66 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



they even take choice of sides of the cherries, not making two bites of 

 a cherry, but taking only one of their small bites out of the ripest side, 

 leaving the seed and three- fourths of the fruit of course ruined. An 

 open corn-pen near by was visited by at least three kinds of birds. That's 

 all right. I can afford to raise corn for birds, but to feed them, and in 

 the style they eat, on cherries, is wasteful. 



Never before in Holt county have the birds so injured the cherry 

 crop. What is the matter with the birds this year ? Is there a scarcity 

 of their usual food ? Have their favorite bugs or worms failed to pro- 

 duce a crop ? Have they conspired against their best friends, the fruit- 

 raisers ? Has there been a federation of the tribes, and is there to be a 

 general war % Are our raspberries and blackberries to be ravaged when 

 they come? 



Cherries we must have. Who will find out and tell how to entirely 

 protect them? How can the birds be kept from them? or must we 

 slaughter some of our pets with the insufficient and barbarous double- 

 barreled shot-gun ? 



The following resolution was introduced : 



Whereas, The English sparrow has become so destructive to both horticulture 

 and agriculture ; and 



Whereas, It becomes a question whether we shall be able to hold our own 

 against them unless we have governmental aid ; therefore 



Resolved, That we would again call the attention of the Legislature to this 

 matter, and ask the passage of an act offering a premium of so much (3 cts. per 

 head) for their destruction. 



Referred to the committee on Legislation. 



Motion also that the resolution for prohibiting the manufacturing 

 of all adulterated foods was also referred to the same committee. 



PRACTICAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE SEASON 



OF 1888. 



BY CHAS. W. MURTFELDT. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



We learn by experience. If we are wise, we learn as long as we 

 live. Often we derive greater benefit from failures — our own and those 

 of others — than from success. These words may be trite, but they are 



