ILLINOIS HORTICULTtJllAL SOCIETY. 321 



which followed those essays, that "the man who plows all day provides for a shower at night;" 

 and I win add, that the warmer the soil is when turned under— provided it is thorouglily pul- 

 verized—the more copious the shower will be. He says further: "Perhaps one-fifth of all moisture 

 ftets into tlie earth in this way." These are true keynotes to the subject, which will ho corrobo- 

 rated by the experience of practical men. Contrary to the generally received opinion, I will say 



that shade does not, in a dry time, assist to maintain moisture. Mr. , of I'ennsylvania, 



In writing on the subject of corn culture, for the Report of the Department of Agriculture for 18157, 

 advised to plaut corn thick for a dry season, that the shade might assist in maintaining moisture; 

 but the experience of practical men in agriculture proves that to be a false theory, for the ground is 

 the most moist where the corn is thin and there is most sunshine. By experimenting, I have found 

 that moisture will be maintained longer on the south side of a house than on the north side. I have 

 a sugar maple, on the north side of a lumber room, which nearly died the first season after planting, 

 while some others planted at the same time in open ground did very well. I wish to cite to you the 

 fact that cultivated land will be damper in a dry time, as low down as the ground is stirred, than it 

 Is one foot below that: which would not be the fact if moisture was maintained by capillary attrac- 

 tion from the water line. And, further, if the latter was the true theory, underdraiuing to four or 

 five feet would be deleterious in a dry time, but the contrary is known to be true. 



Most of you have noticed the difference in moisture in a well pulverized corn or potato field, and 

 one that has not been plowed. Even the dust of a public road will absorb and maintain more mois- 

 ture than a meadow or untended field. It is stoutly maintained by some farmers, that it is injurious 

 to plow corn in a very hot and dry time; but it is only when the early preparation, like their early 

 education, has been neglected. I feel very positive, that when a piece of ground has been worked 

 in good condition in the spring, and it should never be worked in any other, spring or summer, a man 

 will be able to prepare a shower for his hortus et agricola— garden and field— every day he stirs the 

 ground. The air is not only laden with hydrogen, which distills at night in dew drops o'er the sun 

 parched eartli, but it carries with it the very essence of manure, which it gathers from wasting heaps 

 of manure and burning straw stacks, wasted sinks, sewerage outlets, and from every form of decay- 

 ing matter of whatever kind . Certainly, as Mr. Earle has said, the air and water manure the earth, and 

 above all provide food for the plant leaf which— like pure oxygen to a man's lungs— imparts the true 

 vigor of life; and it seems the more air the better, as you will see by noting the deeper green of 

 either tree or plant where there is plenty of air and where there is not enongli. Now, to recapitulate 

 this argument, I would say that where damage does result from working (as it is termed) the ground 

 when it is hot and dry, it is only when the ground is turned over and left in blocks or clods, thereby 

 hastening evaporation but preventing the condensation of vapor— or at least retarding it by the 

 diminished amount of surface exposed. Condensation seems to depend on the amount of surface 

 exposed to the air, and as the mere tyro in mathematics knows that there is more surface to a bushel 

 of timothy seed than to a bushel of large round apples, it is plain that an acre or plat of land will 

 present the most surface when it is the most thoroughly comminuted. 



A want of the true theory of moisture has led some of our most practical men to give wrong advice. 

 For instance, Mr. Phoenix, one of the best horticulturists, says, in planting trees tramp the earth 

 firmly, to exclude the air: which operation is correct, except to exclude the air, which should only 

 be tramped to prevent any and all large cavities to be filled with air which cann it be condensed. 

 Tramping tlie ground when wet should never be encouraged, but tramping when dry is a good means 

 of pulverizing the ground. 



M. L. Dunlap responded with the following: 



1 am pleased with the essay, for it recalls to mind what my friend Earle stated to-day, that "ours is 

 an art that doth mend nature." I «ee how nature is mended in this case by more wind and less 

 water. The genii of the storm, sitting on the highest points of tlie Ozark range, mustering their 

 forces to flush the great plains with a pluvial douche, spreading their wings over the domain where 

 Pomona holds her court in regal splendor on the grand chain and over the grand prairie, where 

 they have dashed their floods, and where Ce res has vouchsafed us great crops of corn in days past, 

 but now is bedraggled and driven from the field in disorder, wet, cold and disheartened. Give us 

 the new doctrine of more wind and less water, and we may dispense with the Genii of the Ozarks 

 and make new progress in this new field of researcli. 



BEE KEEPING AS CONNECTED WITH HORTICULTURE.— BY L. C. FRANCIS, 



SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. 



That there is a connection, theoretically, between bee keeping and horticulture many will 

 acknowledge. The blossoms with which our trees and bushes are covered in early spring, giving 

 promise of abundant crops, contain a delicious sweet which entices the honey-bee, and as each 

 blossom contains but a minute quantity of the nectar, she must visit many blossoms to obtain her 



33 



