STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 155 



southern planter Impoverished himself by growing one of the great staples, and some of 

 our farmer.- of Madison county are making themselves poorer by too exclusive wheat 



growing, so the horticulturists of lower Eirypt are placing too sole a dependence on an 

 orchard of pears or peaches. Prudence would dictate that the fortune of one season 

 should not be hazarded on one crop, or even on several crops that are liable to injury 

 from like causes at the same time. This rule is general, both in agriculture and horticul- 

 ture. The man who makes the stone fruits — the peach, plum, nectarine and apricot, 

 and even the hardier cherry — his sole dependence, is too much at the mercy of February 

 sleets and April frosts ; and, if he escape these, is too subject to the curculio and rot in 

 the more advanced stages of the fruit, to be regarded as a good fruit economist. The 

 man who plants pears only, risks all on the chances of blight ; the vine grower who risks 

 every thing on the grape should know, better than most do, how to guard against mil- 

 dew and rot. It is questionable whether any one should be exclusively a fruit grower to 

 the neglect Of other branches of horticulture and agriculture; it is certain to my own 

 mind that he should not confine himself to one fruit or class of fruits. Yet we have 

 known cases where a fruit farm has been planted exclusively to peach trees, and a for- 

 tune anticipated so confidently that the minor matters of bread and butter, and feed for 

 horses were purchased on credit instead of being produced on the place. The result has 

 been generally disastrous. The peach crop, when it comes, goes to pay debts and inter- 

 est incurred. 



Now, fruit growers should observe some very plain rules of rural economy. These 

 are, first, as I have already observed, not to depend upon one sort of fruit, or even 

 upon fruit alone. Plant early medium and late varieties so as to cover the full season 

 of each fruit ; grow corn between your growing trees, and economize cultivation by 

 making it pay its own way. Feed this corn to your own cows and so buy no butter nor 

 cheese ; but make manure for your fruit plantations, and even have butter to sell. Cul- 

 tivate early vegetables for market, and if the peach buds are killed, tomatoes and 

 sweet potatoes will help you out. In short, practice mixed farming, which for most 

 men and most places is the surest and certainly the safest way to live. 



Another and important point is the utilization of waste. Peaches too soft to ship should 

 be canned, or even dried ; the stones even may be saved and sold to the nurseryman or 

 confectioner. Apples not fit for market, can be dried, or fatten hogs or other live stock. 

 On such small matters as these, success or failure may depend. 



POINTS VISITED. 



The points in the State at which I have observed the fruit crop the past season are, 

 Aurora, Princeton, Lacon, Quincy, Pana, Alton, St. Louis, Centralia, DuQuoin, Makan- 

 da, South Pass and Villa Ridirc. 



APPLES 



were few and far between every where, with considerable complaint of the codling moth, 

 and other ills. In this vicinity, the young and in a few cases even middle aged trees 

 were aflfected by a kind of blight, shown in an arrest of growth at the time ofleaving- 

 out last spring, followed by the death of branches and sometimes by that of the wholo 

 tree. I think this may have been the result of unripe wood in the fall of 1807. 



