SOCIETY OF CENTEAL ILLINOIS. 191 



once made the statement, that he had increased the wealth of the nation 

 millions of dollars, by showing the importance of plowing eighteen 

 inches deep. I have had some experience, and find that deep plowing 

 must be done with judgment. Tender plants will not grow on soil 

 turned up twelve or eighteen inches in depth. 



G. W. Minier — I think trench plowing an excellent thing once 

 in about ten years. The first year it is often a disadvantage, but 

 afterward its good effect is very apparent. 



C. N. Dennis — Several years ago I prepared a piece of ground 

 for apple seed, by plowing and subsoiling. The next season I planted 

 it, and a portion of the same field that had not been subsoiled, with 

 corn. The subsoiled portion produced much the best crop. The next 

 season I sowed to oats with like result. This was followed with 

 grass, and the subsoiled portion has produced twice as much as the 

 other. I have concluded to never again plant nursery stock without 

 subsoiling. 



H. M. Dunlap — I think the speakers should qualify their re- 

 marks. The time of year and nature of the soil has much to do 

 with the success of the operation. I knew a clover-field plowed 

 partly in the fall and finished in the spring, the fall-plowed portion 

 produced ten bushels of corn per acre more than the other. I have 

 always found deep plowing in the fall attended with good results. 



On motion, the hours of meeting were fixed at 9 a. m., 2 and 

 8 p. M. 



WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. 



Promptly at 2 o'clock the President called the House to order, 

 and invited Vice-President Dennis to take the chair, who announced 

 that the first business on the programme was the 



PRESIDE]S^T'S ANNUAL ADDRESS, 

 BY PROF. T. .J. BURRILL, CHAMPAIGJST. 



Gardens have been known and written of in all ages of the civ- 

 ilized world. None of the historical nations and peoples of antiquity 

 were without them. In the dim centuries of the past the Chinese 

 and their neighbors were in their way expert horticulturists. In the 



