176 TEANSACTIOXS OF THE ILLINOIS 



telling some of the gentlemen to-day, at noon, that if a million trees 

 were offered — for instance, such as the Baldwin — they would be pur- 

 chased at twice or three times the price at which they were formerly 

 to be had ; but they can not be got. I know of an orchard twelve 

 years old, the trees in which are nearly all Baldwin. It is situated 

 on a hillside, so that by going to one end of it you can see nearly the 

 whole one hundi*ed acres. They are nearly all equal in age. It 

 belongs to Oliver Chapin, in the county of Ontario. The land there 

 is being rapidly taken up for similar orchards. There can be no 

 stronger proof that the apple can be grown as successfully as ever it 

 was. The reports as to its being decaying are from old orchards 

 which have had no attention. There is, of course, a decline in them. 

 A large portion of the fruit is unmarketable, and a great many are 

 wormy. Again, a great many people will say, " Still, apple orchards 

 are not what they used to be." They are not, in their case, because 

 the trees have passed their prime. People in New York and Penn- 

 sylvania, and I believe in New England, all agree that apples can be 

 cultivated there as well to-day as thirty or forty years ago. I would 

 remark that there is a great improvement in the character of the 

 fruits, which shows there is an imj)rovement in cultivation. I do not 

 know that I can state anything further. 



Mr. Flagg — I would like to hear from Mr. Meehan. 



Mr. Meehan — I find that the failure is on the grounds of persons 

 who have not time to do anything. If they have time to do anything, 

 apple culture is no greater failure now than fifty years ago. In all 

 the interior counties of Pennsylvania you would find that it was quite 

 as successful. In Lancaster, Montgomery and other counties, there 

 are as many apples grown as in any county in the Union, and the 

 markets of Philadelj^hia arCj to a great extent, supplied from them. 

 "Where cultivation is neglected — where insects are allowed to do just 

 as they please, there you see failures, and there only ; and so far as I 

 am able to judge, neglect is the only cause of failure in that State. 



Mr. Barry — In the county of Niagara I took some pains to get the 

 statistics of the apple crop, and I ascertained, from reliable figures, 



