SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 229 



On motion both of these reports were referred to a committee, 

 consisting of Dr. Humphrey, H. M. Dunhip and J. M, Berry. 



TUESDAY AFTERNOON. 



The Society met, pursuant to adjournment, at 1 :30 p. m. The 

 first business on the programme was a paper on 



THE FUTURE OF ORCHARDING IN CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 



BY DR. A. G. HUMPHREY. 



The first orchards of Central Illinois were planted more than 

 half a century ago, while a much larger orchard area was planted 

 about forty years ago. The varieties planted in our first orchard 

 were either seedlings or grafted stock propagated as far east as New 

 York. Some of the seedling trees planted more than a generation 

 ago still remain and bear fruit, while the eastern varieties are nearly 

 all gone. Twenty, twenty-five and thirty years ago we had an 

 aljundance of apples from the first orchards in this part of our State. 

 Many hundreds of bushels were shipped away or hauled in wagons 

 west of the Mississippi river. Many old farmers in Knox county 

 who in those days had two or three hundred bushels for sale, now 

 do not have enough to supply the table for a small family. The 

 varieties raised in those early days of orcharding were Janet, Milam, Big 

 Romanite, Little Romanite, Hoop Apple, Wine Sap, Pryor's Red, Van- 

 devere and White Pippins, Bellfiower, Early Harvest, Red June, Sweet 

 June. Black Apple. Tallman's Sweet, and a few others, besides seed- 

 lings. The orchardists and nurserymen of those days were experiment- 

 ing with new varieties to find kinds adapted to the Great West. H un- 

 dreds of eastern grown varieties were tried and found worthless, fail- 

 ing either in the nursery or orchard. I visited a nursery at Daven- 

 port, Iowa, about thirty years ago, where I saw about a hundred 

 thousand trees of eastern varieties. All these were from root grafts 

 shipped from the East, and were apparently well-grown nursery 

 stock; and yet more than ninety per cent, of them were worthless 

 and were either given away or burned. 



Our Western horticulturists were not yet discouraged. They 

 continued their investigations until tlieir labors were crowned with 

 the Ben Davis. Willow Twig, Domiue, Roman Stem, Jonathan, 

 Wagoner, Tallman's Sweet, Mijikler, lied Astrachan, Snow, Duchess 

 of Oldenberg, Benoni, and a few others. These varieties fruited 

 early, and gave^iromise of value and hardiness, and in many locali- 

 ties became quite profitable to both nurseiymen and orchardists. 

 And yet orchards [)lanted of these kind eighteen to twenty-five years 

 ago are nearly all gone, from Knox and Warren counties at least. 



