Summer Meeting. 65 



Mr. L. A. Goodman, Kansas City, Mo. : 



Dear Sir — Since I reported to you on the condition of the apple crop, 

 there has been such a change, that I feel that I should report it. There 

 was then a good prospect for Willowtwigs, Ben Davis and Jonathan. 

 They have since dropped off, until there is not 5 per cent of a crop in 

 sight now. I think the excessive rains are the cause of most of the 

 trouble. Some were ruined by the pollen being washed from the bloom. 

 The Willowtwig, Ben Davis and Jonathan were wet so much that they 

 turned black, then dropped. 



There is one thing I never saw before. Some trees would have 

 part of the blooms to bloom, or all the blooms were out all right then 

 part would drop off, while other bunches of blooms would all die, leaves, 

 twig and all are there yet. Some entire trees would do this; all the 

 blooms would die, including the twig or fruit spur that they grew on. 

 This is something entirely new to me. Can you tell me anything about 

 it? Is the condition here anything like a representation of the State? 



I am yours very truly, 

 C. AuL. 



Smithville, Mo. 



DISCUSSION ON PEACHES, 



Louis Erb.^Peaches grown among apples do well and give a good 

 crop and the apples also do well. The peaches take nutriment different 

 from the apples and give something to the soil, but they may interfere 

 when it comes to the spraying unless the dust is used, which does no 

 harm to the peaches. At Cedar Gap in eleven years we had nine crops 

 of peaches, but after that there were more trees planted and two hun- 

 dred acres have been but an ornament and expense. Three years ago 

 wt had a good crop, but in 1902 hardly any, and last year they were killed 

 in March. This year we had a good winter, but on January i6th the 

 thermometer registered ten degrees below zero and the peaches were 

 winter-killed. In New York the temperature was thirty degrees below 

 and yet the peaches were not killed. Why, I do not know. The trees 

 seventeen and eighteen years old were strong and vigorous for a crop, 

 but still they were winter-killed. We are never troubled with spring 

 frosts. I have seen snow and ice on while they were in bloom and yet 

 we had a full crop. With us they are safe after the weather is no longer 

 below zero. 



P. A. Sylvester. — Our peach orchard in Washington county has an 

 elevation of twelve hundred and fifty feet, and last winter although the 



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