348 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The cherry croji was also an enormous one. Fine large Morellos, 

 free from insect injuries, and without stems, found slow sale at six cents 

 per quart ; while the Early Richmonds sold for two dollars ($2.00) per 

 bushel, with stems, or |i3.oo without. 



The early apple crop deserved indictment as a public nuisance. 

 They were so plenty and cheap that boys would not eat them. The chil- 

 dren spitefully used and mistreated them, and boarders complained if 

 they were placed upon the table as sauce or manufactured into pies. They 

 rotted in such quantities that it was disagreeable walking through the 

 orchard, and every one was pleased when the last one fell to the ground. 



For the first time in a number of years the Lawton blackberry gave 

 an immense yield, while the Kittatinny was not far behind in quantity, 

 and rather tf)ok the lead in price when put upon the market. Lawtons 

 sold as low as seven and a half cents per quart by the crate, and black- 

 berry jam was jammed into every empty jug and jar to be found. 



The yield of grapes was the largest known for years, the market 

 being over-supplied, and prices away below zero. But the late crop 

 was so badly damaged by the grape codlin, that, at the close of the 

 season, well assorted Concords found a ready sale at seven and eight 

 cents per pound. 



Fall and winter apples were in large supply, and uncommonly free 

 from insect injuries. This freedom from insect depredations can only be 

 accounted for by the great scarcity of fruit the year previous, and the 

 immense crop the surviving insects found to operate upon the past year. 



The prospect for peaches was uncommonly good until a heavy frost, 

 late in April, when an advance of one hundred per cent, offered for 

 peach cobblers for August delivery found no takers ; and a straggling 

 peach, here and there, proved the extent of the crop. 



The great scarcity of healthy pear trees in this county makes an 

 over supply of the fruit impossible. There are but few trees to be found 

 upon which the blight has not secured a foothold, and they must soon 

 succumb to that great destroyer. One Buffum tree, thirty years old, in 

 this vicinity, produced nearly twenty bushels of sound marketable pears 

 the past season. Although the blight has, for a number of years, had a 

 mortgage resting upon the top of this tree, it appears to be in no hurry 

 to foreclose it, and, possibly, it may produce fruit for thirty years to 

 come. 



Plums, with the exception of a red variety supposed to be the Wild 

 Goose, are always a failure here, and the past season was no exception to 

 the rule. As soon as Prof. Riley, or some other entomologist, can invent 

 a curculio with a steel drill attachment, with power to puncture the sheet- 

 iron like skin of this variety, it will also become unknown in our market. 



In the adjoining counties of Pike, Cass and Scott, the fruit crop was 

 equally as abundant as here ; and several wagon loads of very fine peaches 

 from Pike were sold upon our streets. 



Looking, then, over the past year, we can only pronounce it a very 

 fruitful and profitable one to the horticulturist in this locality. As a 

 whole, it has been remarkably free from fruit-destroying insects. The 



