SUMMER MEETING AT BROOKFIELD. 55 



help us nobly in our battles with the bugs. As a society we are en- 

 couraged and go forward. When it suits your interests and convenience 

 we would gladly have you give us a meeting in Springfield, the queen 

 city of the Ozarks. 



LETTER FROM A PEACH GROWER. 



Rolla, Mo., May 31, 1889. 

 L. A. Goodman, Esq. : 



Dear Sir : I have fully intended to be in Brookfield with my 

 wife at the State Society meeting, but find it will probably be impossible 

 for me to attend. 1 can't wake our people up to attend a county 

 society. They all promise, but never come. I will, however, give them 

 a few more trials. 



I want to learn what to do with my peaches. I planted 1,500 trees 

 five years ago, and at least 1,200 are as full as they can hold, and the 

 trees are extraordinarily large and thrifty for their age— every one who 

 has seen them saying unhesitatingly they are the finest they ever saw. 



All but Late Crawfords are very full, and I am thinning as fast as 1 

 can ; 200 Early Crawfords just full enough ; 200 Chinese Cling, 100 

 Mountain Rose, 100 Rareripe ; 200 Beers' Smock that 38 to 48 made a 

 bos last year and year before, have all they can carry ; 100 Susque- 

 hanna, ditto — 50 each Wager, Wheatland, Marshall's Late, fairly fall, 

 with 50 each of Waterloo, Boss, Early Louise and Rivers crowded: 100 

 Prince of Wales fairly full — not much of a peach except in size ; two 

 years ago when it bore, the fruit cracked and was spotted, due to the 

 season. I think it may prove better this year. 



I wanted to ask where is the best prospect for a market? The late 

 frosts have made Chicago look favorable, and it is about the same dis- 

 tance as Kansas City. I would like, I think, bids to sell on the trees. 

 I would like your advice. I have been taking some very expensive 

 lessons in growing the trees and fruit, but have had little experience in 

 marketing, and am financially at the limit of the rope, with a large 

 amount of unimproved land on hand and a big orchard that is just be- 

 ginning to bear ; and a railroad company whose officers all get im- 

 mensely rich and cry out "train robbers and wreckers" when their rotten 

 ties let a train off the track, all for the benefit of poor old Missouri. 

 It is a fact that no one who has any knowledge of the matter suspects 

 any criminality except on the part of the railroad company, either in 

 the accident at Dixon Hill some years ago or the Sullivan accident of a 

 few days ago. 



