STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 197 



derangements, and readily command fifty cents a gallon, exclusive of the package. It 

 is [nit up in forty gallon Iron bound casks for market. It does not become hard, even 

 ■when made early in the season. 



The Oral and la>t pressing of the cheese arc put in the vinegar casks, and only the 

 richest part of the must {joes into the eider, this is the new process of cider making. 

 Certain parties are Belling the recipe for cider making on a new plan, charging one to 

 live hundred dollars; here it is in short, clean sound apples, ground and allowed to 

 remain in the pomace over night, or if cold weather twenty-four hours ; run the weak 

 portion nf the juice, being the first and lasi pressing, into the vinegar cask, rack off in 

 two or three days after fermentation has set in, and bung up tight. The cider is too 

 rich to ferment without access to air in a warm room. 



Apples like the Snow apple, having a liLcht body are improved by adding one third 

 sweet apples, mixed before grinding. Winesap, Smith's Cider and Gilpin are superior 

 for cider. A few unsound apples and a little water make it almost impossible to keep 

 cider sweet ; and, certainly, such cider is not fit to drink. 



AN EXCURSION. 



To close the season the Illinois Central Railroad Company invited some twenty fruit 

 growers from this State and Michigan, with members of the agricultural and daily 

 press to an excursion from Chicago to Cairo. The time occupied was eight days, giving 

 an opportunity to examine the lauds, orchards and gardens along the route, as well as 

 to appreciate the mild climate of this great fruit region stretching from Lake Michigan 

 to the head of the upper Mississippi, where it meets the same tropical products of the 

 60uth. At Champaign, Centralia, Du Quoin and Cobden, the party was increased by 

 new recruits, until, at Cairo, the party numbered sixty-six. Daily excursions were made 

 among the orchards and fruit gardens, and evening meetings were held to discuss 

 various matters pertaining to fruit culture. 



The excursion was a success in all respects and cannot fail of good results in better 

 modes of culture, in shipping, in a better selection of varieties of fruit, and in all the 

 details of this immense business that promises the coming season, to occupy more than 

 a whole train a day to carry the products of these orchards to market. 



A FOREST TREASURY. 

 Essay by Henry II. McAfee, of Stephenson County. 



To the fathers of horticulture — that valuable company of enthusiastic philanthro- 

 pists, which has for years been laboring, in season and out, with reason, argument and 

 example, in favor of arboriculture — the apathy, Indifference and listlessness of the 

 public has been no doubt a .-ore trial and discouragement, though a grain of comfort 

 was present with the pound of disappointment, as la usually the case. If the whole 

 people would not at once wake up to the importance of the subject, some would, and 

 progress has been made. Horticulturists are marching on, ami the strong cards of self 

 interest will soon draw all the world after thein. Though the respected high priests of 



