40 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



digging, aud nurseries often furnish them for less than a person can 

 take time to get them from the forest. Shrubs and plants are also 

 very cheap. Do not think that I would discourage the employment 

 of landscape gardeners — far from it, and no one who has the means 

 should think of planning their grounds without an artist any more 

 than they would their dwelling. How often do we see thousands 

 spent on a residence employing the best architects, then let some 

 unskilled laborer have the job of grading and planting the lawn. 

 Town and village improvement societies are a good move toward 

 beautifying our country, and should be encouraged. Practical ap- 

 plication by individuals will work wonders in a community. While 

 the subject of parks is of great importance to our country, I fear I 

 have taxed your patience, and have said but little that will be new to 

 you as horticulturists. I shall feel satisfied with my effort, however, 

 if it should encourage the planting of even a few forest trees, but 

 more particularly saving what we already have. "Woodman spare 

 that tree." 



WHAT WE DRINK. 

 BY DE. HALL, CHAMPAIGN. 



It cannot be gainsaid that man has an innate desire for a 

 nervine stimulant, and has in all ages, whether civilized or in a bar- 

 barous state, devised drinks that stimulate and make drunk. It is 

 also a humiliating fact that he has but very little regard as to the 

 moral degradation and misery entailed, or the abridgment of his 

 life. If he can only enjoy the present fuddle, it is all he cares for 

 or desires. 



The first drink known, used by man, is wine. As long back as 

 we can trace his history, the grape was cultivated as a leading in- 

 dustry, and by many of the fathers its fruit and expressed juice was 

 regarded as a real invigorator of man. The fruit aud wine appear 

 to have been a daily food among the people of Palestine, where the 

 grape appears to be indigenous to its soil. When Caleb and 

 Joshua, who visited this laud as spies from the Jewish camp, re- 

 turned, they brought glowing reports of a goodly land whose hills, 

 valleys and rocks were festooned with vines loaded with tempting 

 "fruit. The wine press is often alluded to by primitive writers, who 

 praise its many virtues; and modern experience shows that within 

 certain limits it is a wholesome stomacher, when pure and free from 

 adulteration. But alas! this wholesome beverage has been, for pur- 

 poses of sordid gain, grossly counterfeited; so, when we buy wine, 

 we do not know whether we get grape juice or not. 



To make wine artificially, is now a trade in which many men 

 with much capital are engaged, and these spurious wines are found 

 in all our retail shops of beverages as the genuine juice of the grape. 

 So expert have these wine makers become, that nothing but chemi- 

 cal tests can detect the fraud. 



