SUMMER MEETING AT BROOKFIELD. 163 



around to select ripening specimens. Long keepers, or such as Bus- 

 sets, which shrivel easily, may be headed up in tight barrels, when they 

 remain till spring. An intermediate way is to put the fruit in flat boxes, 

 one and one-half feet square and three inches deep, one box placed 

 above another, in piles two or three feet high. All are easily examined 

 by setting the top one off, then the next, and so on, thus forming a 

 new pile.— John J. Thomas, in 5ew York Tribune. 



TEE GREATEST FRUIT STATE OF TEE WEST. 



Editor Eural World : The magnitude of the fruit business in 

 this State, or the value of the fruit produced each year, forms a sub- 

 ject but poorly understood here or elsewhere. New York is without 

 doubt the first State in the Union as a fruit producer, and Michigan is 

 generally regarded next. The facts and figures already accessible or 

 visible give Missouri the third place, although Illinois, Ohio and other 

 States will claim this honor. For the information which forms the 

 basis of this article I am indebted, in a measure, to the Secretary of 

 the State Horticultural society, its President, and an extensive private 

 correspondence throughout the State, and I am to no extent dependent 

 on any wild or inaccurate guess- work. The great number of horticultural 

 societies throughout the State is now disseminating valuable informa- 

 tion of this character that is beneficial to all concerned. 



To begin with, there are 5,000 or more fruit farms and 25,000 peo- 

 ple employed on them in our State, and our annual crop is worth in 

 round figures $5,000,000. At first glance these figures may appear ex- 

 travagant, but the more you study the reports from the various coun- 

 ties in the State devoted to this interest, the more you are convinced 

 that the estimates are moderate ones. There are in the State nearly 

 one thousand owners of what might be termed commercial orchards. 

 There are scattered throughout the State hundreds of apple and peach 

 orchards 40, GO, 80 to 160 acres, and a number ranging from 200 to 300 

 acres. Our State differs widely from others in the area available for 

 this purpose. Three-fourths of the counties in Missouri can produce 

 profitably a great variety of fruits. Illinois, which enjoys a high repu- 

 tation as a fruit State, presents widely different features, the bulk of 

 her fruits being produced by a few of her southern counties. During 

 the shipping season the fruit is massed at a few leading points, and 



