STATE IIORTIOUl/PURAL SOCIETY. 13 



Among those rendered almost or entirely worthless I noticed the Carolina June, 

 Winesap, and White Winter Pearmain. 



Dr. lltiU, our State Ilorticulturi.st, thinks he has discovered to a certainty that the 

 scabs on the apples are caused by this insect, and will doubtless suggest, in his report, 

 some valuable preventive. 



The easiest way that I know of to keep the Codling Moths in check is to place bits 

 of woolen rags, or old bits of carpets in the forks of the trees. These may be easily 

 scalded and replaced as often as the pupa) of the moths are found in their folds. 



The benefits of protection have been as clearly seen this year as in any former one. 

 Apple orchards which are partially or entirely sheltered by timber have borne better 

 «rops than those on similar soils and elevations without such protection. In orchaid^ 

 exposed to the winds, the trees in the middle or toward the eastern side of the orchard 

 were found bearing better than those on the Western side. I have also this year 

 noticed a fact which lias been stated, by myself and others, at a former meeting of this 

 Society, ^\7. : That fruit trees in exposed situations usually bear much more fruit upon 

 their eastern and northeastern sides than on other portions; owing, of course, to the 

 partial protection which the trees themselves afford from the prevailing west and south- 

 west winds. 



The want of timber belts and groves is — and I fear will for several generaiions 

 remain — tiie most serious obstacle to successful orchard culture on the prairies of Cen- 

 tral and Northern Illinois. This protection to orchards and growing crops is so easy 

 and comparatively inexpensive an improvement that it seems the most consummate 

 folly to neglect it. Any person wlio can hold a plow and use a jack-knife can shelter 

 his orchard by preparing a border on its west and north sides and planting cuttings of 

 such varieties of rapid growing deciduous trees as readily grow in this way. These 

 •screens are, of course, inferior to those composeil of evergreens, which aflbrd winter 

 as well as summer protection . 



I am aware that this subject of timber protection is an old story to us; for we have 

 harped upon it and demonstrated its value by fivcts and figures again and again for 

 many years; yet let us keep on preaching and practicing "on this line" of duty while 

 we live, then the tiees themselves will remain to take up the text and preach it with the 

 demonstration of truth to those who will come alter us. 



The general neglect to take proper care of apple orchards, in this region, and 

 generally throughout the State, is doubtless an important cause of the failure to realize 

 crops of fruit. Farmers are too ready to declaim against the prairies as not adapted 

 to fruit growing because,, forsooth, the trees will not take care of themselves and 

 flourish amid the weeds, grass, or what is perhaps worse than either, crops of small 

 grain. I find some exceptions to this class, however; and even in this, the most 

 unfavorable of years for apples, have seen some orchards well cared for and yielding 

 fair crops of fruit. 



When farmers will give as good cultivation to their orchards as they do to their 

 corn-fields, taking pains to destroy the borers, the moths, and the aphides from the 

 orchards, as they do the crows, gophers, mice and worms which infest their corn- 

 fields, they may look for remunerating crops. 



Peahs are growing in favor, from year to year, succeeding pretty well wherever 

 cultivated in moderately rich soil, underdrained or thoroughly surface drained. 



