STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. / 



ORCHARD CULTURE. 



BY .T. V. COTTA. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the 



Illinois State Hortiriiltiiral Society: 



Residinsj as T do in the Nortliorn District of our State, where the 

 apple has been our chief dependence in the fruit line, T shall not at- 

 tempt to sj)eak of the cultivation of any other fruit, at this time, 

 and shall confine my remarks mainly to the needs and retjuirenients 

 of Northern Illinois and the northwest ti;enerally, and whereas even 

 the central part of this State has had much to complain of. of late, 

 some of my statements may also be applicable to this section. 



In view of the rather discourao^ing fact that by far the greater 

 part of our apple trees (in my locality not less than 75 per cent.) 

 have been either killed or so much injured by the effects of the three 

 memorable winters of 1882-83, '83-84 and '84-85, that they can 

 never recover, never become even passably remunerative again ; cnm- 

 berers of the ground, the last vestige of which will soon {)ass away — 

 the question naturally arises : what varieties shall we use in replant- 

 ing our orchards, and how shall we grow our trees, to best enable 

 them to endure our climate to such a degree that their health and 

 vigor and usefulness may be prolonged to a reasonable ageP 



It would seem that an intelligent answer to this question ought 

 not to be a difficult matter, and yet, when w^e notice that on this 

 topic " doctors disagree" perhaps more widely than the good of tl^e 

 cause admits of, and because of these differences of opinion — some 

 of which being after all mere hobbies — the solution of this problem 

 appears yet a good way off. A candid review of the situation can- 

 not but result in the acknowledgment of the impalatable fact that 

 neither as nurserymen nor as orchardistshave we as yet fully learned 

 how to adopt our methods of propagation and the choice of variet- 

 ies to the requirements of our climate, and until we learn to do that 

 venj thing we need expect Init little progress and but small success. 

 From our earliest attempts at orcharding we have been adding, al- 

 most every year, some new sorts that were recommended as "iron- 

 clads" on one side of our list and loii|)ing ofE those we had become 

 disgusted with from the other side, until in the spring of 1885 we 

 awoke to the fact that there was absolutely nothing left us, sound 

 and unharmed, e.xcept some Russians and Crabs and such of our na- 

 tive sorts as hapjicned to have been tf)])-worked upon stems of the 

 above, which latter, though not escaping injury entirely, reuiaiueil 

 in a good, vigorous condition. The mischief was not confined to 

 trees of bearing si/e, but extended to young orcdiard trees as well as 

 nursery trees alike. I have examined a good many of the dead trees 



