184 



THE ILLIKOIS PAEMEK. 



Mat 



The Kirkebridge Winter Apple- 



Sterling, Whiteside Co., III.,) 

 March 23, 1863. ) 

 M. L. Dunlap, Esq., Champaign, Illinois : 



You will find enclosed the grafts of the Kirk- 

 bridge "White (White or Yellow June). 



I expressed to you when here the superiority of 

 this variety, not only as a tree, but also as a fruit. 

 Its excellence has never been more fully manifest 

 than during the past season. When blight has 

 destroyed or injured so many of our best trees, in 

 Buch a varieties as Keswick Codlin, Cooper's E. 

 White, Kambo, Fall Wine, Smith's Cider, &c. 

 This variety, (Kirkbridge White) has passed 

 through, not only our hard winters, but also our 

 worst season of blight with but little injury. It 

 might not in other localities give equal satisfac- 

 tion, but as an early apple for the million, during 

 its season, in August, I am satisfied it is too little 

 known. Had the farmers, years since, planted 

 only such varieties as the Kirkebridge White, 

 Wine Sap and Small Red Romanite, the destitute 

 thousands now in our State, might be enjoying an 

 abundance of fruit. It might not be the best qual- 

 ity, but so long as the high sounding names from 

 abroad are preferred to a few well tried and hardy 

 kinds, will the great mass of the people be stran- 

 gers to even the most limited supply. 



Respectfully, 



L. S. Pennington. 



— When visiting the Doctor's -.orchard last sum- 

 mer, we were struck with the vigor, good health 

 and immense productiveness of the above apple, 

 and requested cions to enable us to top graft into 

 Bome of our leading seedling trees. Mr. Flogg 

 also considers it among the best in the South part 

 of the State. With the thousands' of miles of 

 •white willow belts that will be planted this spring, 

 the tender varieties will gradually disappear, and 

 we shall be enabled, within the next twenty years, 

 to succeed well with even the tender Baldwin ; but 

 it will be safe for a few years to take the Doctor's 

 advice, and plant well known hardy sorts. In 

 grafting for the nursery the past winter, we have 

 been mainly confined to about a dozen varieties. 

 Long years of waiting for fruit has convinced us 

 of the fallacy of a large number of varieties a la 

 Downing — all fine when you get them — but there 

 is the rub — we are to have apples ; aye, apples in 

 abundance, both for cooking and the table, of just 

 such varieties as delight in our sudden changes, 

 and stand up to the work, weather or no weather. 

 Iq orcharding we are out of leading strings, and 



have eet up for omrself, aided by such men as Dr. 

 Pennington, A. R. Whitney, A. S. Coe, Dr. Pear- 

 sal, V. Aldrich, S. G. Minkler, and a few others. 

 We invite the doubters to see our three and four 

 year old orchard trees here, now loaded with rich 

 promise of fruit. Just cast your eye over that 

 orchard of six hundred May cherries, only two 

 years planted, and one year grafted, and see if 

 cherries cannot be grown for the million. Can't 

 raise fruit on the prairies ? Boh ! The farmer 

 who has BO orchard is a laggard, and ought to take 

 daily doses of calomel and quinine until the next 

 planting time. — Ed. 



Egypt as a Fruit Country. 



Muscatine, Iowa, March 8, 1863. 

 Editor Prairie Farvier : 



Dear Sir : — Some twelve or fifteen years ago 

 there was much said in praise of Southern Illinois 

 as a fruit region. 



At a later period it was thought that the earliness 

 of vegetation in the spring would so often jeop- 

 ardize the fruit crop by a frost occurring at the 

 period of inflorescence as to render it at least an 

 indifferent fruit climate ; and if I remember right- 

 ly, you held this opinion over the signature of "Ru- 

 ral." 



Lately I see it stated that there is a section of 

 country somewhere in "Egypt" where the peach 

 crop has not failed in twenty years. Is this a ver- 

 ity — or like a moon climate, always true where 

 fully believed in ? 



I do not wish to trouble you with tedious ques- 

 tions requiring lengthy answers, but a brief state- 

 ment of facts, as you may know them, would ob- 

 lige me much. 



We can do nothing in Iowa with the Lawton 

 Blackberry, which is, in my estimation, a truly 

 valid and delicious fruit where it can be grown to 

 perfection. 



The Heart and Duke cherries are also a failure 

 here, and I suppose are nearly so in Southern Illi- 

 nois, as a general rule. Is not "bark-bursting" 

 so disastrous to this tree, the result of winter inju- 

 ries ? 



Yours respectfully, 



James Weed. 

 — That the fruit crop in the South part of the 

 State is more liable to damage by frost at the time 

 of inflorescence is very true, but as this is the 

 greatest risk, the liability on the whole is less than 

 at points north, where the winterdestroys the buds, 

 and late cold spells after the fruit is set produces 

 the premature dropping of the embryo fruit, and 

 before we are aware the good prospect has melted 

 away. I know of no point where the peach has 



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