46 



THE ILLIFOIS FAEMER. 



Fee- 



in part to a near vacancy in the leaves, admitting 

 a current of air directly upon the thermometer. 



The third structure, six feet wide, six high, and 

 sixteen feet long, consists of a single covering of 

 rough boards, one inch thick and twelve wide,. nail- 

 ed to the rafters after the manner of lapped siding 

 reversed, beginning at the top, thus forming the 

 shoulder of the joints upwaid, which it was pro- 

 posed to render air tight by luting, with coal-tar, 

 the joints in the gables to be battened with strips 

 bedded in ttie same muterial. The weather sud- 

 denly changed cold before the joints were closed, 

 and simultaneously with the fall of a foot of snow, 

 which has since protected all the joints except 

 those in the gables. This structure incloses .sever- 

 al quince and one low peach tree, near the base of 

 which a cistern was dug five feet in diameter and 

 eight feet deep, with an open neck two feet wide, 

 constituting a subterranean air chamber, no water 

 having been admitted into it. 



The modifying influence of this air-chamber is 

 regarded as important, and we have in view other 

 experiments in connection with it, which if the 

 weather soon becomes sufficiently mild to enable 

 us to complete the enclosure, we shall report in the 

 spring. 



The fruit-buds of the poach were generally kill- 

 ed by the cold of the 19th of December, and it is 

 greatly to be feared that the extreme and protract- 

 ed temperature of the past two weeks will be mani- 

 fest in its disastrous effects on those of some varie- 

 ties ot the cherry and plum, and also on many trees 

 and shrubs. 



— ^It is very evident from the above, that Dr. 

 Weed will succeed in two if not all of his enclo- 

 sures, in saving his peach crop. The house with 

 the dry cistern shows remarkable results most cer- 

 tainly. In such a winter as this, these protectors 

 will be valuable if ever. 



We hope that the Doctor will give us monthly 

 reports of the condition of his trees. Ed. 



From Harris's Rural Annual. 



Protection to Orchards. 



. It is well known that peach and other fruit tree?, 

 '" many sections of the country do not flourish as 

 they did in former times. Some of the older inhab- 

 itants of the ctuntry can well remember peach 

 trees that were thirty or more years old and still 

 vigorous, and continued to bear annual crops of 

 good fruit. What is true of peaches is also true in 

 some degree, of apples, and other fruits. These 

 trees do not survive as long, and continue fruitful 

 as they did in the times of the early settlement of 

 the country. Some have attributed this to an ex- 

 haustion of the soil. But this is not satisfactory, 

 because the effect is the same when the trees are 

 planted upon the virgin soil. Others assert that 

 the seasons have changed, without giving any cause 

 for such a change. It ma}' not, perhups, be difficult 

 to account for this change in th? durability of the 

 orchards of the present day, from natural and 

 known causes. During the last forty or fifty years 

 immense tracts of forests have been removed, giv- 

 ing place to open, cultivated field?. This has cauf- 

 cd the summer showers to fall less frequent, and 

 has resulted in the drying up of many of the small 

 streams, and exposing the entire country, more or 

 less, to the fierce, blasting winds of winter; and, 

 so far as these causes operate, have changed the 

 seasons. It is no doubt the effect of these cold 

 winds of winter upon the open and exposed country 

 that has caused the destruction of thousands of otir 

 peach trees, and wrought serious injury to otber 

 fruits. The only partial remedy for this is to select 

 the most exposed sheltered and favorable locations 

 for orchard sites, and when practicable to shelter 

 the mo.st exposed side by planting belts of ever- 

 green and deciduous trees. The benefit of such 

 practice was made the most striking in an instance 

 that came under the writer's observation during a 

 severe winter that occurred some years since. Two 

 extensive fruit gardens, both devoted to the various 

 fruits and occupying adjoining enclosures ; one was 

 protecte'd on the north-eastern to the north-western 

 side by a belt a of young native timber, and the 

 o'.her was open and exposed to the winds from these 

 points. A severe cold wind occured during the 

 winter. In the exposed grounds the trees and vines 

 were more or less injured, and many were killed 

 outright — while in the other enclosure, protected 

 by the young timber, not a tree was killed, and feir 

 sustained any injury at all. 



-«•»- 



A "Word to Managers of Fairs. 



We often see a premium offered for the best 

 fifteen varieties of apples for Northern or South- 

 ern Illinois, the best early or late grape, &c., and 

 see the one award to A. or B., and the other to P. 

 or Q., but the public are no wiser for it ; for the 

 names of varieties are withheld and published in 

 the volume of Transactions (if published at all) 

 and so kept out of sight for a year or tw o. Now, 

 in two years we could have a grape vine of the 

 variety named in fruiting, and for apples and pears 

 we could have a very good start toward fruit ou 

 these even. Peaches also might show fruit in two 

 or at least three years from the bud. Now, gen- 

 tlemen, when you award to E. P. Snow, Esq., the 

 first premium for the best fifteen varieties of ap- 

 ples, including summer, fall and winter fruit, pleaie 



