160 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Taking our illustration from fruit trees, we find that those not 

 killed during the winter are so injured that the hearts are blackened; 

 and if this dry season be followed by one that may be even less se- 

 vere in these unfavorable conditions, those that survived the previous 

 seasons will, many of them, perish. 



Apple trees may be divided into two classes — those called crabs 

 and those not crabs. There is difference of opinion as to the or- 

 igin of our cultivated apple trees. If they all be from the same 

 stock, then we may safely assume that those not denominated crabs 

 are further removed from the common parentage than the crabs, 

 this removing being the effect of so many ages of high cultivation; 

 and we know that the tendency of such changing of the character 

 of a plant is to physically weaken it, to make the tissues more vas- 

 cular and more susceptible to diseases, and to be more easily effected 

 by extremes of temperature. Whether all our apples have this one 

 common origin, or whether the crabs may be derived from one and 

 the rest from one or more other different forms of wild apples, makes 

 but little difference. We find that we have just such a condition as 

 is assumed in the first case, — a great mass of the varieties grown 

 rather easily injured by the peculiar climatic influences found in the 

 Northern half, or more, of our State, while the crabs and their allies 

 are but little affected. I am inclined to the opinion of more than 

 one origin, the crabs from a tree originally found in a colder climate 

 than the others. 



In partial substantiation of the position I have taken with re- 

 gard to the differences between our State and the Michigan Penin- 

 sula, allow rae to quote a little from H. S. VanDeman, Pomologist 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, in the Prairie 

 Farmer for October 30, 1886. He says: 



'' It having been my privilege recently to visit that part of 

 Michigan lying southwest of Mackinaw, and known as the Grand 

 Traverse region, I was greatly pleased with the fruit seen there. 

 Apples do remarkably well, and all varieties are hardy there. * * 



* It seems strange to talk about peaches so far north, • but I 

 gathered as nice specimens of Hill's Chili, and other fine varieties, 

 near Lake Michigan, two hundred miles north of Benton Harbor, as 

 I have ever seen. The reason of such success is the tempering 

 influence of the lake, which never freezes, except for a few miles 

 from the shore in the severest weather; and the prevailing westerly 

 winds carry the heat arising from the lake across the adjacent land. 

 This causes a heavy fall of snow, and it is a fact that the ground 

 very rarely freezes over quite a large area." 



It is probably not so much the presence of the lake in its induc- 

 ing a fall of snow during the winter, as it is in equalizing the rain- 

 fall during the summer, to which this condition of fruit-growing in 

 Northern Michigan is due. And as to the freezing, I remember 

 that during the winter of 1863-64, in New York, there was very lit- 



