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Tiiiii iLLiisrois f^hmer. 



the hark ^rcr, from its Ibodinu; exclupivoly 

 upon the camhiiin^ itiiinciliately l)cncath the 

 bark, never penetrating deeper into the 

 wonel except to pass the winter. This spe- 

 cies, I think, remains in the tree but one 

 year. I do not know the inseet in its per- 

 fect form ; the worm i.s puialler than the 

 preceding specip.s, its body is flattened; with 

 the joint next tlie head twice as broad as 

 any otlier part of its body. It rarely, if ever, 

 attacks appU^ trees, except where the smooth 

 bark is exposed to tlie full power of the sun, 

 or has been otlicrwise rendered unhealthy 

 by brui.^injj;, hici'ration or injudicious prun- 

 in<r. There are no external indieations of 

 it-j jiresenee until after its work has been 

 accon\plished. Its attacks may be prevented 

 by the washes above mentioned, and by pro- 

 tecting the Btems from the sun. Young 

 trees which are made to lean towards the 

 north-east by the prevailing south-west winds 

 are frequently attacked by this insect on the 

 south-west side, particularly if the stems are 

 long and naked. To prevent this, trees in 

 exposed situations should be set Icanino; 

 towards the south-west and allowed to form 

 low heads. Any young tree grown in an 

 open situation will, if permitted, jirotect its 

 stem with branches and leaves, and cultiva- 

 tors will do well to take a lesson from nature 

 in this respect. 



The apple worm has of late taken a prom- 

 inent place among the insect enemies of the 

 cultivator. Time was, not many years since, 

 when this pest was hardly known in our 

 orchards ; the past season almost the entire 

 product of many was destroyed or greatly 

 injured by it. The worms are produced 

 from the eggs deposited by a kind of moth 

 in the blossom end of the fruit, in June. — 

 The best mode of checking their ravages is 

 probably the destruction of the worm-eaten 

 fruit immediately after it falls, either hy 

 gathering it up and feeding it to animals, or 

 by keeping swine in the orchard. A neigh- 

 bor of mine, who lias for the last two sum- 

 mers adopted the latter practice, had this 

 year by fur the best crop of apples in that 

 vicinity. 



The worm leaves the apple soon after it 

 falls, and seeks the tree, where it spins a 

 coccoon, and winters in some place of con- 

 cealment. Probably many of them might 

 be destroyed by scraping the trees in spring, 

 and washing them with strong ley or a solu- 

 tion of potiush. Small fires kindled in the 

 orchard after dusk, in June, are said, I know 

 not with what truth, to attract and destroy 

 the moth as well as other mi.schievous in- 

 sects. 



The fire blight, although less commonly 

 fatal to the apple than the pear tree, has, 

 noverthclc>s, done much injury to the or- 

 chards of this State. It is not my purpose, 

 at present, to enlarge upon this subject, 

 about which .so much has been said and writ- 

 ten, and the discussion of which has been 

 so unsatisfactory as far as practi'^al results 

 are concerned. Various causes of this dis- 

 ease have been assigned, but nothing certain 

 is yet known respecting its origin. Some 

 eminent cultivators have strongly insisted 

 that hot, moist weather — showers, alterna- 

 ting with sunshine — -is essential to produce 

 the disease ; but those who, in this State, 

 have carefully observed it in its frequent 



recurrence during the last fifteen years, 

 know well that here, at least, no .such concat- 

 enation of circumstances is necessary for its 

 development ; but that at any time, while 

 the tree is growing — in .spring, summer or 

 autunm — in dry and cool as well as in hot 

 and moist weather — it may appear in all its 

 virulence. Trees growing in all the difl'er- 

 ent soils and exposures of Northern Illinois 

 have been affected by it. Certain localities, 

 it is true, have hitherto escaped ; an exemp- 

 tion for which no sati.ssactory reason can be 

 assigned. It attacks all the species of the 

 J*yrus family, as well as some kinds of forest 

 trees, with which they have no affinity. In 

 most cases only the terminal shoots and small 

 branches of apple trees are affected by it, 

 and they may then be expected eventually to 

 recover; but where, as not unfrequently 

 happens, it attacks the trunk or large branch- 

 es, it destroys the tree. 



The remedy commonly proposed for this 

 disease is cutting away the aflected branches 

 down to the sound wood, and burning them. 

 In large orcliards, and trees of considerable 

 size, the application of this remedy is simply 

 impracticable; whera it is not so, my own 

 experience leads mo to consider it about as 

 efficacious as the whisk of a conjuror's wand. 

