J 861. 



THE ILLmOIS FAEMirR 



209 



within. The peach crop will be so abundant this 

 year that none but the best will pay to send to 

 market, and the drying ovena that have almost 

 gone to decay will again come into use. Several 

 of the best gardens in the city have been neg- 

 lected this season ; the bad weather is blamed for 

 it, but wherever open or covered drains have 

 been used we see a decided favorable result. — 

 Conductor Montross has probably the best ar- 

 ranged and most profitable fruit garden in the 

 State. It contains but two village lots, yet in 

 point of abundance of fruit and vegetables it 

 compares favorably with most of the one and two 

 acre gardens upon which large sums have been 

 expended. From our own limited experience 

 with the dwarf arple we had not formed a favor- 

 able opinion of it, and as it had been largely 

 planted in the gardens hereabouts we have been 

 looking for proof of its value, but we regret to 

 say that it has thus far proved a disappointment, 

 and to those who suppose that from this class of 

 apples they can realize a crop at an early day, 

 we say moderate your expectations and plant 

 early bearing sorts, such as the Keswick's Cod- 

 lin. Yellow Injestrie, etc. Mr. Rockwell, an- 

 other conductor, has the same sized grounds, but 

 unfortunately some tiee pedler persuaded him to 

 go largely into dwarf apples, and though he has 

 the finest shew of trees, yet we did not see a sin- 

 gle apple in his grounds, while slandard trees of 

 half their size are bending beneath the loads of 

 frait. Until we have better evidence of the val- 

 ue of the dwarf apple on the prairie we shall not 

 recommend it, even for garden culture, much less 

 for the field, as some have done. We are not pre- 

 pared to call it a failure, for after the trees be- 

 come full grown they may prove productive, but 

 for early fruiting they are undesirable. 



The railroad company is laying the foundation 

 for the rebuilding of their shop, destroyed by fire- 

 last spring. The office of the Superintendent, 

 Mr. Herkimer, of the Chicago Division has been 

 located here, which has given this point a new 

 importance. Mr. Herkimer has made a decided 

 improvement in the appearance of the place by 

 grading, draining and the setting out of shade 

 trees in the companies grounds, and the station 

 house, always well kept, presents a more inviting 

 appearance to the traveler. Wnen the shade 

 trees and shrubbery shall have a few more years 

 of the vigorous growth that the soil and climate 

 of this part of the State applies to such subjects 

 it will be one of the most beautiful places in the 

 State. Superintendent Arthur and Chief Engi- 

 neer Clark are also great advocates of tree plant- 

 ing, and have done much to infuse a healthy sen- 



timent in this regard among the oflScers and em- 

 ployees of the road, and we now hsHfe a set of 

 men pretty well imbued wi'h the valueX^f shade 

 and fruit tree planting. We never pass tti^ough 

 Centralia without admiring the comfortable and 

 pleasant homes of the railroad boys, and com- 

 pare them with the close quarters and brick 

 walls of their co-laborers of the large cities. .'^ 



COAL MINES AT ST. JOHNS. 



These mines are the most extensive and valua- 

 ble in this part of the 'State. They were sup- 

 posed to underlie several counties besides Perry, 

 but mere recent examinations have changed this 

 impression. Instead of large continuous beds of 

 coal it would appear that the deposits are in ba- 

 s'ns of limited extent, and this one is supposed 

 to be not over six miles in diameter. Doubtless 

 similar basins abound in this part of the State, 

 but for the want of railroad facilities will for a 

 long time lay undisturbed. Wishing to obtain 

 some specimens of plants of the oiden time, and 

 to look more closely into the history of the army 

 worm we left the train and accepted the kind hos- 

 pitalities of A. W. Nason, one of the owners and 

 superintendent of the coal works at this station. 

 Under the guidance of Mr. McKellups, the fore- 

 man, a party of three, each with a lamp, de- 

 scended into this great storehouse of fuel, and 

 which is overlayed with vast deposits of plants 

 incorporated in the slate that forms the roof, and 

 which shut out the water that would otherwise 

 decompose the coal. We can but admire the 

 economy of nature in first forming these vast de- 

 posits of fuel, and then in protecting them from 

 disintegration, or weathering down into common 

 soil. It is well worth a visit to this part of the 

 State to take a look into these rock records of 

 the world's history. 



In one part of the mine a vast tree or fossil of 

 the rush family, and at least three feet in diame- 

 ter, had been discovered by the falling of the 

 slate that surrounded it, a section of which had 

 broken down and lay among the fallen slate. Af- 

 ter the coal, or at least the material of which it 

 is formed had been deposited, this immense 

 member of the rush family must have stranded 

 on it, and like some giant sawyer in the Missis- 

 sippi been held in place until the ferns and clay 

 had accumulated about its base and fixed it in a 

 solid matrix. We brought away specimens of the 

 rough flated bark, but found it ready to crumble 

 on reaching air and light ; an application of var- 

 nish will retain some of the more solid portions. 

 We also brought with us fine specimens of ferng 



