24 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



this branch of agriculture has not been fully appreciated by a majority 

 of the Board of Trustees of this institution. But the time has come 

 when we should no longer ignore the importance of this work. We 

 have seen .our trees, reputed hardy, swept from our orchards by the 

 intense cold of winter or the fierce heat of summei*, and have, as yet. 

 comparatively little knowledge of the condition of tree, soil or ex- 

 posure through which such destruction can be avoided. We find 

 the fruit trees upon our prairies short-lived, and yet are almost 

 entirely in ignorance as to the means of increasing their longevity. 

 Our forests, groves and timber belts are prematurely thinned or 

 entirely destroyed by causes which we have not the time, skill or 

 scientific knowledge to discover. Must this state of things continue? 

 While the Great West is astonishing the world by its progress in 

 agriculture and the arts, shall horticulture keep pace with these, or 

 be doomed to fall behind — a confessed exception, whose many obsta- 

 cles and enemies dishearten its friends by l:)affling their efforts and 

 seeming to defy alike the skill of the cultivator and the discoveries 

 and appliances of the scientist? 



I trust every intelligent horticulturist in the West will respond 

 an emphatic no to such a proposition. But if our chosen art is to 

 keep place with its fellows, this progress will be, it niusf be, achieved 

 through renewed zeal, increasing intelligence and a more patient, 

 persevering industry than has hitherto been practiced. I write this, 

 not to dishearten but to nerve ourselves for the battle which is before 

 us. If there are lions in our path there is strength in the mighty 

 intellect of nian to vanquish them. We are now learning, through 

 the patient researches and experiments of our State Entomologist, 

 and the Professor of Horticulture in our Industrial University, how 

 to circumvent some of the enemies of horticulture, and how to route 

 and destroy others. 



Let these successes encourage us in our efforts to combat still 

 other and more formidable foes. I am aware that it is popular to 

 believe that there is no remedy for adverse climatic conditions: that 

 we can neither control them nor provide against their frequent and 

 terrible disasters like that which has overspread so many Western 

 States during the last year. 



I admit that meteorological science has not yet arrived at that 

 point in its progress where it can direct the means to prevent the 

 Arctic lilasts of winter from descending with destructive intensity 

 upon our orchards and vineyards, or to ward off those cold north-east 

 winds and rains which so often sweep over our orchards at the time 

 of blooming, chilling the vitality from the germs of our fruits. 

 Yet, by careful study we may hope to place both soil and tree in 

 such condition as to render these extremes far less damaging than 

 they have hitherto been. 



Doubtless this meteorological lion is far the most formidable 

 and ferocious of any which has ever beset the pathway of the horti- 



