102 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



"A few favored localities had a partial crop of Peaches, which of course sold 

 well." 



" Pears were rather more plentiful than peaches, but still not one- third of a crop. 

 More blight than I ever saw before. 



" Grapes (Concords and Ives) have produced a fair crop, of better quality of fruit 

 than usual ; and they have proved, all things considered, as profitable as any fruit I 

 raise. 



" Strawberries were in abundance, and cheap. Two hundred bushels only brought 

 me seven hundred dollars. Boxes, packing, and all the cost of making the crop out of 

 that, left but a small profit. Charles Denning, Wilson's Albany, Boy den's No. 30, and 

 Monarch of the West, the best varieties. 



" Red Raspberries (Kirkland) produced a good crop very early, and sold at paying 

 prices. Some claim a profit, also, in growing the Turner. The Thwack is the most 

 promising new red raspberry in the West. May prove valuable. 



" Lawton and Kittatinny Blackberries have proved (as for many years previous] 

 one of the best-paying crops in this locality. Other sorts not sufficiently tested to 

 recommend. 



" Asparagus, in a limited way, pays at the rate of three or four hundred dollars 

 per acre ; but when it is attempted to raise it on a large scale, has hitherto failed. 



" Tomatoes are not profitable about Alton of late years. Growers farther south 

 have the advantage of us." 



Dr. N. F. Long, of North Alton, Madison county, sends the following : 



" In relation to orchards, etc., there have been some unusual and discouraging 

 phases connected with them the past season. The winter of 1875-6 was very mild, the 

 thermometer marking zero but once, and only for one night ; consequently, the trees 

 could not be damaged by hard freezing. The spring commenced early, and continued 

 quite warm. Warm showers of rain were frequent all through the months of April, 

 May and June, contributing to the early and rapid growth of the stock and branches. 

 The blossom was more than an average one, and everything pertaining to a good crop 

 of fruit was very flattering, including peaches. In May, near the first of the month, a 

 few chilly days and nights changed the prospect for the apple and pear crop, and most 

 of the germs were destroyed. The fire blight also made its appearance — which, accord- 

 ing to the frozen sap theorists, ought not to have affected the trees at all — and was more 

 fatal to the trees than ever before in this locality. I am thoroughly convinced that this 

 fatal disease is climatic, and that our best preventive is to retard the growth of the trees 

 by planting the orchard on poor land, cutting back the top in July or August, or root- 

 pruning before the growth commences in the spring. The apple crop was extremely 

 variable. But one orchard in this whole region produced a first-rate crop of fine fruit ; 

 others. varied from a fourth to three-fourths. The orchard producing well was upon a 

 high timber ridge, with timber on the north of it. 



" Pear trees produced a good blossom, Ijut the crop was blasted by the blight, and 

 several kinds, considered as exempt from that disease, were extensively affected, and 

 others, in great number, were killed outright. 



" Peaches suffered by the wet and heat of the season, and a larger number of kinds 

 than usual rotted upon the trees. It was a bad season for them generally ; but a few 

 orchards near to the river did well. The principal damage to the prospect was by a 

 severe frost just before the blossom opened. 



" The Straivberry crop was below the average. Blackbei-ry crop good. Of Rasp- 

 berries, some varieties did well, but generally below the usual crop. 



" The quality of the fruit of all kinds was inferior in flavor, owing, probably, to 

 the frequent showers and continued damp weather. The keeping qualities of it were 

 much impaired by weather and insect depredations, and it rotted on the trees, vines and 

 shrubs, and in every package and place in which it was deposited. 



" Apples and Pears, hitherto our dependents till fruit grows again, are decaying 

 more rapidly than I have ever seen before. The season, on account of its being very 

 warm, was favorable to the increase of insects, and they came in their strength. I think 



