256 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Several members spoke in praise of Mr. Hausen's collection of fifty 

 varieties, and all admitted that they had never seen such a fine collection 

 in the winter in the State. 



The President said, we are in as good a fruit-growing region as there 

 is in the State. 



REPORT ON GENERAL HORTICULTURE. 



Arthur Bryant, Sr., of Princeton, from the Committee on General 

 Horticulture, presented his report, which was read by the Secretary : 



The remarks upon General Horticulture in the following report are 

 intended to apply only to the county of Bureau. The soil, when plowed 

 in spring, was in an exceptionally bad condition, breaking up in hard, 

 compact lumps, which were with difficulty pulverized. Nevertheless, the 

 strawberry crop was fine, owing to frequent rains during its season of 

 growth ; but, on account of the destruction of plants in previous seasons, 

 the supply was not abundant. Raspberries were a fair crop, and in good 

 demand. Cherries were abundant, but of rather small size; and, so dull 

 was the market, that a great part of the crop was left to be harvested by 

 birds. Currants were a moderate crop ; but gooseberries, without distinc- 

 tion of variety, were almost universally destroyed by mildew. Grapes 

 promised well at the outset, but frequent rains and damp weather, preced- 

 ing the season of ripening, caused many to rot so that the clusters were 

 generally loose and straggling. This, however, was of little consequence, 

 since the market was so over-stocked that one-half the crop in some vine- 

 yards was never gathered. Most of the Delaware vines were affected by 

 the leaf blight, which occasionally attacks that variety, and the fruit 

 consequently did not ripen. 



Pear trees bore fruit, but not less than three-fourths of some varieties 

 were so knotty and crabbed as to be entirely worthless. Such were the 

 White Doyenne, Clapp's Favorite, Tyson and Howell. 



The apple crop was generally abundant, though some orchards did 

 not produce largely — my own among the rest. Much of the fruit was of 

 inferior quality, many varieties being mostly scabby and shrunken, and a 

 large proportion of nearly all in some way defective. Throughout the 

 season, from the earliest varieties to the latest, apples showed an unusual 

 disposition to drop prematurely; so much so that one-half the crop of 

 winter varieties was on the ground before the usual time of gathering. 

 Another peculiarity of the season was the early fall of the leaves from 

 most of the orchard trees, many being entirely bare of foliage before the 

 fruit was gathered. Many had a sickly appearance through the summer ; 

 their foliage was small and thin, and they made little or no growth. Such 

 were generally the Jonathan and Ben Davis. 



The inferior character of the apple crop, the damage caused by the 

 codling moth excepted, and the premature dropping of the leaves and 

 fruit, are doubtless to be attributed to the unhealthy condition of the 

 trees, consequent upon the extreme cold and dryness of preceding seasons. 



