162 



THE ILLIKOIS FARMEK. 



June 



A Western Fruit Book. 



For the past three or four years western 

 fruit growers have been promised a new 

 work on fruits, and at th's tin^e the prospect 

 looks less auspicious than ever. Some years 

 since, one of our Illinois Pomologists com- 

 menced gathering the material for a work, 

 more or less especialy adapted to our local 

 wants, but the more he studied into the 

 subject matter before him, the more the 

 task loomed up in giant proportions, and at 

 last the idea has apparently been abandoned. 

 Another whose name is intimately connected 

 with "Western horticulture, is still busy, or 

 was, within a short time, gathering the raw 

 material for a work embracing the pomolo- 

 gy of the valleys of the Ohio and Mississ- 

 ippi. But why wait year after year for an 

 elaborate work, when half of its value will 

 be lost ? Fruit growing is making rapid 

 progress, and the planter wants to know 

 what will best answer the purpose, he cares 

 not about a thousand kinds that are supposed 

 to be valuable; but he wants to know what 

 particular varieties will suit his location. 



In Downins's Fruits, we have an exten- 

 give catalogue of fruits, and for this purpose 

 the work will always be valuable, so long as 

 fruit growing and the printer's art are veri- 

 table realities, but in addition to this, fruit 

 planters of the West need a yearly hand- 

 book of fruits. This work need not describe 

 more than a couple of hundred varieties, 

 including the whole family, but each varie- 

 ty should be accurately figured and described, 

 go that the tree and fruit could be at once 

 recognized, its history, value and adaptation 

 to soils and climate, where it is the most 

 hardy, productive and profitable, with the lo- 

 cal names under which it is known. If it 

 require twenty pages to do this, no matter; 

 it is the history, charactejr and value of the 

 fruit that we want, not a catalogue. Let 

 him begin with what is well known, say the 

 Red June, give us its outlines, form and 

 habit of tree, growth, time of coming into 

 bearing, the opinion of those who have tried 



it in all parts of the State or district, where 

 it is valuable for market, with the markets 

 for it, its relative value compared with oth- 

 er varieties maturing at the same season, 

 and so on through the lists of Pears, Peach- 

 es, etc. A work of this kind that will cost 

 a dollar, and of which a yearly volume is 

 forthcoming, is just the thing we want; sub- 

 sequent volumes can of course correct the 

 errors of the first. If we cannot have this, 

 let us have a monthly, devoted to fruit 

 growing alone. Who will do the west yeo- 

 man service in this direction ? The war is 

 swallowing up all interest in agriculture, but 

 not so in fruit growing, for the last spring 

 has been a busy one to the tree planter, and 

 for about the first time, brains, trees and 

 muscle have been used, regard has been 

 had to variety, form of tree, quality, prepa- 

 ration of soil, and what is of immense im- 

 portance, shelter. 



Low Headed Trees and Shelter. 



During the last year we have brought to 

 the attention of tree planters numerous facts 

 in regard to the value of low headed trees 

 and shelter. In our own grounds the past 

 spring we have added to the apple orchard 

 nearly a thousand trees, and when the heads 

 did not braneh within a few inches of the 

 ground we cut them oflF entirely, and they 

 have thrown out vigerous shootfe from the 

 stumps thus rendered headless, but not to 

 remain so for any great length of time, as 

 they will soon have heads of the most ap- 

 proved form and vigor. In an orchard of 

 five hundred May Cherry, (Kentish of 

 Downing,) the heads are within two feet of 

 the ground. Standard Pears are cut back 

 in the same way. In all cases of tree plant- 

 ing we add shelter at once, and in the last 

 trees set, used cuttings of Cottonwood. We 

 invite orehardists to visit our grounds, 

 where they will see trees treated as above, 

 and also in the Shanghi style, for we have 

 hundreds of trees in our grounds of which 

 we are not proud and accasionally threaten 



