]^72 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



ADDITIONAL 



REPORTS AND PAPERS. 



The following Papers have been sent to the Secretary for 



publication. 



REPORT OF FIRST HORTICULTURAL DISTRICT. 



I have only received reports from two correspondents in this dis- 

 trict, and having been confined closely at home during the whole sum- 

 mer, I am not able to report from personal observation. 



Mr. H. C. Graves, of Sandwich, De, Kalb County, writes that the 

 fruit interests in that county have improved very perceptibly in the past 

 two years ; that the fruit crop in eighteen seventy-one was better than 

 for many previous years, and the present year it has been good. The 

 small fruit?, excepting strawberries, were an average crop, notwithstand- 

 ing the drouth was quite severe. 



Grapes ripened rather une\enly in some localities, but were gener- 

 ally satisfactory. 



Cherries abundant. 



Pears not so plenty as last year ; blight about the same. 



Apples good size, and unusually fair, but the Canker-worm did 

 some damage in the northern part of the county. 



He further says :—" Timber planting is a good deal talked of; 

 what vve want most is a few practical examples ; if one or two men in 

 each township would make a beginning, many others would fall into line 

 and planting would be general. A beautiful Larch grove of a tew acres, 

 even when tlie trees are small, six to eight feet, would wake up a whole 

 township." 



Mr. S. G. Miukler, Oswego, Kendall County, writes: " '^J 'he past 

 season like the previous one has been very dry. Early Rose potatoes 

 ripened with scarcely any rain. The Cherry crop was abundant and 

 tine. Strawberries not as abundant as usual, as two-thirds of the land 

 planted has been plowed up, and the remainder suft'ered by drouth ; but 

 the crops brought prices that made them remunerative. 



Pears — fruit fair, — trees blighted badly." 



In the Fox River valley he reports heavy crops of apples for the 

 past two seasons. Early apples exempt from Codling moth ; winter ap- 

 ples a little affected by them. He thinks too many early apples have 

 been planted — no market for half of them even at two shillings per 

 bushel, and as cider-barrels could not be had, hundreds and thousands 

 of bushels have rotted on the ground, or were fed to animals by turn- 

 ing them into the orchards. He closes by saying that winter apples 

 were selling in Aurora, (December fourth) at four dollars per barrel. 



