History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 43

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 948

USA > Illinois > Union County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 43
USA > Illinois > Pulaski County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 43
USA > Illinois > Alexander County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 43

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of nature and her loving, tender care over every plant that springs from her bosom, and not be led from nature up to nature's God.

As our country advanced with giant strides toward the front rank of enlightened nations, horticulture kept pace with its onward march until, from the few sour and imperfect fruits of our forefathers' time we can now revel in the delights of hundreds of varieties most luscious to the taste and most pleasing to the eye. With the Westward progress of the settler and civilization, there came the desire for more and better fruit, for the seedlings planted by those who first made their homes in this country failed to satisfy the craving demands of those who came later. Sprouts and suckers taken from varieties highly prized around the old homes in other States, were brought here and planted near the log cabin. These in their turn, though answer- ing a good purpose, were found unsatis- factory, and gradually the European fruits were introduced with a hope that they might find a climate and soil adapted to their cult- ure and growth. The science of horticult- ure had, however, at this time, received but little attention or study, and the adaptation of particular soils to fruits, had not been de- termined in this country with any degree of exactness. Horticultural journals were un- known in the West, and horticultural societies and associations, for promoting the cultiva- tion of fruit and the diffusion of knowledge pertaining to this science, had no inception. The only knowledge obtainable was that by individual experience.

For the fifty years composing the first half of the present century, from 1800 to 1850, the history of horticulture in this county is the history of a struggle abounding in dis- appointments, and unassisted by any of the more modern aids furnished by the press and local or State associations. Even as late as

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

the advent of the railroad in the year 1854, the only considerable orchards existing were those of seedling trees, grown in the effort to reproduce the fruit most in favor in the lo- cality whence the owner had emigrated; and as some of the settlers came from the South Atlantic States, the seedling stocks were not all sufficiently hardy nor suited to this sec- tion of country. There were some small or- chards of grafted, or nursery trees, which had been brought by team long distances, often fifty miles and more.

With the commencement of the running of regular trains on the Illinois Central Rail- road, a new era in horticulture burst upon Southern Illinois, which more directly affect- ed that portion embraced in Union County. It had already been discovered that such va- rieties of fruits as succeeded here at all, grew with wonderful vigor and attained a surpris- ing degree of excellence. Through the facil- ities afforded by the railroad, large quanti- ties of grafted and budded trees were now obtained, forest lands were cleared of the encumbering timber and converted into or- chards; extensive portions of the fields hitherto devoted to the production of wheat and corn, fields that had once helped to make this country famous as the land of plenty and entitle it to be called Egypt, were now set with fruit trees, and in a few years, instead of a harvest of grain, there were annually gathered untold quantities of rarest fruits, fragrant with the richest odors, and rivaling in magnificence of color, size and flavor all that the most vivid imagination can paint of the fruits of Paradise.

The first shipment of peaches from this county to the Northern markets were so ex- traordinarily superior that they attracted great attention, both to the fruit and to the section where they were produced. As a natural consequence, the hill lands of Union

County rapidly rose in public estimation and price. Men of experience and men of inex- perience flocked to the new Eden and en- gaged in the raising of fruit. Horticultural societies were now formed, the mails brought newspapers and agricultural periodicals, and the greatest interest was manifested in the successful prosecution of the new enterprise. A spirit of inquiry was evolved, experiments were instituted, and under such a system of observation and investigation there originated new and better methods of culture and im- proved varieties of fruit. The small and poor seedling apples and peaches were quickly superseded by the improved kinds, and every department of fruit culture made rapid prog- ress. The remnants of several of those fa- mous orchards of twenty years ago are still to be found, and isolated specimen trees yet stand, tottering monuments of their former glory.

