ference to the Black Eagle for flavor. Fine specimens of the Napoleon Bigarreau, Elton, Mayduke, American, Amber, Manning's Late Black Heart, Madison Bigarreau, Black Heart, Yellow Spanish, and White Bigarreau, have been exhibited; and several seedlings that may prove worthy of cultivation. Trees are sometimes attacked by sap blight, but not so frequently as in many portions of the country. This disease has been most troublesome to trees having a very rapid growth when young; and on sandy land.

PLUMS.-Many of our leading fruit cultivators have exhibited a commendable perseverance in their efforts to grow plums. They have eultivated a large variety of the best; still, very few growers could spare the time to keep off the curculio, and as a consequence comparatively few have succeeded in saving their plums. On the whole, the attention devoted to plum culture here, except by amateurs, is rather time wasted; and must be so until some more effectual remedy shall be found against the curculio.

GRARES-The season (at the time of making this report) has not arrived for a proper test. The Isabella is the only one of the good varieties very commonly cultivated. It generally has time to ripen well. A later grape is often touched by severe frosts before full sweetness is attained. The Catawba is subject to this drawback, and the south side of white-washed walls will be a necessary position for it. Fine clusters of the White Sweetwater have been exhibited. It requires protection through the winter. The taste for grapes have not become sufficiently refined to prevent the very general cultivation of the showy, but coarse and acid Fox grapes.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

ON POMOLOGY,

AND KINDRED SUBJECTS, IN ILLINOIS AND THE WEST.

BY JOHN A. KENNICOTT.

【Of the Grove, Northfield, Cook county, Illinois, 1850.

To the President and Members of the American Pomological Congress:

GENTLEMEN:-As little better than a self-constituted "committee of one," I have neither the leisure, subjects before me, or critical knowl. edge of fruits, sufficient to enable me to produce a creditable, or even another popular report, on the Pomology of Illinois.

But, gentlemen, there are subjects intimately connected with our particular branch of rural art and rural science, which I have long and deeply pondered, and that I deem worthy of our consideration, and which may not prove entirely uninteresting, or altogether inappropriate in this connection.

I am bound by promise, and by gratitude for the favor shown a previous paper, to attempt something towards filling the pages of the first volume of our "transactions." Yet, were it not for the example, the self-educated son of a poor farmer, might be pardoned for refusing to obtrude his chance thoughts upon men of talent and education. But I am proud of my class, and deem it the duty of every son of the plow, and the budding knife, who can write, to do his best to arouse and enlighten his brethren, whose destiny and whose blessing is, that in the sweat of their brow, they shall eat bread, and to whom the earth shall yield her fruits, as the rewards of care and toil alone, and health, and strength, and length of days, home comforts and pleasure, and cheap luxuries shall come with industry and economy,

but which will come sooner, and last longer, if a little specific knowledge be added thereto.

I would fain aid better men, in spreading this knowlege, broadcast over the land. But, in truth, though willing enough, I have taken few notes, have few works for reference, and have never a solitary hour for abstracted thought; and though I write much, errors are unavoidable, and “good letters" or literary merit, cannot be expected, and unless you indulge me in a little reasonable latitude, in the choice of subjects, I fear this paper will prove anything but instructive or interesting.

I promise you, however, that I will not travel far "out of the record," or in the least over-step the bounds of that broad field, in which we are all laborers; and from which the farmer draws the rough food and clothing of the million; while we but gratify the refined taste of the few, though we hope to aid in spreading a healthful and delicious" desert" for all, and if we cannot cause the peasant to "dine like a prince," we will help him to dine as well; while we try to seat every farmer, (and every mechanic with a rood of ground) "under the shade of his own vine" and apple tree, and pile his plate, and fill his cup more healthfully, and as abundantly, and with such fruits, and their "pure juice" as few princes can command.

I will, therefore, with your permission, offer in the first place, a few words on grape culture in Illinois, and the effects of wine growing on our national habits of intemperence.

And if we can, in reality, unite pleasure with profit, and measureably gratify appetite, while at the same time, we work a great improvement in the general health, and bring certain aid to the cause of NATIONAL TEMPERANCE REFORM, by substituting wine for riskey as a beverage, we shall accomplish a great thing, though I freely admit that it were better still, could we abolish both, instead of suituting the lesser for the greater evil.

