68 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



PRACTICAL. 



Generally this all-entrancing season with us is brief, very brief,, 

 though in the year now closing- there was a period, at the time of the 

 blossoming of the fruit trees, of much longer duration than common,, 

 and I attribute the abundant and almost exceptionally large fruit crop 

 to this fact. Often the season of inflorescence is cut off in three or at 

 most four days, while last spring we had about ten days of dry, cool 

 weather — not too cold, however, for the bees to work and to assist iu 

 perfecting the fructification of the bloom of the plum, cherry, apple, 

 peach and pear. I am speaking of the higher grounds in St. Louis 

 county. And during this time almost every passenger carried large 

 boughs full of bloom to the city instead of boquets. And later on the 

 ripe fruits, except the peach, were so abundant that after the family 

 was supplied they were practically without value. One had even to 

 select the best, gather them carefully and take them home to have them 

 accepted by friends as a present. 



It was different with the berries. The earliest bloom of the straw- 

 berries, which furnishes the largest and finest fruit, had been damaged 

 by late frosts ; there were evidences also of imperfect fructification,, 

 and as the result not quite a half crop. Add to this that the market of 

 St. Louis had been overstocked by the immature and sour fruit of a 

 more southern section, fine ripe berries were in demand and brought 

 fair prices. 



At the summer meeting of the Missouri Horticultural society at 

 Oregon, Holt county, I dropped the remark that the strawberry season 

 seldom lasted three weeks. This brought me a card from a lady friend 

 whose vines and fruit I saw and tasted on more than one occasion, 

 saying : "Our strawberry season extended well into the fifth week" — 

 due largely, I judge, to a good selection of varieties. 



Raspberries graced our supper table also for nearly five weeks, 

 and we have only three varieties — one of Blackcaps, poor bearers, and 

 two of red, good bearers. 



Blackberries did not do so well, for the reason, I think, that the 

 bushes had too much wood and also set too much fruit. The quality 

 was good. We have the Lawton, prone to rust, and the Snyder, free 

 from rust. 



BIRDS. 



AYhen in the course of the rolling seasons I have seen my berries 

 and cherries fill the insatiate craw of our birds, there has annually beeu 

 recorded a vow, viz. : " They must die/' So it was this jear also. Yet 