Though the beginning of fruit culture in this county may be said to date from the beginning of the present century, it received but little attention till the completion of the Illinois Central Railroad gave it its great impetus. From that time it became a lead- ing industry with the people, especially those living near the depots, and gave char- acter to the whole population and section of country. In 1858, the shipments of fruit to Chicago first began to assume importance. The earliest fruit-grower on the Coben range was George Snyder, who came there in 1857, and embarked at once in the business. He had great faith in the future of Southern Illinois and in this section as a fruit-growing region, and he showed his faith by his works. Purchasing land about one mile north of the station, he cleared off the heavy timber and planted out fruit trees. apple, pear and peach, and continued to plant till now he has ex- tensive orchards that are not only a source of

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

considerable income, but an object of just pride and satisfaction to the owner. The next, perhaps, to engage in this new business and one of the most prominent growers and shippers at that early stage of the enterprise, was Allen Bainbridge, who lived on the Bell hill, near South Pass, and from 1850 to 1860, by his enthusiasm on the subject of fruit- growing, his experience and his knowledge of the capabilities of the soil and fitness of the climate, enlisted many others in this branch of horticulture.

About the year 1858, E. N. Clark and G. H. Baker came to South Pass and engaged in fruit-growing. These gentlemen, by their skill and enterprise, did much to develop the business and increase its importance. From 1855 to 1860, the shipments consisted almost entirely of seedling fruit. Benjamin Vancil had meantime started a nursery not far from the village, which now began to supply fruit trees of improved varieties. He also planted large orchards of the best fruits, and for years was known as a leading horticulturist in this county. Later still, James Bell, A. M. Lawver, J. A. Carpenter & Co. and others had nurseries, more or less extensive, which aided in supplying the demand for grafted trees.

The years 1860 to 1865 witnessed a large influx of people who at once became earnest and enthusiastic fruit-growers. The whole fruit-growing interest had, up to this time, centered around the station and village known as South Pass, but thenceforth called Cobden. Lands hitherto of little worth now rapidly rose in value. Farmers in other parts of the county began to give more atten- tion to the raising of fruit. Orchards in- creased in number and extent as if by magic, all over the county, and in 1866 the volume of fruit exported by railroad from Union County had reached such enormous dimen- sions as to necessitate the running of a daily

special train to carry it, the very freight on which alone amounted in that year to over $75,000. From that year to the present time, the fruit crops have annually deman- ded the continuance of this daily fruit train.

Among all the fruits grown in this lati- tude, the apple ranks first in importance. Its many uses, its healthfulness, its long keeping qualities and its ease of production, all serve to make it the favorite fruit, in town and on the farm. No farm is complete with- out its apple orchard, and it will be safe to say that no such incomplete farm exists in Union County. The total area given to this fruit amounts to about 3,800 acres. The early varieties commence to ripen in July. These are sent off in one-third bushel boxes, and command good prices. The Astrachan, Red June, Early Harvest and Benoni are the profitable kinds. Summer and fall varieties, of which the most popular kinds are Maiden Blush and Buckingham, are shipped North in barrels, and often pay the grower very handsomely. The Baldwin, Spy and some other winter varieties ripen here in the fall, and will not keep into winter. The favorite varieties, Ben Davis, Rome Beauty, Smith's Cider, Winesap, Jonathan, Janet, Rhenish May and Romanite, succeed admirably.

The apple is the most satisfying of all fruits, and, like bread and meat, never cloys the stomach. Since the days of Adam and Eve, it has been cultivated and held in high esteem, and is likely to continue in favor and maintain its supremacy so long as the world repeats its seasons. But the apple in this county has probably seen its best days and reached its highest glory. The small fruits have been found to yield, so far, greater re- turns, and the profit from apple orchards is so inferior in comparison with the same area in berries taking one year with another, that

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

relatively few trees have been planted for several years past.

Though our location and climate are pecu- liarly favorable to this fruit, as well as to all other fruits of this zone, and our rich clay soil most admirably adapted to its growth, some skill and good judgment are requisite in planting and managing an orchard. The warm sun of our winter renders a northern slope preferable for this and most other fruits, as the spring frosts are more to be dreaded than the extreme of the winter's cold. On a northern slope the buds will survive a tem- perature of 25° below zero. and are seldom killed here. The apple is properly a fruit belonging to a cold climate and flourishing best in Northern latitudes. The more nearly the location of the orchard approaches in character that of the habitat of the fruit, the more successful will be its conduct. Young orchards have here been uniformly remunera- tive. The White Winter Pearmain, ten to fif- teen years ago, produced abundant crops of excellent fruit. Now, the old trees have be- come scabby, and the fruit knotty and un- marketable. As soon as this stage occurs, it generally pays better to cut down the trees and plant a new orchard elsewhere. The land needs rest and manure. Of the apple- growers, there might scores be named whose orchards and their crops deserve honorable mention. James Bell's orchard, at Cobden, is kept in prime order, and produced last year 3,000 bushels of apples. C. D. Hol- combe, of Cobden, is a large shipper of this fruit. Jacob Hileman and Hugh Andrews, of Anna, obtain large crops of remarkably fine Ben Davis apples. Caleb Miller, of Anna, in 1881, picked over 3,000 boxes of Red June apples from about six acres of sparsely set and old trees. In 1881, there were shipped from this county 58, 993 bushels of apples.