"Sweet is the vintage, when the show'ring grapes

In Bacchanal profusion, reel to carth,

Purple and gushing "

and choice fruits, and pure wines are food and medicines, a. d permitted luxuries that few will be apt to question or decline.

I have lately made a rapid though extensive reconnoisance of the valley of the Upper Illinois, its sources and tributaries, and I was really astonished at the great and evident capabilities of this extensive region for the profitable cultivation of the grape, and the probable success in wine growing, which will follow the general introduction of the vine.

Take Kaskaskia, and the line of our canal from about Joliet, and you will find many "bluffs" or steep river banks, where the lime rock underlies the whole country, and shows itself along the streams. The soil is here deep, fertile, dry and friable, the seamy rock immediately below the surface, acting as a most perfect drain, and the southern and southeastern aspect afforded by the right bank, are the most glorious exposures for the vine I ever saw.

And, then our climate is, on the whole, very propitious when you get beyond the influence of "our cold lake winds" of spring and early summer. The grape cannot abide either "wet feet" or too much rain, and fortunately our summers are generally dry, and our autumns almost always so, and quite hot and protracted withal. In fact, the autumn is ever our most delightful season, and at the north, at least, our enjoyment of it, is little marred by sickness, or a great pressure of farm work; we shall, therefore, have plenty of time, and a good season for our vintage, and if we make a good wine, we shall find a good home market, and good prices, for all the State can produce.

But for a few facts. At Lockport, I have seen the grape doing well with a bad exposure. At Ottawa, I saw it doing admirably on a southern slope; Mr. H. L. Brush, of Ottawa, has quite a vineyard of (2 acres) Catawba and Isabella grapes, mostly three years old. His vines were in July, literally loaded with rich clusters of the most perfect fruits. His vines are simply trained to low stakes, and moderately cultivated, with no summer pruning" so far as I observed.

I may here remark, that Mr. Brush is also paying great attention to the strawberry, and the sweet potato, the alluvion at the base of these blas, being admirable for both crops. In this latter business, Mr. Bre has one worthy competitor near by, Mr. Jacob Smith, of Lockport, who has, for some time supplied Chicago with good sweet potato, and divided the strawberry market with one Dr. Egan.

South of Ottawa, though the vine appears to grow a little better, and if anything, to bear more profusely, I am inclined to think the grapes are more subject to the great enemy, mildew, and certainly are, to the endemic pest, the rose-bug.

Were it not for the rot and the rose-bug, wine growing in central and southern Illinois, would not be in the least problematical; and the bug may be shaken from the vines, and destroyed; and proper cultivation, and cultivation at the proper time, may prevent the rot, which I think is very much like gout, dyspepsia, &c.-a disease of repletion, and improper (medical?) horticultural interference.

For example: I saw in and about Springfield, and in other places, much rot, where the vine had received high culture, and more, where the leaves had been stripped off to let in the sun, to the unripe fruit, while those in the poorest soils, and most neglected, appeare most free from disease, and certainly sufficiently productive.

That extensive cultivation of our native grapes for making wine, will mark an era in our health and habits, I cannot doubt. That we are not a healthy people at the present time, all must admit; and that intemperance is almost a national vice-and certainly a national evilno one will deny.

Reliable statistics, and incidental history show, that there is less intemperance, and less employment for physicians in wine growing countries, than in those where distilled spirits are freely used.

Here the poor man drinks whiskey because it is cheap, and readily obtaired, and is often thrust upon him, in places remote from markets, in exchange for corn-and upon the whole, it must be conceded, that whiskey is not as rapid and obviously pernicious in its effects, as rum and brandy; few persons really liking it well enough to imbibe it in sufficient quantities to cause disease and death, in a manner so plain, as to alarm the whiskey drinkers; though a large amount of misery, and a startling per centage of the annual deaths, the physician traces, directly or indirectly to whiskey. And yet men will have something to stimulate, and will often take enough to intoxicate, and the first cost of the article used, is always considered, before any other circumstance attending its use; but as the people become better educated, they will judge more correctly, and see the evils of intemperance in other phases, besides the immediate drain on the pocket, and the temporary insanity of drunkenness.