336 



TRANSACTIOKS OF THU CENTRAL 



BLACKBERRIES. 



LAWTON—McLain— Hardy at Charleston. Fruit large; prolilic; not very good 

 quality. 



Davis — Hardy on the prairie at Decatur. 



Francis — Drying up is caused by injury from frost. 



Piatt — One difficulty, when fit to eat, never fit to sell. Thinks some other berry 

 ought to be provided to take its place. 



Dunlap — Is valuable for market. 



Francis — For near market. Get a crop every other year. 



KiTTATiNNY — Hardy. 



Wilson's Early — McLain — Thinks it abused. Bore well last season. Good in 

 size and quality — knows of no equal to it in quality. Habits similar to dewberry, but 

 more bushy. Will try it further. 



Francis— Is the largest berry I ever saw, but the fewest bearer. Failed to perfect 

 its fruit. Very tender; more so than Lawton. 



McLain— It is perfectly hardy with me. 



Place of next annual meeting referred to the Executive Committee. 



Mr. Curtis — There are parties here who wish the opinion of this Society as to the 

 extent of damage done to hedge plants by frost. 



McLain — Said this was a matter between purchaser and seller. 



Mann— Said that apple trees were injured as well 



Piatt — The Golden Cap raspberry has been sent to market the past season, bvit could 

 not be sold on account of its color. People thought it mouldy. 



The following letter was read: 



Canton, Ills., Nov. 29tli, 1869. 

 H. J. Dunlap, Champaign, Illinois. 



Dear Sir: Your circular came to hand Saturday, and I have endeavored to answer as well as the 

 small space would allow. 



I have resided in Fulton county over thirty-flve years. Bought a farm in 1835 with one hundred 

 heai'ing apple trees on it, with plenty of peaches and cherries in their season. Planted one hundred 

 apijle trees in '47 — grafted fruit— which sulTered severely in the winter of ISo.'i-e, caused by the unusual 

 warm fall of '55, continuing almost summer heat until the 24th Dec, then falling to zero in less than 

 twelve hours, suddenly congealing the sap and rupturing the bark from the wood. In the summer of 

 '57 I commenced to clear an orchard plat of ten acres, and planted in the spring of '60 two hundred 

 and fifty apple trees, one hundred standard pears, two hundred peach trees, and one hundred cherry 

 trees. Tlie apple trees are doing well; also the pears are doing well. Bartletts, Flemish Beauty, 

 and Buffum have borne more fruit than the average of apple trees planted at the same time. The 

 peach trees are all dead, and never paid the expense of planting. Of cherries, I planted Early Rich- 

 mond, May Duke, Belle D'Choisey, Belle Magnifique, and Reine Hortense, all on Mahaleb stocks, 

 and are over half dead, except Early Richmond— thej'. almost one-third dead. Original timber on 

 ground, walnut, elm, hickory, &c. In '65 I planted one hundred and sixty apple trees on white oak 

 clay soil, half Willow, balance Early Harvest and Yellow Bellefleur. I gatliered this fall a bushel 

 of apples from some of the Bellefleurs, and one and a half bushels from some of the Willow. 



In the two hundred and fifty apple trees planted in 1860 are forty varieties. Have received more 

 Income from thirty Willows than from tlie balance of the orchard. Early Pennock, Maiden's Blush, 

 and Wagener will give quicker return for family use to beginners than any otlier varieties that I am 

 acquainted with. Rawle's Jannet has proven very unsatisfactory. Top-grafted most of tliem to 

 Ben Davis last spring. 



I would like to meet you at your winter meeting at Mattoon, if circumstances would admit; but do 

 not expect to. You have a noble work before you. My hopes are that you may do much to dot 

 those gi-and and fine prairies of Central Illinois with orchards and groves, and leave monuments for 

 yourselves more noble and enduring than marble or gold. D. P. EMOEY. 



