lo4 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



held numerous positions of public trust, but it is as a worker in the cause 

 of agriculture and horticulture that he will be remembered. An early 

 writer in the then solitary agricultural paper of the State; six years 

 editor of the Illinois Farmer, long a widely read correspondent of the 

 Chicago Tribufie, it is safe to say that no man in the State exercised so 

 wide an influence in his calling. Dr. Hull came to the State in 1847 

 and purchased a farm near Alton, which he planted with the latest and 

 most approved varieties of nearly all fruits. In 1863 he removed to his 

 Alton Bluff farm, where he remained until his sudden death in 1875. 

 His peculiar fame was founded on his magnificent fruits. " By their 

 fruits ye shall know them." His peculiar theories and practice's of fruit 

 culture commanded attention and secured respect when they did not 

 enforce conviction. He aided in organizing the first attempt at a horti- 

 cultural society at Alton in 1851, and again in 1853. In 1856 he assem- 

 bled with others at Decatur, December 17, and organized the Illinois 

 State Horticultural Society. As its President then, and in 1875 as State 

 Horticultural editor of The Prairie Farmer, he exercised a marked influ- 

 ence on fruit culture in the West, and secured a national reputation. 

 Within his own range of topics he was a more influential authority than 

 any in the State, for a period of nearly thirty years. 



BIRTH OF THE ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



December 17, 1856, as I have said, was the date of the meeting at 

 Decatur when this Society was organized. The names of thirty-one 

 persons are recorded on its list of members, ten of whom were from 

 Madison county, three each from Cook and Union counties, two each 

 from McLean, DuPage, Macon and Marion, and one each from Tazewell, 

 Kendall, Adams, Fulton, Rock Island, Edgar and Sangamon. Eight of 

 the thirty-one I know to be dead, and probably the list of the deceased 

 is greater. 



The list of members was : D. S. Allen, Decatur, Macon ; Jolin 

 Atwood, Alton, Madison; Allen Bainbridge, Jonesboro, Union ; D. J. 

 Baker, Alton, Madison ; A. S. Barry, Alton, Madison ; George Barry, 

 Alton, Madison ; J. E. Crandall, Chicago, Cook ; M. L. Dunlap, Leyden, 

 Cook ; Lewis Ellsworth, Naperville, DuPage ; S. Francis, Springfield, 

 Sangamon ; Elijah Frost, Godfrey, Madison ; O. B. Galusha, Lisbon, 

 Kendall; E. S. Hull, Alton, Madison; R. W. Hunt, Naperville, Du 

 Page; H. C. Johns, Decatur, Macon; Chas. Kennicott, West Northfield, 

 Cook; Wm. Kile, Paris, Edgar; B. F. Long, Alton, Madison; W. H. 

 Mann, Bloomington, McLean ; Joseph Miller, Alton, Madison ; H. E. 

 Newton, Moline, Rock Island; Henry Oswald, Jonesboro, Union ; C. 

 R. Overman, Bloomington, McLean ; N. Overman, Canton, Fulton ; 

 Chas. B. Pelton, Jonesboro, Union ; John P. Reynolds, Salem, Marion ; 

 L. Shaw, Fremont, Tazewell ; F. Starr, Alton, Madison ; Jas. E. Starr, 

 Alton, Madison; Wm. Stewart, Payson, Adams; and Cyrus Webster, 

 Salem, Marion. 



From that period until the present, our Society has not failed to hold 

 an annual meeting of from two to four days' duration. Commencing 