 Accident or investigation and experiment 

 may, perhaps, disclo.se some effectual remedy; 

 in the meantime, we must bear itsvisitations 

 as we best may. For three years past, it has 

 .scarcely appeared at all. It may, like some 

 epidemics among the human race, gradually 

 die out and disappear. 



Another difficulty in the way of apple 

 cidture arises from the sudden and great vi 

 cissitudes of our climate, combined with the 

 stimulating richness of our soil. This branch 

 of my subject, embracing in its bearing the 

 consideration of the hardiness of varieties, 

 and of different modes of propagation and 

 cultivation, with other matters, takes alto- 

 getlier too wide a range for the limits of the 

 pre.sont e.«<si!y. I shall, therefore, content 

 myself with making a few desultory remarks. 

 And first, I object to the disjmsition so gen- 

 erally manifested, to make the effects of the 

 late severe winters a test of the hardiness of 

 varieties. Thc.«c who do so appear to me to 

 make the mistake — a great though a common 

 one — of thinking that a particular instance 

 establishes a general proposition. If the fact 

 be established that the same degree of cold 

 experienced during those winters will, under 

 ordinary circumstances, destroy certain vari- 

 eties, then, indeed, it is all right. But it 

 would seem that an examination of the lists 

 of hardy, half-hardy and tender varieties, 

 made out by difterent eultiv?tors,is sufficient 

 to convince any one of the futility of such 

 attempts at classification. I have seen no 

 two that agree. Some cultivators rank the 

 Early Harvest, Porter. Red Canada, Ameri- 

 can C olden Russet and Fallcnwatcr or Fal- 

 lenwalder, as perfectly hardy — the Red 

 Astr.'ican, Fameuse and White Winter Pear- 

 main, as tender. Others consider the former 

 as tender and the latter as hardy. Probably 

 there are scarcely half a dozen varieties in 

 general cultivation that would be considered 

 hardy by all. Even the Yellow Bellflower 

 and Small lloraauite did not in all instances 

 escape. 3Iany other considerations might 

 be urged to the same effect; but these must 



suffice for the present. I will close by propo- 

 sing two or three subjects for the considera- 

 tion of my horticultural brethren. First, 

 whether healthier and longer lived orchards 

 cannot be grown in the soil usually called 

 barren than on rich prairies. Whether it is 

 good policy to stimulate young orchard trees 

 with manure, and whether nursery trees so 

 Btimulated are as hardy as those grown with- 

 out manure ? And finally, are young trees 

 which make a very rapid growth during the 

 first season from the bud or graft, ever after- 

 ward as hardy as those which have grown 

 more slowly at the outset ? 



Gold Digging. 



Wealth, substance, property, money, must 

 be slowly acquired to produce the best re- 

 sults. L.abor to be beneficent must be em- 

 ployed on useful things, in pursuits that 

 have some connection with our wants and 

 necessities. Mining for the precious metals 

 is the farthest removed from these, if we 

 except disreputable employments. Young 

 men who go to the mines should remember, 

 if successful, that they acquire unsettled 

 habits, that they will throw off with difficul- 

 ty ; they will have a distaste for staid pur- 

 suits, and will find, ere long, that wealth, 

 suddenly acquired, does not bring with it 

 the enjoyment they expected, for this is not 

 the order of material development, that seeks 

 successive steps in all its attainment. 



AVe are satisfied that wealth without cor- 

 responding cultivation, without a broaden- 

 ing of our views and duties, is not the good 

 that the imagination makes of it. We do 

 not say that the tappiness all consists in the 

 acquisition. AV^e believe there is a great 

 deal in the possession, but only as a conse- 

 quence of a strictly beneficent use of our 

 means. There are now in this country and 

 in Europe men of wealth, who use it for the 

 general good — they may not use it for strict- 

 ly philanthropic purposes, but they have 

 generous natures, are always doing some- 

 thing, spending freely, circulating their 

 means, helping weak and worthy projects, 

 and thus fulfil successfully the end of their 

 being. But these men stand at the head of 

 the civilization of their time, and this civili- 

 zation will demand nothing less of them. 



The associations connected with gold dig- 

 ging are of the less favorable kind. Young 

 men leave employments that are not selfish 

 in their ends, for one that is decidedly so. 

 He who sets types may consider himself the 

 dispenser of no little good to others, and 

 thus through the trades and professions there 

 is a mutual dependency existing that does 

 not appear so marked in connexion with 

 these mining operations. Then again men 

 leave pursuits and places that they cannot 

 so well fill again. They lose time and 

 money in going, coming, and in preparation. 



i . 



