Miscellaneous. 



345 



And ask in what fair groves they grew ; 

 And sojourners beyond the sea 

 Shall think of childhood's careless day, 

 And long, long hours of summer play 

 In the shade of the apple tree." 



SEPTEMBER DAYS. 



The goldenrod is yellow. 



The corn is turning brown ; 

 The trees in apple orchards 



With fruit are bending down, 

 By all these lovely tokens 



September days are here. 

 With summer's best of weather, 



And autumn's best of cheer. 



-Apple Specialist. 



-Helen Hunt Jackson. 



HOW A TEXAS GROWER PREA^ENTS ROT IN PEACHES. 



Many reports as to the behavior of the Carman peach in different 

 places report it as the very finest, entirely free from rot ; a few say it is 

 rotting quite badly. There is deep-seated cause for wholesale peach rot, 

 but is it generally understood ? The original tree of the Carman has, up 

 to this day, shown no rotten peaches, although standing on low and rather 

 wet ground. It stands in a corner of an orchard from which come the 

 prevailing south winds. Surrounding the tree by say 150 feet there 

 is no peach ripening ahead of it, hence no spores of rot are present to 

 infect the fruit. In other parts of orchards where some badly rotting 

 varieties had been replaced by Carmans, in wet weather the Carmans are 

 also subject to rot, though not as bad as many others, ripening either be- 

 fore or with it. The cause of it is this : The brown-rot fungus, once 

 present in an orchard, especially where the rotten peaches are allowed 

 to remain on the ground, or to mummify on the tree, is there to stay for 

 years to come. In damp weather the spores spread on the ground, often 

 covering quite a large space, where rotten peaches laid perhaps two or 

 three years before. This growth on the ground is of a greyish yellow, 

 and luxuriates mostly in the shade. For this reason a closely-planted 

 peach orchard is an especial hotbed for the propagation of rot, in particu- 

 lar where there are no hogs kept to clean up the waste as it comes from 

 the trees. 



The best remedy of course is preventive. Giving trees a liberal dis- 

 tance ( for my own section of country no less than 24 feet each way ; 



