-■^.WJI^-T 



256 



THE ILLIKOIS FAEMEK. 



Sept. 



brushed aside the dew that lay like a show- 

 er over the teemiog vegetation. A hun- 

 dred and thirty swarms of bees are out for 

 their morning meal, and singing as they go, 

 impress one with the idea that the air is 

 filled with their busy wings. Thousands of 

 birdi^are after the early worm, and caroling 

 the pleasure they enjoy. The buckwheat 

 is giving off its balmy odor, with the fast 



receding dew that now weighs down its del- 

 icate branches, and which the sun is rapidly 

 sending alofc to gather further stores of 

 ammonia, with which to invigorate the needy 

 plants when the sun shall again sink into 

 the west. The apple trees are festooned 

 with fruit, some of it just beginning to show 

 the first faint pencilings that give token of 

 maturity. It is a gorgeous picture, this 

 mingling of orchard, of ripening harvests, 

 of rich meadows, of wide spreading fields of 

 corn, of neighboring groves, and belts of 

 river forest, that fade out in the dim dis- 

 tance. The sun is sending his floods of 

 light over the forest walls of the Elkhorn, 

 and the dew is glistening fainter and fainter 

 on tree and shrub. From this opening in 

 the orchard forest, we see the harvesters 

 marching into yonder field. Hark, 'tis the 

 music of the reaper, as it sings to the fall- 

 ing grain ; it is the song of triumph — a mel- 

 ody that is appreciated by him who has 

 swung the cradle day after day, or who has 

 grasped the sickle and gathered by hand 

 the lagging harvest. 



We are taking lessons and must listen : 

 " Buckwheat is the best of all crops to sow 

 in a bearing orchard ; put corn in the young 

 orchard for five or six years, and then sow 

 buckwheat; plow the ground the last of 

 May, and harrow thoroughly. If the crop 

 is good, and not too much shaded, you can 

 harvest it; otherwise let.it fall on the 

 ground. Sometimes I mow it in August 

 . and let it lie — it keeps the ground loose, 

 answers as a mulch, is cheap, and insures 

 me a good yield of well grown fruit. 



" I have cultivated the Buckingham apple 

 for a long time j obtained my first trees of 



a iMr. Masson, a Swiss farmer near Moro, in 

 Madison county, in 1839. The trees bore 

 in four five years after setting out ; is an 

 early and abundant bearer; is as hardy as 

 the Yellow Belleflower; the fruit is not so 

 large as when grown in the south part of 

 the State ; is very valuable for drying. On 

 the whole it is a profitable late fall and early 

 winter variety, and f hould be more largely 

 planted. Maryland Queen is a great bearer, 

 one of the most profitable ; tree hardv and 

 fruit large and fair, season August and 

 September. Yellow June is the early apple 

 of Illinois, equal in quality to the Red June, 

 and more productive. [Doubtless Kirk- 

 bridge White.] Duchess of Oldenburgh is 

 another of our most profitable summer 

 apples ; fruit is large and showy ; tree hardy 

 and an abundant bearer; season August. 

 Don't fear planting too many of these and 

 the Yellow June. Early Nonpareil, or None 

 Such, had of Masson; don't know its true 

 name; an upright grower, a great bearer, 

 ripe in September and October; a sharp 

 acid ; valuable for cooking, in fact the best 

 of its season, and a favorite for eating with 

 all who like a clear, well defined, acid fla- 

 vor; it is worthy of more space in the orch. 

 ards; for jelly it has no equal; the fruit 

 when ripe is rather too soft to send a long 

 distance to market, althongh it is well 

 striped with red, it will show the slightest 

 bruise. Early Pennock, a very profitable 

 apple for market, but the tree blights badly. 

 The Keswick's Codlin is of little account 

 with me, and I fear, friend Dunlap, you 

 have written it up too high; it blights bad- 

 ly, and is less valuable as an early bearer 

 than Cooper's Early White. It is only a 

 moderate bearer and the frnit is too acid 

 and coarse ; see that row of Codlins, nearly 

 ruined with the blight ; 1 know every one 

 else praises it, but here is the testimony 

 that I present against it ; is it not conclu- 

 sive ?" [We have never seen the Codlin 

 do so poorly as here, and must admit the 

 strong argument against it, but when we 

 recur to our own heavily laden trees of the 



