MISCELLANEOUS PAPEES. 347 



last week, and that preparations are being made to ship more as they 

 mature. This extra demand for our crop is bound to make apples high 

 in price and scarce. 



The season for fall planting of apples will soon be at hand, and 

 some thought of what should be done about it will be a timely occupa- 

 tion for a leisure hour. The planting of an orchard is mostly a life 

 work, and therefore should be done with deliberation and good judg- 

 ment, founded on a knowledge of the adaptation of varieties to the soil 

 and locality, but much more to the demands of the markets. 



In the future it will be much more so. The foreign demand will 

 be the most interesting thing to consider, for this market must grow 

 steadily, and it calls for only a few rarities. These are mostly the red 

 sorts, as this color takes the fancy of the Euglish people. 



Root Rot in South Missouri. 



Editor Rural World : I venture to say that not less than 75 per 

 cent of the apple trees in South Missouri, which die within eight or 

 ten years of planting, are killed by the "root rot" so called. We lose 

 very few trees in Howell county by borers. The root rot is a serious 

 thiog, and needs investigation to the fullest extent, and I trust that 

 this effort on my part will result in its being taken up and kept up till a 

 solution of the problem may be had that will prove satisfactory to the 

 most of those capable of judging. 



I have an orchard of 15,000 peach and apple trees, to which I have 

 been giving a great deal of attention, and this spring I have given 

 much time to the consideration of the root rot both in my own and in 

 other orchards. 



There are two causes for the root rot here. One attacks the most 

 vigorous, often, of our trees, and we find ourselves compelled to look 

 in silence on the yellow leaf, which indicates the death of the very 

 pride of our orchards, by this insidious enemy. It begins at the collar 

 of the tree. The other form of root rot is easily explainable, and is 

 due to ignorance or carelessness in selecting and planting the trees, as 

 well as the proper methods of preparing the soil. 



There has been much planting on a large scale here, by people 

 who have very little or no experience in horticulture. Their chief 

 object seems to have been to get as many trees planted in as short 

 a time as possible, i^o care is used in the selection of the trees ; 

 they are jammed into a shallow hole in shallow plowing, with the root 

 doubled up into a sort of ball, with the collar of the tree far too deep 



