WINTER MEETING AT CARTHAGE. JOT 



situations heavy crops are always grown. Trees planted in rich soil should be 

 retarded in growth in order to form more fruit-buds and less wood. 



We believe in deep plowing, for in this we so disturb the laterals that the 

 main roots become strengthened, striking deep and far into the sub soil and taking 

 up such organic matters that go far toward producing the highest flavored and 

 best colored fruits, besides forming strong and surer stays against wind and storm. 



For these reasons we never considered mulching very practical ; there is too 

 much tendency of the roots to form near the surface, attracted by the looseness of 

 the soil under the mulch, and weakening the main ones ; it is also very objection- 

 able on account of being so great an harbor for all manner of insects. 



Perfect clean culture will do much toward helping us to get rid of our insect 

 foes. Making a pasture of the orchard for our hogs we believe is not a good thing,, 

 but to let them in half a day three or four times during the week, rather hungry, 

 so they will eat up all fallen fruit, will result in much good. The insects that may 

 not have been reached by the sprayer, or in thinning, may be caught in this way. 

 Our enemies are numerous, and we must use every means we can bring or invent 

 to aid us in destroying them. 



We quote from the Bulletin of the New York Experiment Station these very 

 forcible remarks upon this subject : 



"Many insects remain during the winter in whatever rubbish or shelter they 

 can find in the fields, and many live on plants for some time after the crop is gath- 

 ered. It is a safe rule to clear ofif the after-math, and destroy it. Melon, citron, 

 squash, cucumber and other similar vines are usually left in the fields after the 

 crop is gathered, and there many a borer and striped beetle comes to maturity long 

 after the farmer is done with the plants. The rule should be to gather and burn 

 either by fire or in the manure pit mixed with lime. In orchards this is of espe- 

 cial importance. In dead-wood on the tree or ground, many species of insects 

 hide or complete their development during the winter. Every dead branch and 

 twig should be cut, and with the other rubbish, hauled out and burnt. The ashes^ 

 will make a good fertilizer ; loose bark does not help a tree much, while it does 

 afford shelter to many hibernating species. Never leave an old wood -pile in or 

 near an orcnard, especially if the wood is of the same kind as the orchard trees. 

 Many insects breed preferably in dead wood ; but when it becomes too dry or rot- 

 ten they have a sharp instinct that enables them to discover a weak or sickly tree, 

 and they attack this at once and ruin it, where otherwise it might recover. Fal- 

 len fruit [must] should always be destroyed. Were this systematically done, there 

 would soon be no further complaint of curculio, and less of codling moth. The 

 fruit should be fed to hogs, buried deeply, burned with lime, or disposed of in some 

 other way that will prevent its maturing the insect it contains." 



Let clean culture be the rule of the fruit-growers in every part of the State, 

 and let us mark the result. J. A. Durkes, Weston, Mo. 



PEACH CULTURE. 



Among the many excellent fruits nature has produced for the enjoyment or 

 man, the peach stands pre-eminent in quality. A fruit-tree widely cultivated in 

 all countries where the climate is not too severe. It belongs to the Rose family, 

 and was formerly called pei-sica vulgaris. Its close affinity with the almond led 

 later botanists to unite it with that, and it now stands in most modern works as 

 a7nygdalus persica ; but there are not sufficient botanical differences between the- 

 peach, almond, apricot and plum to separate them as distinct genera, and the most 



