40 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



ticeablc feature here was his plantation of strawberries, embracing the old as well as all 

 the newer sorts of note ; we have nowhere else seen the strawberry in such fine condition. 

 The ground was prepared by spading it three feet deep. After the plants had become 

 established, the ground was mulched, with refuse or spent hops, to the depth of five 

 inches; this mulch is occasionally raked aside, and the 'surface of the ground loosened 

 when the mulch is replaced. Under this thorough management Capt. A. finds Napoleon 

 3d to be much the best variety, either for family or market. 



From this place we were shown to the vineyard of Mr. Myers. At this late date 

 (October), we found his Ives' Seedling vines carrying an immense crop of fruit. We did 

 not discover any rotten or defective berries. The foliage is somewhat smaller than that 

 of the Concord, but makes up in thickness what it lacks in size ; the under side of its 

 leaves are so coarse as to nearly resist the attacks of the leaf hopper. 



From Cincinnati we went to Pittsburgh. During part of a day spent hi the city we ob- 

 served that the Silver Poplar and Balm of Gilead trees were in excellent health, the 

 dense smoke cannot materially hurt them ; they may therefore be profitably employed 

 in our Western cities as street trees. Having completed our observation in the city, we 

 next visited the fruit farm of Mr. Knox. 



Mr. Knox's show of grapes was excellent, especially those on trellises. His success 

 with the grape is due to the liberal use of manure, to good cultivation during the spring 

 and summer months, but more especially to the careful training of the vines in a way to 

 expose the leaves on the fruit canes to the influence of the sun and air without being 

 shaded or much impinged on by the current year's canes. 



Nearly, if not all the Rogers grapes yet sent out, were here fruiting. All of these 

 that were really good had one marked defect, this was the thinness of their leaves, ex- 

 posing them to the depredations of the leaf hoppers. The much lauded Salem was here 

 fruiting, but was nearly leafless from the mischief done by the same insect. The quality 

 of the Salem as found at this point is not better than the Rogers' No. 4, and is not nearly 

 so productive. Iona, this variety like the preceding is defective in its leaves ; notwith- 

 standing its leafless condition the vines were loaded with fruit. We also met with this 

 variety in the vineyards about Cleveland, where the same conditions were operating 

 against it. 



It will be a marvel if any variety should long continue in health that is to be annually 

 defoliated in time of fruit. 



Mr. Knox's strawberry plantation is quite extensive, and receives fair cultivation. The 

 plants are in rows, three feet apart, and distant eighteen inches iu the rows. Much care 

 is taken to pull all the runners off the plants as soon as they appear. The success at- 

 tending Mr. K's. culture of th3 Jucunda strawberry has excited much comment. It has 

 not been our fortune to see his grounds at the season of fruiting the strawberry, nor do 

 we deem that the best time to ascertain the cause of success or failure. The treatment 

 that strawberry plantations receive from June to October so fully insures success or fail- 

 ure to the coming year that any careful observer may in the autumn determine the pre- 

 cise number of fruit trusses that any particular plant will develope the ensuing spring, 

 and in this way make an average estimate of the yield for the following year. By Mr. 

 K's permission we dug up a stool of Jucunda which had been planted 13 months and 

 kept free of runners, and carefully dissected this plant, and found it to contain seven em- 

 bryo trusses of fruit ; we then selected two other plants of the same variety which had 



