102 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



The Fox grape, or Vi(i$ Labrusca, in its native home on the Atlantic slope, is usually 

 found on some sand or gravel hed near a stream or swamp, where a regular and uniform 

 supply cf moisture is supplied from the fountain below, by capillary attraction. 



The roots do not descend below the water level, but the ascending moisture is evenly 

 distributed, while the rapid radiation of heat and moisture is prevented by the leaves 

 and leaf mold which covers the surface. Thus situated, the mildew, rot, or premature 

 fall of the leaf is never known. 



The most healthy and productive apple and pear trees I have ever seen, were raised on 

 those stony, gravelly and loamy ridges in the eastern States, where the chestnut grows 

 to perfection. Extreme drouth will seldom dry that soil but a few inches below the sur- 

 face, while the prairie soil often dries to the depth of two or three feet, or to the clay 

 subsoil. 



The chestnut will never succeed to any great extent on the prairie. Twenty-five years 

 of experience with one, has developed in that tree most of the diseases of the apple, and 

 those diseases a final death of the tree, is apparently from the same cause. 



In our climate the dry atmosphere evaporates moisture much more rapidly, than in 

 the damper atmosphere of the eastern states ; the 6un's rays have a more powerful in- 

 fluence when passing through such an atmosphere, as most of our orchardists can 

 testify. A young apple tree with lower limbs six to eight feet from the ground, and 

 standing as most trees do, with a slight inclination to the North-east, is most sure to 

 become diseased on the south-west side, the bark dies, and the little flat borer finishes 

 the work of destruction. Not one in twenty of the trees thus circumstanced will ever 

 arrive at bearing age. Trees standing in Timothy or Blue grass sod, when the drying 

 process is fully carried out, soon cease bearing, become mossy and covered with bark 

 lice, and are soon effectually ruined. 



But if the ground is cultivated in Buckwheat, or some hoed crop each year, the tree 

 will be comparatively healthy and much more productive ; if in addition, they are set 

 only from fifteen to twenty feet apart, so as to shade and protect each other, and also 

 to shade the ground and prevent evaporation, they will be still more productive. I 

 have often observed such orchards bearing good crops, while others set thirty feet 

 apart were destitute, of fruit, although pretty well cultivated. 



I have often noticed yards or gardens thicklv set with apple and pear trees, and the 

 space filled with currant, gooseberry, blackberry, and other small fruits and shrubs ; 

 the ground left each fall with a coating of leaves, and the trees thus situated were 

 more healthy and productive than any others. 



In an orchard along the side of which a row of locusts had been killed by the borer, 

 and which was succeeded by a grove of locust sprouts, extending beyond and surround- 

 ing the first row of apple trees, for two successive years, while the locust sprouts were 

 nearly as high as the apple trees, that row bore more fruit than the six remaining ones 

 in the orchard ; while after the locust sprouts were removed, that row was no more 

 productive than any of the other rows. 



It is a common occurrence, in fact the rule rather than the exception, that on the open 

 prairie, one side of our apple trees will bear a fair crop, while the opposite side will 

 bear little or none. Commonly the east or north-east side has no fruit while other 

 seasons it is the opposite ; and the same season in the same orchard, trees well protected 

 will bear fruit over the entire tree. 



High culture or mulching so as to thoroughly protect from drought, will doubtless 



