness to your knowledge which actual observation 

 over a series of years is able to afford. 



