238 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS IN WISCONSIN AND 



MINNESOTA. 



By J. S. Shearman. 



Gentlemen of the Northern Illinois Horticultural Society : 



Agreeable with your request, I present a short synopsis of observations made during a 

 trip in Minnesota and Wisconsin, whither I went as delegate from our Society to the 

 Horticultural societies of those states. I was absent on the trip four weeks, leaving 

 home on Saturday, Jan. 16th. 



Took Western Union Road at Rockton to Clinton Junction, Wis., then by Northwest- 

 ern Railroad to Burnett Junction, via, Janesville and Watertown, there connecting with 

 cars for Berlin, and arrived at the goodly city of Ripon, the same evening. There called 

 on a friend of Horticulture, B. P. Mason, who is perhaps, the most successful Horticul- 

 turist in that part of the State, and was regaled with all the choice varieties of apples of 

 this season of the year, viz. ; Northern Spy, Jonathan, Winter Wine, Swaar, Tallman's 

 Sweet, Belleflower, and fine Fameuse and Ranibo, at that late day of the winter. 



Stayed over Sunday, and met Volney Mason, the great Cranberry grower of Wiscon- 

 sin, and from him learned something of the extent to which Cranberry growing is being 

 carried on the low grounds that skirt the upper Fox and other rivers of the north. I 

 may say, in a good year, hundreds of bushels of this choice fruit are gathered from the 

 acre, yielding a handsome profit to producers. Volney Mason also has grown peaches 

 for profit, on the banks of the upper Fox, by protecting the trees with an orchard house. 

 The rolling timber lands of this part of Wisconsin produce well, all kinds of apples that 

 we grow in Northern Illinois. Here, I found cur venerable friend, Charles Hamilton, 

 formerly of Ridgefield, 111., busily engaged in root grafting and green house propagation. 

 I. Woodruff, is also engaged in the same business. 



Completed my observations here on Monday, and Tuesday morning, left for Minnnesota 

 by way of Watertown Junction. Called at Waupun on Mr. Baumbach, of the firm of 

 Stickney & Baumbach. Found him in the midst of root grafting the hardier kinds of 

 apples, and Siberian crabs, for the more extreme northern latitudes. 



Stopped two hours and took next train to Watertown, and arrived at evening at 

 Doylestown, Columbia Co. Stopped over night and all day with Mr. Doyle, who is also 

 doing a general nursery business. I took train for La Crosse at midnight, and at 8 A. M. 

 on Wednesday, arrived in Sparta, and called to see a brother nurseryman, R. B. Sabin, 

 who has for many years done a general tree growing business. Found him absent from 

 home in the Pinery. 



Here are two of the finest artesian wells in the Northwest, one supplying the city of 

 3,500 to 4,000 inhabitants with pure water, and the other, the Railroad water tank 

 with more water than all the engines can use. From Sparta to La Crosse, thirty miles 

 through the La Crosse valley, much attention is being paid to fruit growing, and 

 happy results, with the hardiest kind are the consequence. At La Crosse, called on 



