3 24 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Leaves or fruit injured as we have just stated never show the 

 arrested central point of attachment unless they have been previously 

 punctured. 



The leaves you sent represent both of the conditions we have men- 

 tioned. If you will carefully inspect the fruit on your Prior's Red, from 

 which you took these leaves, you may on a few of the apples find a small 

 circular patch of rust; with the finger rub this off" and near the center 

 you will discover one or more points which were the punctures ot 

 the lice. 



It is worthy of note, that nearly all the fruit of russet or rough-skinned 

 apples are but rarely punctured by lice, while they feed freely on the 

 young twigs or leaves. If you find no wounds on your Prior's Red, 

 tlienlook on the Red June or Early Har\-est, the fruit of either of which 

 the lice prefer to the leaves. 



From what has been said you will readily understand that it is too late 

 to apply a remedy to your trees this year; but the coming spring you can 

 keep your ti'ees quite free from the apple-tree louse by simply slacking 

 quicklime with boiling hot water, using just water enough to reduce the 

 lime to a dry powder. 



This powder should be thrown over the trees when they are wet, 

 just before and after they are in bloom. One pint of the lime is suffi- 

 cient to protect the largest tree. Or if you have a garden engine, a 

 decoction of tobacco, water, and soap will answer equally well. Two 

 men with a team can tlirow this decoction or the lime over five hundreii 

 trees per day. 



THE ST. JOSEPH FRUIT REGION. 



During the past summer and fall we spent some eight or ten days at 

 Benton Harbor, across the river from St. Joseph, inspecting orchards, vine- 

 yards, etc. The shore of Lake Michigan, at St. Joseph, extends nearly due 

 north and south. Although the east shore of the lake is far nfjrth of the 

 line of successful peach-growing, excepting only such sites as occur along 

 large water courses, yet this region is, nevertheless, well adapted for most 

 fruits of temperate climates. The reason of this is found in the modify- 

 ing effects of the open waters, so tempering the west and northwest 

 wind in its passage over the lake that a difference of fifteen or more 

 degrees is often observed at the same parallels between the two shores; 

 also, when the wind is blowing directly up the lake from the north, there 

 are points along the shore which are nearly, or, perhaps, quite as well 

 protected from severe freezing, as though the wind were to blow across 

 the water. The reason of this is that the winds in their passage up for 

 a long distance are unobstructed, thereby acquiring great force, and 

 whenever any great opening occurs in the high banks of the lake shore,^ 

 as at the mouth of St. Joseph river, there the stiller air on the land is 

 pressed back by the lake breeze. In this way the wind from the lake 

 passes a considerable distance up the valleys and over the adjacent lands. 

 At times so great is the lake current of air that after its passage into- 

 the valleys, it turns and blows a considerable distance in an opposite 