The apple, both tree and fruit, in the early history of fruit-growing in Union County, was quite free from disease. The forests furnished shelter to the orchards and also to innumerable birds, which destroyed the in- sects. The forests are now mostly gone and the insect-destroying birds are much less nu- merous, while the insects themselves have multiplied beyond conception or endurance, and fruit crops of any kind are only raised with the expenditure of much care and labor. The woolly aphis, the bark louse. the borer, canker worm, caterpillar, blight, codling moth, etc., are perennial troubles. to which the fruit-grower gradually gets accustomed, and which he can combat, but the semi-annual tree peddler is the greatest enemy to the horti- culturist, ensnaring him with wily tongue, and beguiling many fools to trade their hard- earned cash for his worthless trees. In view of all the disturbing influences, the future ex- tensive planting of apple orchards in this county is hardly warranted. What is desired is the introduction of more good winter va- rieties that can be kept through till the spring months.

The pear is another popular fruit, greatly desired by all horticulturists, but very diffi- cult to raise. The insect enemies are not so numerous as with other fruits, but the dread disease known as blight has kept the cultiva- tion of the pear in check from the earliest history of fruit culture in the West. Seed- ling trees, sprouts and nursery grown trees have been planted in this county year after year, from the time of the first settlers, but only a very small fraction of them now sur- vive, though the tree is naturally long-lived, seedling trees being known to attain the age of 200 years and more. Some of the improved varieties came quickly into bearing, while many others were so tardy as to discourage growers, and but few are now in the business.

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

Near Cobden, Parker Earle has sixty acres in pears. W. L. Parmley, E. D. Lawrence and James Bell also have excellent orchards of this fruit. At Anna, S. D. Casper and A. D. Finch are the principal pear growers. The old Bell pear is still one of the most reliable. The Bartlett, Howell and Duch- esse d'Angouleme are the most profitable. The Buerre d'Anjou, Sheldon and Mount Vernon are excellent varieties here. The best preventive of blight, found after long trials and experiments with numberless so- called remedies, is a wash composed of four pounds of lime, two pounds of copperas, and one pound of glue dissolved in a bucketful of hot suds, and applied warm with a brush. This, also, is a most effectual means of pre- venting rabbits and mice from injuring the trees, if used often and thoroughly. About 300 acres are planted with this fruit in this county.

The quince has been raised here in small quantities, and does well when the trees are on moist land, and kept well manured and cultivated. In such cases the crops are large and very profitable, outselling the pear in price at that time of the year. This fruit deserves more extended planting, where suitable soil and location can be found. The borer has damaged the trees some, and the blight has killed a few. There are now, per- haps, thirty acres in this county set with quince. The same wash recommended for the pear trees has been found highly bene- ficial to the quince and apple also.

The peach is a fruit well suited to this climate. The winters are very seldom cold enough to injure the trees; never cold enough to kill them, and only occasionally does the mercury sink sufficiently low to affect the buds, which requires a temperature of twelve degrees below zero. This fruit has been of great value to Union County, and is likely

to again assume its due importance. As a general thing, high elevations have been proved the best locations for peach orchards. About 1,000 acres are given to the peach, but from 1860 to 1870 the peach acreage probably exceeded this area. It was in those years that this fruit made this section of country famous throughout the land as a wonderful fruit region. The northern people were astonished at the marvelous beauty and perfection of the peaches that reached them from the hills of Union County.

