338 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



have it inferred from this view, that the scab (parasitic fungi) depends on 

 diseased tissues, a doctrine advocated by some writers on mycology. 



In conchision, I would say that no person can feel more keenly than 

 myself, the mistakes made in the early management of our first planted 

 orchard trees. It is a pleasure to know, however, that the lessons of 

 experience that unfold themselves from day to day are leading us to a 

 more correct knowledge in all that pertains to the business of horticulture. 



DISCUSSION UPON APPLE ORCHARDS. 



Mr. Galusha said that he presumed the intention of the Doctor, in 

 recommending plenty of sunlight and air, was to advise the exposure of 

 leaves to sunlight. The theory formerly prevalent — that to have good 

 fruit it must be exposed to the sun — was not sustained by experience and 

 extended observation. The leaves should have sunlight, and the early 

 training — not pruning off large limbs — of the trees should be such as to 

 have branches distributed on all sides of the tree, so as to give light and 

 air to the leaves. He was convinced that the most and best fruit is found 

 wherever there is the best development of leaves, though none of the fruit 

 is fully exposed to the rays of the sun. And with grapes, it is absolutely 

 certain that the best fruit is found in the shade of the healthy foliage 

 which has developed it. 



Mr. Wright exhibited two trees cut off in the nursery, and ex- 

 plained the best mode of pruning, viz., to so shorten in the young shoots 

 as to prevent the formation of any forks, and distribute the branches around 

 a central stem, from near the ground upward, so that the foliage will 

 shade the trunk and distribute (balance) both foliage and fruit. 



This interesting talk on tree forms can not be given without a repre- 

 .sentation of the specimen trees upon which it was based. 



Mr. Woodard said that in his paper sent to the State Horticultural 

 Society, last month, he wrote to some extent unfavorably to protecting- 

 belts of timber for orchards ; but he did not wish to be meant to say 

 that a country would be a better fruit country without any groves. On 

 the other hand, he would recommend planting groves on every farm, both 

 for wind breakers and for supplying timber for future use. But he had 

 observed that imrnediate (close) protection or screening was not advanta- 

 geous, and sometimes was injurious ; as trees need light, and a circulation 

 of air. 



NEW SEEDLING PEAR. 



Dr. Pennington distributed among the members some cions of a 

 Seedling Pear— a seedling from the Bartlett tree, more hardy, and fruit of 

 good quality, ripening about the same time as that of the parent tree. He 

 had two trees, one Bartlett and the other Flemish Beauty, which stand in 

 the angle of two deep drains, and have been healthy and productive. He 

 spoke of his artesian well, and expressed the hope that such wells would 

 soon become quite common upon the prairie farms of Northern Illinois. 

 His well is 1,070 feet deep, flowing at a hydrostatic level of five to ten 

 feet, from forty to fifty barrels per minute ; water 59° to 60° temperature. 



