222 Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



profitable, and either falls into the "slipshod '" habits or tries some other oc- 

 fupation. 



Thus the peach interest is being slowly but surely smothered out. It has 

 been a long and hard struggle to battle with all of the w^arring elements of 

 nature on one side, consisting of polar waves in winter to sharp frosts of late 

 spring, from cyclones that play havoc with the trees to storms that rattle 

 down our fruit, from burning, shimmering, heated droughts to semi-Noachian 

 floods. Then to make victory doubly sure and easy, an alliance is formed 

 with the in-sect world, thus requiring the peach grower, on the other side, to 

 employ every means and force at his command to meet these destructive 

 agents. He finds that to meet the old and the new enemies he must enlist 

 scientific aid, therefore forms a compact with two able and willing parties; 

 one for offensive war, who understands insect tactics and knows their modes 

 of attack, manner of living and where they were most likely to be found. We 

 propose to enlist and fight under the generalship of that great man among 

 bugs who has exhibited his great ability in a supplemental report on insects 

 afTecting the strawberry. 



The other scientist was one in whom we all have had great confidence. We 

 felt almost sure that he possessed, as near as it is possible for man to possess, 

 the jiower of omniscience and omnijjresence, judging by what we see and 

 hear of the work in which he is engaged. The part that he was expected to 

 perform was to stand on the watch-towers and sound the alarm at any time, 

 that one arm of the mighty host with whom we had to contend showed the 

 \enst sign of activity indicating an attack on our works. This man is pretty 

 generally known, incognito, as Old Probabilities, who, with Uncle Sam to 

 back, and he in his lookouts and forecasts, recently suffered the most com- 

 plete surprise all along our lines that we have any history of, carrying every 

 thing pell-mell before it, which about settled the peach interest for the next 

 twelve montlis. 



Now, sir, in a summary of the foregoing, we wish to indicate the several 

 points of interest that we should be glad to hear discussed: 



1. Is peach growing within the Mississippi valley generally a successful and 

 profitaljle business? 



2. Is it not a fact that we must abandon the extra early sorts now in culti- 

 vation for commercial purposes and fall back to the old reliable Early Til- 

 lotson ? 



3. Can not some uniform system of packing peaches be adopted? 



4. Can iKtt the depredations of the curculio be averted by jarring the trees 

 and f aptmiiig tlie little Turk on sheets and disarm him? 



''). In there any practical way of protecting the peach trees by baling or 

 thatching to prevent winter killing of both trees and fruit? Also, could not 

 late spring frosts l)e rendered harmless to peaches by means of a cheap iron 

 furnace to burn coal in, .set between every four trees and fired up any time 

 that iroHtti may be expected ? 



