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234 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEK. 



Aua. 



^c?. — Never mind the writing, I can write while 

 you are talking, and keep the thread of your dis- 

 course, even better while writing, it is a habit that 

 I have; I write and do business at the same time. 



T. P. — Well, that is strange ; you must be a 

 lawyer, to write so fast — well, if it don't disturb 

 you I will proceed to show you these samples of 

 peaches. You will see they are very large, but 

 they are only 'common grafted peaches. The se- 

 cret is that they were grown on trees budded on 

 the plum. It has lately been discovered that the 

 peach grown on the plum stock, is more than 

 double the size than on- its own stock, as you can 

 see by these specimens ; and there are several oth- 

 er great advantages, one is that the tree starts late 

 in the spring, and escapes the frost, thus insuring 

 an annual crop ; the borrer cannot attack it, and 

 the tree is sure to live the natural life of the plum, 

 which is three times that of the peach. The fruit 

 is of immense size and surpassing flavor, making 

 them doubly valuable in market. About Toledo 

 no man thinks of planting any other kind now ; 

 why, Sir, you could not give 'em trees budded on 

 peach stocks. I sell the trees at seventy-five cents 

 each, which is very cheap, considering their great 

 value — if you want a hundred I will put 'em to you 

 at sixty dollars ; you will find it the greatest thing 

 that you have seen ; everybody buys 'em ; here is a 

 list of your neighbors who have given me their 

 orders ; you had best take a hundred ; you can put 

 'em about in your orchard. 

 Sd. — What about the curculio ? 

 T. P. — Never hearn on't. 

 .. JSd. — Well, Sir, the curculio is an insect that 

 lays its eggs in the young plum, hereabouts, and in 

 the peaches at the South, and is a great sinner. I 

 did not know but he would destroy the fruit of the 

 peach on your plum stock, mistaking it for the 

 plum, at least he would suppose he was climing a 

 plum tree, and when once up in the tree would 

 lay his eggs in the young fruit as it does in Egypt, 

 and thus destroy the crop. I will show you draw- 

 ings, and read you descriptions of this insect, so 

 that hereafter you will be better acquainted with 

 him. [Takes down a couple'of dozen horticultural 

 works from the shelves and interests the peddler 

 for two hours.] Now, Sir, you see you will have 

 to meet this little Turk, and unless you can war- 

 rant your plum stocks against his ravages, I cannot 

 trade with you. There is another thing, which 

 you may learn, and that is that the peach is 

 short lived on the plum, as I have verified during 

 past sixteen years. Large numbers of the peach 

 and apricot were budded and sent out from New 

 York nurseries, not one of which is now living to 

 tell the tale. A few of them gave one crop of 



fruit, in some cases a bountiful one, but the next 

 year the trees gave up the ghost. We have heard 

 nothing from this of late, it having been consigned, 

 as supposed to the tomb that covers so many of 

 our failures ; but here you have it fresh with all 

 its faults, again ready to dupe the ignorant and 

 unsuspecting. 



The plum is an early bloomer, and nothing is 

 gained on that point, and as to the borer that can 

 be kept out with a little labor. We can see no 

 gain by the use of the plum stock, even if it would 

 prove healthy, but this is not the case, the 

 peach soon overgrows the stock and the junction 

 becomes diseased and the trees die. The attempt 

 to impose it upon the public, ie of the class of hum- 

 bugs to which your men are sadly addicted. 



Every intelligent fruit grower knows it is a fail- 

 ure. And as to your Brobdignag peaches which 

 you pretend are so much larger than usual, by 

 reason of the plum stock, it is all bosh : Evan's 

 Seedling, Heath Cling, and several others are as 

 large, but of no great value aside from preserving. 

 Your story about peaches dying with the fruit on 

 from the eflfects of the borer is rather highly col- 

 ored, but as the fools are not all dead, you will be 

 able to find customers. People will gap with open 

 mouthed wonder at your samples and swallow your 

 story as readily as though you told the truth, but 

 you will find one class that will be poor custom- 

 ers, those that take and read agricultural journals, 

 and have access to works on pomology, I would 

 recommend you to inquire if the farmer you call 

 on takes an agricultural paper, before you offer 

 him your wares, as it will save you much time. I 

 can give you a list of people in this town, who take 

 no su«h paper, and who will purchase your treesj 

 they always buy the best thing out. Some of them 

 have orchards ten years old that will have fruit on 

 some day, in all probability. Seek out such men 

 and you will succeed. Good morning. Sir. 



The peddler in going out meets one of the neigh- 

 bors at the gate, and inquires "who that old feller 

 is, writing in that room yonder." He is told that 



it is. . " Well now did I ever, didn't 



know that agricultural editors ever lived in the 

 country. Well, well, I'll steer clear of them here- 

 after." 



-** -: 



"Wakeman's Orchard, 



By invitation of our friend Wakeman, we drop- 

 ped in to see his cherry crop, and for the first 

 time took a bird's eye view of the result of years of 

 patient, intelligent, scientific labor. The whole 

 question as to whether fruit will grow in Illinois, 

 is answered at a glance. You may see with a few 

 minutes' walk the trees that have borne one thou- 

 sand bushels of cherries the present season, and 

 indeed for many seasons, and the trees whereon 



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