H> I N D FA 1. L S. 



375 



plants from aW parts of the world. — Moniieur Horii- 

 cullttre. 



Horticulture at the Colorado College. — One by 



one the agricultural colleges are providing good and per- 

 manent homes for horticulture. The neat building and 

 glass house shown in the cut (Fig. i) have recently been 

 erected for botany and horflculture at Colorado Agri- 

 cultural College, Fort Collins, a departmefit which is 

 under the competent management of Professor C. S. 

 Crandall. 



It is a brick structure, lighted throughout with electric 

 light. The diagrams explain themselves. Fig. 2 is plan 

 of the cellar, fig. 3 shows the first floor. Opening from 

 the seed room is a potting room 16x20 which is attached 

 to the greenhouse ; the latter is 20x40. 



In the rear of the building is a small tract of ground 

 which is reserved for planting such plants as are wanted 

 for observation and immediate study. These include 

 many of the wild plants from the mountains. Still 

 farther away are the main gardens. 



History of the Illinois Horticultural Society. — It 

 was in Decatur on December 17, 1856, that the Illinois 

 State Horticultural Society, that is now holding its thirty- 

 fifth annual meeting, was organized. Thirty-one names 

 wer.e recorded as its list of members at that date ; but 

 few of them now remain among us. Dr. Hull, of Alton, 

 was its first president, a man widely known in horticul- 



To OL OOOM and 



GRftFTING ROOM 



Frujt cellar 



12 X I ! 



EAST 



Plan of Cell.'vr. 



ture in his day, and who for some time occupied the 

 chair of horticultural editor of The Prairie Fanner. Dr. 

 Hull came to this state in 1847 and started a fruit or- 

 chard, and for many years the peach packages that came 

 to the Chicago market needed no other brand than his to 



warrant them as A No. i, and good from the top to the 

 bottom of every package. His death occured suddenly 

 at his Alton Bluff farm in 1875. But this was not the 

 first effort of the horticulturists of Illinois to band them- 

 gelves together for furthering the interests of tiorticulture 



Fig, I. Horticultural Building, Colorado. 



in general and fruit-raising in particular. This occured 

 under that other indefatigable fruit man, Edson Hark- 

 ness, who first broached the subject and failed in 1S45. 

 He tried again in 1846, and receiving favorable responses 

 from C. K. Overman and Samuel Edwards, called a con- 

 vention at Peoria, Oct. 15, and formed a State Horticul- 

 tural Society. This organization did not continue and 

 the latest that can be found of anything it did was by a 

 committee called to meet at Peoria, September, 1848. 

 The cause seemed to drag until the organization of the 

 Northwestern Fruit Growers' Association at Princeton, 

 December 18 and 19, 1850. This held meetings at Dix- 

 on, 1852 ; at Chicago, 1853 ; at Burlington, Iowa, 1855 ; 

 and at Alton in 1857. This society, if we remember 

 rightly, was then blended in the American Pomological 

 Society, and since then the Illinois State Horticultural 

 Society has completely filled the field, and the good it has 

 done for the cause of fruit-growing is simply incalculable. 

 A list of the persons connected with it since its inception 

 till now would include every live horticulturist of our 

 noble state. — Prairie Fanner. 



Teasel Culture. — The teasel {Dipsacus Fnllonuvi) is 

 still used to raise a nap on woolen cloth, and its culture 

 is carried on in New York, Massachusetts and Oregon. 

 About three-fourths of all that is used in the United 

 States is grown immediately around Skaneateles, Onon- 

 daga Co., New York. The plant is biennial, as a rule, 

 but stunted plants sometimes survive five or more win- 

 ters. The ground for its culture is prepared as early in 

 spring as possible; seed is sown in drills about three 

 feet apart and lightly covered. The seed germinates 

 slowly and the plant is about like a young clover plant 

 when it first comes up. Careful hand hoeing and horse 

 cultivating follow at sufficiently short intervals to keep 

 all grass and weeds in subjection. Of late, some of the 

 best growers have planted a very thin crop of corn in the 

 rows, leaving the stalks to hold the snow in winter, as 

 two or three degrees below zero is sufficiently cold to kill 



