98 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



The Secretary reported the Vice-President's reports from the 

 Fourth and Eleventh Districts, as just received by mail. 



REPORT FROM FOURTH DISTRICT. 



The Vice-President of the Fourth District would respectfully report on the present 

 condition of horticulture as follows : 



It has been a year of disappointments and disasters. The spring opened favorably, 

 but on the fourth of April the mercury sank several degrees below the freezing point, 

 destroying almost entirely the apples, pears and cherries, and seriously injuring all the 

 small fruits, leaving only the grapes and peaches intact. 



Our insect enemies have also visited us in innumerable hosts. Between the grasshoppers 

 and a worm which infested the leaves of our young orchard and nursery trees — which 

 Mr. Walsh says he has never seen before — many of our young orchards were nearly 

 defoliated. 



The curculio has not only destroyed our entire plum crop, but many of our cherries 

 and peaches. The latter, however, seem to have been only judiciously thinned. 



Tlie pear blight has also been more destructive than ever before, trees standing 

 in grass and making but little growth, blighting as badly as those that were carefully 

 cultivated, and growing vigorously, completely upsetting the theory of those who ad- 

 vocate the no-culture system as a preventive of blight. 



D. F. Kinney, of Rock Island, writes as follows of the condition of horticulture in his 

 county : The winter of 1867 and 1868 was disastrous to the fruit interests of this section. 

 There had been no rain to wet the ground for a considerable time previous to the closing 

 in of winter. I think in consequence of the dry state of the ground when it froze up, 

 that many nursery trees, and also a very large number of grape vines, one and two years 

 in the vineyard, were ruined. Dwarf pear trees were very much injured in many places. 

 The strawberry crop, when in bloom, and till the first picking, bid fair to be the best we 

 ever had, but just at this time we had a few days of very dry, hot weather, which seemed 

 to dry up all the unripe berries, and the balance of the crop was scarcely worth picking. 

 Raspberries were a fair crop. Currants and gooseberries half a crop. Apples bloomed 

 enough to have a fair crop, but from some cause failed almost entirely to produce fruit. 

 Pears — about the same as apples. The grape crop was good, and free from disease. 

 There is more attention being paid to planting fruit trees than heretofore, and more are 

 planting ornamental trees than formerly. 



James G. Madden, of Warren county, says our apple crop was almost a failure. The 

 trees bloomed out it the Spring full and appeared to be healthy ; but owing to the heavy 

 rains and cold weather at the time, the fruit buds were destroyed. Some varieties con- 

 sidered the most hardy failed entirely. The New York Pippin bore full. The pear- 

 crop was good when the trees were healthy. Our dwarfs were very much injured by 

 the blight; is there not some remedy for this disease? if not arrested, our pear 

 orchards will be entirely destroyed. I have made some examination into the matter, 

 and am inclined to the opinion that the difficulty is in the original stock. The Quince 

 does not do well here. In some of my dwarfs I found the Quince stock entirely dead, 

 before the top manifested much evidence of decay. I hope the matter may be discussed 

 before the Society at the next meeting. 



The grape crop was excellent, the Concord taking the head. The Diana, Rebecca 



