61 



STATISTICS 



OF 



GROWING IN ILJLINOIS. 



The system of gathering the statistics of yield of the fruit 

 grown is very crude and amounts to but little beyond guess- 

 work. The average farmer who has an orchard of a hundred 

 or more trees does not generally know how many bushels of 

 apples his trees produced, and it is seldom that even the com- 

 mercial orchardist has complete figures of his sales. No 

 account is taken of the tens of thousands of fruit trees in the 

 small cities and villages, and we believe that we speak within 

 the bounds of reason when we say that not one-fourth the pro- 

 duct is returned by the assessors. The statistics which we 

 supply below are those gathered from the assessors' reports, 

 which we know are by no means complete, and which give 

 probably not to exceed one-fourth the value of the fruit sold. 

 We do not, therefore, submit them with a view of showing the 

 immensity of the fruit yield in the State, but to call attention 

 to what basis we have for the statements made in the pages of 

 this book. The reader will observe that there is nothing said 

 of the yield of raspberry, blackbengu currant, gooseberry, 

 plum, cherry, quince, or persimmon ; "which taken together 

 must have equaled in value twice ove^, .hat given for straw- 

 berries. It may also be wise to note t jj#t taking the whole 

 State, the crop of fruit grown in 1892 .vas far below an aver- 

 age one; in fact, apples, peaches, and pears did not yield half 

 an average. 



Table showing the returns of fruit by the assessors for 

 the years 1891 and 1892, together with the value for both 

 years: 



