STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 235 



its value. There are other reliable varieties raised in Northern Illinois, 

 but not having so long an experience with them, I leave their com- 

 mendation to others. 



The number, I feel well assured will, step by step, be increased, but 

 not so soon as our earlier years had anticipated. As to the diseases inci- 

 dent to the tree and to the fruit, no enemy at the present time can be 

 compared to the codling moth, and yet we hope that this will soon find 

 its destroyer. None of the remedies, or moth catchers yet proposed, can 

 be made to pay on a large scale; at least that is my understanding and 

 experience. 



The only apparent exemption from this destroyer which I have noticed 

 was where the orchard was used as a cattlej pasture. I would inquire if 

 others have, to any extent, noticed a like exemption? I would here sug- 

 gest that if no feasible remedy shall soon appear or be discovered, whether 

 it could not be reached by some statutory provision by which the fruit 

 shall be either consumed or destroyed as fast as it falls? More than half 

 the labor and capital invested in the orchard is now lost, or in a measure 

 destroyed, by this moth. Is it not worth some sacrifice and labor to pro- 

 vide for its destruction ? 



The rotten root spoken of by some is, with me, an enemy of the past. 

 It was always found on a wet and compact soil, l)ut since drainage was 

 resorted to, and the soil has become dry and friable, it has entirely disap- 

 peared. I am led to believe that the diversity of opinion that exists to 

 so great an extent among our fruit growers as to tiie hardiness, bearing 

 qualities, and diseases of our orchards, depends largely on the drainage, 

 both natural and artificial, of the orchard site. 



The geological relations of a soil may exert an influence in modifying 

 the character of a fruit, but if so they have escaped my observation. I 

 have, for evidence of this, with some care watched the orchards planted — 

 some on a soil resting on the Galena limestone of the lower Silurian, 

 some on the magnesian rocks of tiie upper Silurian, and others on the 

 Devonian. Qiiestions like this require much time and careful observation, 

 in order that they may be more widely and better understood. 



REPORT FROM THE SECOND HORTICULTURAL DISTRICT. 

 O. B. Galusha, Secretary of the Illinois State Horiictiltural Society: 



I^ear Sir : — The closing year has been one of peculiar interest to the 

 horticulturist. 



Spring opened about the first of April, and, with little exception, the 

 weather was quite warm and dry; no general rain until September. 

 The first hard frost occurred November 9th; plowing was stopped by 

 frost December 15th. 



The season throughout has resembled those of extreme Southern 

 Illinois more than it has the average ones of our own latitude. As a 

 consequence of the excessive drouth, the losses in transplanting have 

 been very great. 



