244 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



also forgot to say thit two eminent pioneer settlers near Bloomfield (Elisha Holt and 

 John McKee), bad at the time of my arrival some apple, peach and cherry trees begin- 

 ning to bear fruit, but many of their trees by severe winter, want of care, and other 

 contingencies, have since become unfruitful and ultimately perished. E. B. 



LOGAN COUNTY. 



As regards the early orchards, nurserys, etc., in this section, my father, Jabez 

 Capps, who settled in Sangamon county about fifty years ago, informs me that previous 

 to that time he Jived a short time in St. Louis, and while there he became acquainted 

 with Governors Soulard and Chouteau, the old Spanish and French Governors, and 

 that he brought from their gardens a few currant and grape cuttings and other things, 

 and planted in his garden. This, he thinks, was the first eflFort towards Horticulture 

 made in this part of Illinois. He afterwards removed to Spring-field, being one of the 

 first settlers of the place, and had some choice fruits for those days in his garden. He 

 got scions and plants from St. Louis, and from older settlements in Illinois. The' grape 

 which he introduced, he thinks, was the same as the Isabella. The rose bugs were so 

 troublesome that up to 1850 it was a rare thing to see a bunch of cultivated grapes. 

 "We never see a ro-3 bug now; the race seems to have become extinct. 



My maternal grandfather, Oliver Staftbrd i>lanted seed of apples and damson plums 

 which he brought from the shores of Lake Champlain about the year 1825, and raised 

 an orchard from them; most of the fruit was inferior. 



A Mr. Dryer had a small nursery in Springfield where Armstrong's woolen mills now 

 stand, from about the year 1830 to 1837. My father bought out the remnant of his 

 stock. During those j-ears the Springfield market was supplied with apples princi- 

 pally from Smith's apple orchard in Bond county. 



A Mr. Lapham also had a small nursery on Friend's Creek; he got his scions of my 

 father; he used to peddle his st jck through the country. My father^says he has seen 

 him out budding his stock using at the same time a chair and umbrella. This county 

 was then part of Sangamon. My father was the first settler at this place in the year 

 1836; he acted for a short time as agent for Prince's nursery, of Flushing, N. Y., and 

 ever since that time has done a little at the nursery business himself; we now have 

 about thirty acres of nursery. 



The oldest orchards that I have heard of are two orchards of seedling apples planted 

 about the year 1826 or 1827, by John Downing and Jeremiah Birks. John Van 

 Devender and Robert Downing planted seedling orchards in 1830, and about the same 

 time Carter Scroggins planted an oi'chard of grafted apple trees, mostly Penuock, Gil- 

 pin, Fameuse, Janet and Horse Apple; and Wm. McGi'aw planted some apple trees 

 (that he brought from Kentucky in his saddle bags) in the old town of Postville. The 

 fruit of the old seedling orchards was very indifierent. During the past twenty-five 

 years we have iutroduded many choice varieties of fruit into this county. 



C. S. CAPPS. 



