406 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



CALIFORNIA VS. MISSOURI VALLEY. 



Grant City, Mo., July 19tli. 

 Editor Prairie Farmer : — Fair farming lands in California 

 are held at from 1100 to 1300 per acre, and orange orchards and 

 vineyards have a speculative value. Better farms can be bought in 

 the Missouri Valley for $30 per acre, and will raise more certain 

 and substantial crops than are grown in California. Further, who 

 does not know that a good apple orchard, a corn field, and a potato 

 patch will beat the orange groves and vineyards of California. Then 

 again, compare the condition of the Chinese and laboring men in 

 California with the intelligent laboring men of the Missouri Valley, 

 and the climate of California with that of our Valley States. 



One who has been there. 



too much fruit. 



On page 599, is a complaint of the small fruit market being 

 overstocked. This is no doubt true, but why and how best reme- 

 died ? Let me name one great trouble that with reasonable fore- 

 thought and care can certainly be very largely remedied. Instead 

 of shipping almost the entire crop to a few large cities, let all the 

 fruit consuming stations the country over be properly supplied di- 

 rect from the growers. The fruit interest of this country is big 

 enough to be far better organized than it is at present. — F. K. P., 

 Delavan, Wis. 



uses of pyrethkum. 



Pyrethrum, or the Persian insect powder, seems to be an effectual 

 check to the ravages of the cabbage worm if properly and seasonably 

 applied. A correspondent of the Indiana Farmer relates his ex- 

 perience in its use last season whereby he was able to secure four 

 hundred and fifty good solid heads from five hundred plants set out. 

 He used a common tablespoonful of the powder to a two and one- 

 half gallon watering pot, first putting in the powder and pouring 

 on boiling water, stirring it well meanwhile. After standing to 

 steep awhile it is ready to apply to the plants by spraying. He 

 says, ''the effect M^as marvelous, for in an hour's time after the 

 application not a live worm could be found, unless by chance he had 

 been missed. Two applications were made per week as long as any 

 worms could be found. Only about thirty-five cents worth of the 



