282 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



of little things, I hope some benefit may be derived from a consideration 

 of what has been done here. This county is divided by the Illinois river, 

 which runs through it from east to west, near its north side, cutting off 

 one entire tier of townships and about a third of the second. The slope, 

 and there is but little upon either side, is toward the river. The Mazon 

 Creek, of national fame, for furnishing from its bed and banks beautiful 

 and rare fossils of plants and animals, of the "coal period," drains a por- 

 tion of the east side, south of the river. There are several other streams 

 empt^'ing into the Illinois that drain portions of the county. These 

 streams are skirted with timber, and the lands adjoining are somewhat 

 undulating, but the general surface of the county is nearly level, and of 

 rich, prairie formation. 



In these belts and groves the oldest orchards of apple trees were 

 planted. The first of these was planted by William Hoge, in Nettle 

 Creek township, north of the river, in the year 1832. This orchard is 

 sheltered by dense timber on the north, west, and. east sides. The soil is 

 a rich, black loam, with a clay sub-soil. 



The varieties planted were Early Han'est, Carolina Red June, Ram- 

 bo, Roman Stem, White Winter Pearmain, Milam, Domine, Golden 

 Russet, Vandevere, Rhode Island Greening, Rawles' Janet, Green New- 

 town Pippin, Talman's Sweet, and a few others. These varieties proved 

 profitable up to the winter of 1855 and 1856, in about the following 

 order: Rawles' Janet, Domine, Carolina June, Rambo, Roman Stem, 

 Golden Russet, White Winter Pearmain, Milam. The remaining 

 varieties did not prove uniformly productive. A part of this orchard 

 was root-grafted and a part stock-grafted, but no difference has been 

 observable on this account. When the writer first visited this orchard, 

 about twenty yeai-s ago, the proprietor showed him ^^wo trees of the 

 Green Newtown Pippin standing side by side, which had, as he said, 

 never paid for the ground on which they stood. He was then advised to 

 dig up the sod under and around one of the trees (every body in those 

 days seeded down their orchards after two or three years' cultivation), and 

 apply a liberal dressing of leached ashes, of which he had a ton or more. 

 He did so, and the next year was rewarded by as large a crop of exceed- 

 ingly fine fruit as has ever been seen of this variety in the West. The 

 other tree remained unfruitful. " The winter of 1855 and 1856 was 

 particularly severe upon this orchard," as well as upon one near it belong- 

 ing to a brother of Mr. H., Hon. Samuel Hoge, killing many of the 

 trees outright, and damaging others so sadly that they have been dying 

 from year to year ever since. Had the owners at once broken up the 

 ground in their orchards, scraped, washed, pruned, and manured the 

 trees, doubtless they would have saved many more of them. 



In 1835 J^cob Claypool planted an orchard in the timber land on 

 Waupacan creek, south of the river. The soil is a deep, joorous clay, 

 with sand about eight feet below the surface. The varieties planted 

 were Rawles' Janet, Yellow and White Bellflowers, Little Romanite, 

 Rhode Island Greening, Sweet Vandevere, and several others unknown. 

 The trees all thrived, and, with the exception of Yellow Bellflower and 



