s'l'Ai'i-; iioiriK rr/rri;.\i, sociiri'^'. 5 



While hen* I was trcatetl to a dish ^A' hisi-ious pears, grown n]»<)ii 

 his groiintls. and presented with a volnnie of his poems, for he. like 

 his l)rotli('r Win. C is also a poet of no mean order. 



I also had the pleasnre of inspecting the (H'thards and gi-oiindsof 

 the senior A. lirvant. whose decease occurred a few nn)nths agw. He 

 was one of the earliest settlers of the county, and diiriii«^ his resi- 

 dence hei"e set three orchards of ap])le trees, the first one forty-eight 

 years ago. some of the trees of which are still standing, hnt in a 

 (lying condition: his next one was set on ])rairie soil, and the other 

 on •■(•lay harrens,"" neither of which can he'said to be'in a flourish- 

 ing condition, hut the last one name(l was hearing consideral)le fruit, 

 of which Ben Davis and Mother seemed to take the lead. The old 

 homestead stands amid towering magnolias, persimmons, pines, spruce 

 and cedars, and is skirted on tlie north-west by a splendid hlack-wal- 

 nnf grove. 



On the morjiing oi the Hth. in conipany with Mr. Bryant, 1 

 visited an apple orchard of one thousand trees on the Mosely estate, 

 a few^ miles south of Princeton. Tlie trees had been grown and 

 selected by the s(Miior JNIr. J:{ryant. and the orchard set under his super- 

 vision, as a commercial orchartl. hnt it had gone into decline, though 

 some of the trees were apparently healthy, but many were dead and 

 dving. ami none of them bearing much fruit. The Ben Davis. Wil- 

 low Twig. Snow and l)omine. seeme(l to l)e suffering the least. The 

 orchard is eighteen years old. 



We then called at the residence of \\ . ('. Trimble, who has eight 

 acres of Synder blackberries, planted on prairie soil, and which were 

 a))parently healthy and vigorous and bearing well. Mr. Trimble 

 being absent we did not learn many jjarticulars. 



We next called on J. (t. Bubach. whom we found a])])lying a toj) 

 dressing to his favorite seedling strawberries, of which he has five 

 hnmlred and from which we may hear something in the future. Mr. 

 Bubach has also five acres of strawberries under cultivation, but from 

 which he harvested only one-fourth of a crop this year — too much 

 frost in the early spring. He also grows grapes (piite extensively: 

 show'ed us some hiu' specimens of the Worilen wjiich he thinks is 

 going to be a protital)le variety to raise. He is a veteran nurseryman 

 and fruit grower, and an admirer of Wm. C. Bryant's poems, and 

 while we rested "neath the shade recited " Thanato])sis "' and "Death 

 i)i the Flowers,"" without a mistake. 



On the 7th, in conii)any with Mr. Bryant, went to Kewanee, in 

 Henry County: called u])on M. (x. (^)uinn. who resides in town, but 

 who kindly took us in his carriage to his farm two miles in the coun- 

 try. Mr. (2"iii'i i^ ;i lieginner in farming and fruit raising, but has 

 been quite successful in rejuvenating an old orchard. This orchard 

 originally com])rised al)oiit forty acres, bnf nine-tenths of the trees 

 were dead when he bought it. He cut the dead ones down, broke up 

 the land and raised a good croj) of corn, gave the surviving trees a 



