ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. J^QQ 



verdure of the timber growth that covered it everywhere, inquired if we 

 had any scenery in Illinois to equal it? I answered him, dwelling on the 

 beautiful views attainable in Northern Illinois, where the eye wanders 

 over miles and miles of beautiful prairie, uninterrupted by timber growth, 

 when an old gentleman, the father of General Means, I think, tottered 

 up to the railing of the porch, with the aid of his crutches, and said : 

 "General Atkins, 1 remember well when standing here and looking 

 over that valley, all within view was a beautiful ])rairie, and not a tree 

 to be seen." I thought it was wonderful; but riding on horseback the 

 next day for miles, 1 could nowhere find a stump, or log, or body of a 

 tree more than half a century old. 



Oak came first to cover the prairies of North Carolina; but cut off the 

 oak, and cultivate the ground, then leave it to grow up in timber again, 

 and i)itch pine alone will cover the land. 



When during the Revolution, Lord Cornwallis passed over that 

 country with his army, he cut through the native timber, in many places, 

 a military wagon road, and to-day you can trace his road by the growth 

 of pine which has filled it. The first growth of timber there was like 

 our prairie grass, that never comes in again when trodden out. I have 

 traced for miles over our prairies neglected Indian trails by the growth 

 of weeds which filled them. 



Pasture our prairies, and a growth of white clover will follow the 

 prairie grass, and how does the white clover get there .' 



A couple of years ago, while in Washington City, I was shown 

 through the Agricultural Department by Col. Capron, the Commission- 

 er, and my practical experience in the cultivation of peaches and Chick- 

 asaw plums very naturally interested me in the horticultural subjects. 

 The culture of apples was under discussion, and the Commissioner stat- 

 ed that he had gathered the various varieties of apples grown in this 

 country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and that it was a singular fact 

 that those varieties wiiich originated east of the Alleghanies grew larger 

 in size and coarser in texture as you passed from east to west. 



The Newtown Pip])in originated near where I was born, in southern 

 New York, and I in(|uired about that variety, and was shown fac simile 

 specimens in wax of the Newtown Pippin grown where it originated ; 

 also grown in New England, and they were much smaller; also grown 

 in Ohio, and they were much larger; also on the prairies of southern 

 Kansas, and the same variety, the Newtown Pijjpin, was almost twice as 

 large grown in Kansas as compared with those grown where that varie- 

 ty of apple originated, which is, doubtless, to you gentlemen, a very 

 familiar fact, but it was a new, and very interesting and curious fact to 

 me. We also discussed, somewhat, the insect enemies that the horticul- 

 turist is fated to contend with. 



Mr. Capron appeared to place great confidence in birds as the friends 

 of the horticulturist — as a great armv which was intended to destroy 

 the great armies of insects and worms that destroy tlie fruits and tlowers. 

 1 remembered that when I was a boy the blue-jay was regarded as a 