During the palmy days of this fruit, the railroad stations were daily for hours sur- rounded with heavily laden teams waiting their turn to unload into the north-bound train. At the height of the season, from twenty-five to thirty-five carloads of peaches left Cobden daily for the Chicago and way markets. The growers quickly discovered that a single day's shipments poured into Chicago alone would break the market flat, and hence began the system of distributing the fruit to other cities all over the West. Under this plan, prices were maintained, and the orchards continued sources of great profit. In 1881, the total shipments of peaches from this county were 10,654 bushels, as reported to the Assessor. The true yield undoubtedly greatly exceeded this amount.

But many difficulties attended the success- ful management of these orchards. The cur- culio, rot, root grub and spring frosts gradu- ally discouraged and drove from the field many of the growers, so that, although the fruit is still greatly esteemed, and in favor- able years pays well, the former big ship- ments exist only in memory, and the large orchards have dwindled to comparatively small ones. The growers, however, may yet be numbered by hundreds, among whom George Snyder, J. J. Keith, Jacob Rendle- man and H. C. Freeman may be mentioned

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

as large growers and shippers. The first named gentleman has about 4,000 trees of tested and approved varieties, 3,000 of which are in bearing and will pay a hand- some dividend this year (1883), being loaded down with fruit. The early and late varieties have paid well, the middle-season peaches only serving to glut the markets and lower prices. The late sorts have occasionally been sent South with remarkable, profit, but the bulk of the crop has been distributed among the principal cities of the Northwest.

The plum, worse than the peach, suffers by the curculio and rot, so that only the wild kinds can be raised here. Experiments with the other sorts have invariably resulted in failures. The Wild Goose and other sorts of the Chickasaw plum flourish well and yield fair crops nearly every year, the profits on which vary greatly. Only about fifty acres have been planted with this fruit, the immense crops of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mis- sissippi and Arkansas plums forestalling the markets and checking any tendency to exten- sive planting in this county. The apricot and nectarine, from the same reasons, are not grown, except as specimen trees near the dwelling-house.

Cherry trees were early planted in this county, and propagated by seeds and sprouts. Trials of the sweet varieties de- veloped the fact that they rarely succeed in ripening crops. The Early Richmond, May Duke and English Morello have seldom failed to yield good crops of cherries, which, when thoroughly ripe, are quite palatable, their acidity disappearing as they acquire color and size. The Yellow Spanish suc- ceeds the best of the sweet sorts. Knight's Early Black does well in suitable localities, and is worth trial. The Early Purple Guigne is grown to some extent with fair success. The principal cherry growers at

Cobden are J. B. Coulter, C. C. Pelton and E. N. Clark. In the whole county there may be, all told, about sixty acres devoted to this fruit.

Man has a natural, inborn desire for fruit. His appetite continually craves it, and this inner craving prompts him to provide for its gratification by the planting of trees and vines. Thus Noah,as soon as the subsidence of the waters would permit, hunted for a suitable location and set out a vineyard. In case of another flood, experience would dictate the selection of some other site for a vineyard than Union County.' The grape does not flourish remarkably here. The vines grow, but bear not. In other words, the grapes rot, wither and come to naught. Long and costly years of experiment have proved this. The soil is too rich and too fine a loam, or something else is wrong.

During the sixth and seventh decades of this century, the prevailing mania for fruit- growing led to the planting of numerous small vineyards in this county, mostly of the Concord and Catawba varieties. The labor Was, all lost, and the vineyards, several of which were terraced and trellised at large cost, went rapidly to destruction. Great has been the grief among the fruit-growers, but time has satisfied them that there was and is no help for it, and they have retired in disgust from the struggle. During the last twenty-five years, scores of new grapes, native seedlings, crosses and hybrids, have been brought into notice, some of which have proved equal to the emergency. The Ives' Seedling has been proved to be a good grape for general culti- vation, rotting but little, ripening early, and bringing in a good average profit. The Delaware succeeds quite satisfactorily in most hands and localities. The Tele- graph rots but little. Norton's Virginia and Cynthiana never rot, and bear enormous

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

crops. The Noah and Elvira are beautiful white grapes, bearing heavy crops entirely free from rot and mildew. The Perkins has borne large crops of sound grapes for the last ten years, and is a reliable grape. The Pearl and the Amber (Rommel's) are among the best grapes for this section, and do not rot. The Brighton and Prentiss have, so far, done well, and are grapes of great prom- ise. Grapes which otherwise rot must be protected by tying each cluster in a muslin bag when the grapes are not larger than small peas.

