26 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Means, more immediate and reasonably effective, are within our 

 reach, and to these we must devote our attention and our best 

 energies. 



There can be little doubt of the efficiency of Horticultural Ex- 

 periment Stations, provided they are well endowed and placed in the 

 hands of such persons as I have herein described. We have found 

 that analyses of soils and of the wood leaf and fruits of trees are 

 not sufficient indications as to the steps toward results. 



We have found that it does not follow that where all the ele- 

 ments are found in or artificially applied to the soil which are de- 

 manded by the tree, plant, and fruit, that satisfactory growth and 

 fruitage are the result. ■ Hence it seems an absolute necessity that 

 experiments in horticulture embrace not only chemical analysis of 

 soils, plants and fruits, but the mechanical condition of the elements 

 of plant food in the soils, and the means which Nature uses, and the 

 means to assist Nature in liberating these elements from any unfav- 

 orable combinations and feeding them to the growing plants. It is 

 obvious that such work — involving the deepest researches into '' the 

 hidden mysteries of Nature " — will not, in fact cannot, be done by even 

 the most intelligent and and higly educated farmers upon ordinary 

 farms, and whose attention is necessarily largely devoted to other 

 matters. 



In view of these considerations I urge upon this Society, as 

 one of the most hopeful directions in which it can exert its influence 



— the securing through our State Legislature the establishment of 

 Horticultural Experiment Stations in connection with our Agricul- 

 tural College, and to suggest, through a competent committee, apian 

 for the conduct of the experiments. This work cannot be accomplished 

 by resolutions and petitions; it requires intelligent and persistent 

 personal effort by a committee whose work shall be indorsed and 

 sustained by this Society. 



The great Commonwealth of Illinois — out of debt and rich 



— without a rival in its agricultural resources, can well afford the 

 small expenditure such an enterprise would demand. In fact she can- 

 not afford to neglect this important work. Her sister State of Iowa 

 is setting a good example; though what she has already done is 

 hardly a tithe of what our own State should do. 



But what can we, as individual cultivators, do upon our own 

 farms and in our own gardens toward making fruit growing more 

 successful, more uniformly profitable, in the future than it has been 

 in the past? Much, in many ways. I have referred to what we 

 have accomplished; and surely experience should beget wisdom in 

 this as well as in other departments of industry. We know now 

 much better than in former years how to gain the victory over 

 many species of our insect foes. 



Let us apply the remedies and preventives which have been found 

 efficient. We are yearly learning more concerning the nature of some 



