178 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



rp:port. 



It may with truth be said, that the cultivation and study of plants is 

 more ancient and as honorable as any other human pursuit. With equal 

 truth it may also be said, that much of the ardor in Horticulture is clearly 

 traceable to the fact that men constantly desire a change ; are always 

 seeking for something which is new; and in no department of industiy 

 are they so often gratified as when they familiarize themselves with the 

 growth and development of plants; for in the most of those which we 

 cultivate, a change is constantly going on, from the time the little plants 

 are out of the ground until they are of bearing size. Again, some of 

 these, when they come to perfect seeds, because of the change wrought 

 in them by culture, produce as many varieties as seeds. It is this yield- 

 ing condition which makes plants the most interesting of all cultivated 

 things. 



In no department of fruit culture are variations more likely to occur 

 than in the peach; for were we to j^lant all the seeds perfected by certain 

 varieties, the probability would be that not a single seedling would be 

 like the parent, nor would any two be alike. It is true that some good 

 varieties having reniform glands generally come the same, or in the 

 majority of cases nearly the same. But with most varieties the fruit 

 would difier so widely, or be of so inferior a quality, that out of thou- 

 sands the chance would be that not one could be selected which could 

 compete in quality and size with any one of the ten or twelve which 

 have been selected as best for orchard culture. 



With many new beginners one of the most common mistakes con- 

 sists in seeking after and planting comparatively new and untried 

 varieties, the high prices charged inducing the thought that lauded sorts 

 must possess some excellence which will give to the fortunate posessor 

 superior advantages over those who confine themselves to a few well- 

 selected varieties. The real truth is, the smallest and most select number 

 of well-tried sorts, which will give a regular succession, and about a 

 given supply each day through the season, will be more easily handled, 

 and prove much more profitable, than selections of either all early or late 

 varieties. 



But a few years ago peach trees in nearly all the southern part of the 

 State had only to be grown, and they would produce abundantly, and 

 almost without care. But as orchards came to be greatly multiplied, the 

 supply of food by which noxious insects are sustained caused them to be 

 vastly increased; so much so, that now most of the fruit while imma- 

 ture, is spoiled, or, that which escapes destruction is so scarred and 

 tlamaged that it is of but little value, cither for family use or for market. 

 So rapidly, in fact, have some of the fruit insects spread over the land, 

 that at the present time there are but few orchards, in what are termed 

 the fruit districts, which pay more than the taxes, without yielding any 

 thing from which the farm can be kept up, or a family supported. It 

 is admitted there are exceptions to this rule, but the orchards forming 

 the exceptions are those which are kept free from insects by artificial 



