224 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



papers, is not damaging. The essay is all straight, clear sailing, and the facts are ably 

 set forth, and one cannot help admiring the theory, and would naturally fall in with it. 

 But, in the discussion, up pops some fellow, and goes at the essay with a long list of 

 facts and theories, and you begin to doubt how it is. And so it was in regard to the 

 papers on forests and bud variation. 



" I suppose the oaks grow just as they did ' in the beginning ;' but as to apples and 

 such like, I cannot say ; though I would like to know if the apples of Eden were just 

 like our Red Junes, Early Harvests, and Winesaps. That would be a great consola- 

 tion. 



" The books tell us that the cultivated apple came of the Siberian crab ; but I don't 

 believe it, for that would at least lead to the presumption that the Garden of Eden was 

 located in Siberia, which was probably not the case. But, as there is no mention of 

 garden vegetables in Eden, it is probable that they came from different parts of the 

 country, as we all know that the potato and the pumpkin are native Americans. If the 

 Society would admit the women, their natural curiosity would lead them to investigate 

 some of these matters, and set them right before the people. 



" In the afternoon, we had the dedicatory exercises of the College. The heavy 

 part of this fell to the Regent, who made a two-hours' speech. It has occurred to me 

 that there ought to be a Chair of Condensation in every college, and that it should follow 

 the Chair of Rhetoric ; that each student who studied the latter should go through the 

 condensing department, in order that his sentences should be condensed. I believe 

 that used to be taught in the old classic schools, at least those of a military turn, as the 

 old army reports were remarkably condensed, some much more so than the modern 

 telegrams. C?esar, in his report of a great battle, gives us a very fine specimen. By this 

 process, a two-hours' speech could be condensed into one-half an hour; and some 

 speeches and some sermons that I have heard might have been reduced to ten or fifteen 

 minutes, and then the reader would not be at a loss to understand the subject. This is 

 demonstrated in boarding-houses where they serve up weak tea, thus compelling the 

 lovers of tea to drink a great deal of water to get a little tea. 



" After the Regent, the Governor spoke for fifteen minutes, and said a great deal ; 

 at least so thought the members of the Board of Supervisors, who voted to repudiate the 

 college bonds. 



"The Governor told them that if the county did not pay the bonds, the State 

 would, and then put the College where it would do the most good. The fact is, the 

 Governor has a way of saying something when he talks. There were others who 

 made short speeches, and every one went away pleased with the occasion, and, as the 

 Governor said, there was nothing but the shadow of the Board of Supervisors that stood 

 in the way of the onward progress of this great State institution. 



" In the evening, the Society met at tlie Opera Hall in the city, as the weather was 

 rainy and sidewalks slippery. 



" Prof. Riley gave a talk about the codling moth and a plant louse that infests the 

 gi-ape vines. But the best way for the orchardist and the vineyardist to get a full report 

 of Mr. Riley's remarks is to send a dollar to O. B. Galusha, the Secretary, at Morris, 

 become a member, and thus obtain a copy of the reports. It will he a dollar well invested. 

 The State gives the Society $2,000 a year to pay for printing and other expenses, and 

 this, with the membership fees, keeps the Society in running order. 



