100 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



Apeil 



A Visit to the Peach Orchards of Egypt — The 

 Climate — Winter Lettuce — A Venerable Po- 

 mologist — Dwarf Apples not Valuable — A 

 Disgusted Secessionist — Value of the May or 

 Kentish Cheery — Small Streams to be Avoided 

 in Peach Orcharding — Trees to be Planted — 

 Tomatoes — Sweet Potatoe Culture — Popular 

 Varieties of Fruit — Orchards at Makanda — 

 Cotton Culture — Sorghum. 



At South Pass, March 1, 1862. 



The "Grand Chain" or row of hills that stretch 

 eastwardly across the Ohio, are situated between 

 the thirty-seventh and thirty-eight parallels of 

 latitude, and a little south of the latitude of 

 Richmond, Virginia. To show the mildness of 

 the winter, we will point to the fact, that the 

 lettuce growB for the northern cities, is planted 

 in the open ground in September, and the plants 

 reset in rows six inches apart in beds. These 

 are enclosed with a row of rough boards, the 

 front ones eight inches wide, and the back ones 

 a'oot. Stakes are driven at intervals to keep 

 the boards in place, and over them is placed the 

 common glass frames, such as are used on hot 

 beds. No particular pains are taken to make 

 close fitting joints to keep out the frost, and yet 

 the lettuce is not only, not injured by frost, but 

 continues to grow through the winter, and within 

 two weeks will be ready for market. The plants, 

 having both air and sun, are of a healthy green 

 color, much to be preferred to those grown in 

 close hot bed frames at the north. The ground 

 never freezes to exceed three or four inches deep 

 during winter, and could be plowed at almost 

 any time. At this writing the season is said to 

 be unusually backward, and the buds have but 

 just commenced tp swell, though the nights con- 

 tinue frosty. This is looked upon as a good in- 

 dication of a favorable season for fruits, ia di- 

 minishing the danger to late frost by the too 

 early starting of the blossom buds. As there is 

 little at this early season to interest the eye, we 

 turned our attention more to the extent of orch- 

 arding and the details of the busine^s. It may 

 interefct ourreadersalso, to seethe rapid progress 

 made in the business at this point, (Cobden Sta- 

 tion,) the post ofiBce of which is named South 

 Pass. 



On the sixth day of March, five years since, 

 Conductor Eddison, (now of the Ordnance De- 

 partment at Cairo,) put us in company with Col. 

 Ashley and a few other gentlemen, down at this 

 point for the purpose of examining these hills in 

 regai d to their value for fruit growing. Two 

 small orchards had been planted the year before, 



and others contemplating a like effort. From 

 our examinations, we pronounced the location 

 more desirable than Jonesboro, and the result 

 has proved that we were not mistaken. Since 

 that time, the station has been located, and the 

 heavy timber that graced the sides of the deep 

 gorge, through which the railroad winds its way 

 up the valley of the Drury, and over to the Coder, 

 have given place to the white houses of the vil- 

 lage, and to extended orchards of the peach and 

 other fruits. To illustrate this more fully, we 

 will give the statistics of a few in the neighbor- 

 hood. First, is Mr. Benjamin Yancil, a native 

 to the manor born, who has seen over sixty win- 

 ters come and go, and for the last fifty years has 

 resided on the same spot, which is about one and 

 a half miles east of the village of South Pass. 

 His orchard is DOt large but his experience is val- 

 uable. For fifty years he has known the Buck- 

 ingham App'.e that haj attracted so much atten- 

 tion in this part of the State for the last half a 

 dozen years, and at our State Fairs, has been the 

 center of attraction in the fruit department. If 

 he was to plant an orchard of Autumn apples of 

 a hundred or a thousand trees for marketing, he 

 "would most unhesitatingly seleot this variety. 

 The tree is hardy and always productive ; the 

 fruit large, fine and desirable ; is good for cook- 

 ing, eating, drying and for cider. It is the Au- 

 tumn applefor the commercial orchard." Whether 

 t is adapted for the country further north, we 

 cannot say, but from what we have seen of it, 

 we must coincide with Mr. Vancil. Of summer 

 varieties, he is pleased with the Early Harvest for 

 eat ng, the Horse apple for cooking and drying, 

 the Summer Queen for market. Of late the Kes- 

 wick Codlin has pleased him highly as an early 

 cooking market apple. He thinks Bed June is 

 of little value, the fruit is toosmall, and the birds 

 have a strong liking to them and seriously in- 

 jure the crop. The Summer Queen, he thinks, 

 will be one of the few leading summer fruits- 

 He has several trees of the dwarf Paradise, the 

 kind so commonly used for dwarfing the apple. 

 These bear well, are early and sell at good prices, 

 but must give place to better varieties. Of the 

 dwarf apples sent out from Rochester, he has 

 about twenty trees, three to four years set, which 

 bore the last year from three to eleven apples 

 each. He has a good opinion of them, but we 

 are satisfied that most of our varieties are their 

 own roots, treated in the same manner, would 

 have done even better than this. Our faith in 

 dwarf apples for the west is too slight to be of 

 any value. The Buckingham has been called by 



