238 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Although seedling-, it has produced three varieties worthy of notice : one a winter 

 sweet apple, (Mrs. Lane's favorite) which she called Pumpkin Sweet. This was taken 

 to Massachusetts by Jas. Dudley as Lane's Sweet, and to the north of this State by L. 

 Montague as Illinois Pumpkin Sweet. As fruited upon the original tree, it was very 

 delicious; but as far as I can learn, grown elsewhere, fails in its tine flavor. Another 

 named by my father. Lane's Eedstreak; very large, bright red, striped dark red, 

 beautiful and first-rate; season of Fall Pippin, and much more productive; compares 

 favorably with the best autumn varieties. There is also another variety, a late keeper; 

 tree of great size, 50 years old, ivithout a blemish on it— an immense annual hearer. Fruit 

 large and always smooth, of very superior quality. 



Augustine Boland, (from Connecticut) who now lives on the east border of this 

 prairie, (79 years of age, having lived here 52 years) was one of the first two settlers, 

 planted the second orchard, and taught the first school in this county. He planted his 

 first orchard on the farm now owned by M.^Step, axid disposing of his claim, in 182i, 

 planted another of 140 trees, where G. W. Kimble now lives. From these, in 1829, 

 he gathered five bushels of apples, and the following season Oie orchard produced con- 

 siderable of fruit for market. 



He gives an interesting account of those early times, the perils and privations of the 

 settlers, their energy and determination. They used husk collars, linn bark traces^ 

 truck wheel wagons, and wooden moldboard plows. The snakes were so numerous 

 that they had to plow furrows across the prairie to the schoolhouse, to make paths for 

 the children to get to school. So rapid Avas the growth of the settlement, that in 1823 

 the first school was attended by from thirty to forty pupils. The prairie wolves were 

 in force, and bears in less numbers. The panther was also frequently seen in the great 

 forest that extends from this prairie to the Wabash river, and like the wolf carried oflf 

 pigs and lambs. 



The first nursery in this county, and also in the State, was that planted by my father, 

 Joseph Curtis, in the spring of 1818, on the north arm of the grand prairie, four miles 

 east of Paris.* He was a native of New Jersey, removed with his father when a boy 

 to 3Ianchester, Adams county, Ohio, where he lived some fifteen years. Made an 

 experimental nursery, devoting much of his time to fruit raising and experimenting in a 

 liorticultural tvay: he raised new varieties from seed, collected and tested — both in 

 orchard and nursery— tne best varieties that could then be procured. He grafted and 

 budded on stocks above ground ; but not having as manj^ as desired he thought : Why 

 not graft on pieces of roots? and trying it, found that they did well. So far as he 

 knew this was an invention of his own, which he continued to pratice many years; 

 and also to graft small stocks at the collar by tongue or whip grafting, and large ones 

 by cleft grafting. Neither of these methods had ever been practiced in the nurseries 

 of the United States, iintil after his introduction of them. A man (whose name 1 have 

 forgotten) learned root grafting of my father, in this country at an early day, and took 

 it to the eastern States and sold it as a secret art, charging one hundred dollars each for 

 individual rights. 



Another mode ot raising trees that originated with him, is that which lie styled 

 propagating by genuine roots . To obtain these roots , the grafts were planted a little 

 deeper than usual, or the eai'th drawn up to yearlings, either of which would cause 



*Johii Smith, of Greenville, Bond county, planted one in same year. (Crardener's Monthly, Vol. 

 3, p. 112.) Also. Wm. B. Archer same year. In Clark county.— Seceetary. 