Union County has had, at different times, many vineyards, but can now boast of none of any magnitude, and twenty acres will embrace all the room at present given for this purpose. There seems no reason why grape-growing should not be profitable here, if those varieties are planted which do not rot. The season is long and the location favorable. That superior grape, the Goethe, which does not ripen well north of this latitude, here develops its best qual- ities. The Worden and all the hybrids are here magnificent grapes, but require to be protected in sacks while attaining their growth. 1

It is in the production of the small fruits and early vegetables, notably berries and to- matoes, that Southern Illinois finds her pres- ent fame, and in this division of horticult- ure Union County takes the lead. The North may exceed in apples, pears and plums, and the South may boast of its peaches and oranges, but the great cities of the North- west look to Egypt for their main supplies of the early fruits and vegetables. The fra- grant strawberry is pre-eminently the most popular, profitable and widely cultivated of all the berries. Careful inquiry shows that there are fully 1,200 acres of this berry, old and new plantings, now under cultivation in

this county, by about 300 growers. Since the earliest days of berry-culture here, this berry has been constantly growing in favor, and never was more popular than just at this time. Mr. B. F. Smith, formerly in the em- ploy of the Illinois Central Railroad Com- pany, furnishes the following history of the early shipments of this berry.

" I very well remember the first package shipped from that country to the Chicago market. It was a small box, containing about three gallons of small berries, probably Early Scarlets. I carried them into the baggage car. It was in May, 1860. They were grown at a little station twenty miles north of Cairo. In the years 1861 and 1862, some parties from the East began berry-grow- ing at Anna and Cobden, thirty-six and forty- two miles north of Cairo. About this time the Wilson's Albany seedling was brought to notice in the West. By the years 1863 and 1864, the small fruit business began to at .- tract the attention of Southern Illinoisans, and desirable fruit lands, near Cobden and Anna, sold for high prices, and the farmer who had two or three acres of strawberries was the lion of the day. In those days men made from $800 to $1,000 per acre on their strawberries.

" The growth of the berry business so in- creased that by 1864-65 we had to attach from two to three cars to each afternoon pas- senger train. By the spring of 1867, the strawberries raised in Southern Illinois de- manded a fast fruit train, which was put on the road, starting from Anna. Thus the trade had grown in seven years from three gallons to a train load. In the berry season of 1879, from fifteen to twenty carloads were the daily shipments from Southern Illinois to Chicago and other points in the North."

From the outset, Cobden has been the heart-center of the fruit interests, and " Cob-

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

den fruit " has become a general appellation abroad for all that goes from this county, the shipments from that station comprising two- thirds of the county's exports. Fruit-grow- ing, however, is acquiring increased impor- tance in the other portions of this county and in the counties north and south of this. In 1880. Cobden alone shipped 113 car loads of strawberries, and in 1881 sent off 116 car loads, or about 50,000 cases of twenty-four quarts each, besides large quantities sent by express in odd lots. The total strawberry shipments from the whole county the same year were 67,182 cases, or 1,612,368 quarts. The net receipts from these berries by the growers will average $1,000 a car load, thus showing Cobden's income from this one crop to be over $100,000. As a matter of record, a few names of the principal growers are given: At Cobden, W. F. Lamer, Willis Lamer, E. N. Clark, G. W. James, A. H. Chapman, James Bell, Fay Rendleman and G. H. Baker have from ten to thirty acres each in strawberries. At Anna, Parker Earle & Sons have eighty acres in strawberries, and are the leading growers. A. D. Finch, E. Babcock, J. W. Fuller, S. D. Casper, Caleb Miller, D. H. Rendleman, J. G. Page and S. Martin cultivate from ten to twenty acres each. F. A. Childs, of Kansas, was formerly a leading grower of this berry at Anna, and -

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History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 43

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 948

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 948