156 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a rapid growth the summer which renders them too tender to stand the 

 severity of our winters, and arc unworthy of culture here in Northwest 

 Missouri. 



We have never succeeded in raising European plums on account of 

 the curculio, however when we all fall into line with our vaporizing en- 

 gines, to fight the Codlin moth and Apple worm, we can clean out the 

 Curculio also, and get all the fine plums we want. Let us wage relentless 

 war until all the enemies of our orchards are utterly destroyed. 



All the small fruits succeed well in Northwest Missouri. They 

 should receive a good mulching in the spring, which will yield a bounti- 

 ful supply of the finest fruits. 



Evergreens should be handled with great care, as the sap is of a re- 

 sinous nature and by exposing the roots to the sun and wind the 

 vitality is soon impaired, as the sap hardens and it is impossible for it to 

 be restored to its normal condition after once becoming dry. Every 

 year thousands of evergreens die; the result of careless handling. Dur- 

 ing a drought we find that the vitality of newly planted evergreens can 

 be preserved by showering the whole tree after sundown with water, 

 that has been warmed by the sun during the day. 



Much good may be done by the thoroughly practical nurseryman to 

 advarce the interests of the Horticulturist by the selection of suitable 

 stocks or roots on which to propagate the great variety of fruits. For 

 instance, we will take the great family of apples; the stocks or roots are 

 raised from seed and are large enough to graft at one year old, each 

 seedling produces a new variety of fruit, and it must necessarilly follow 

 that some of the new sorts are very hard in texture of wood and some 

 are course and soft. There are many grades of texture in a lot of one 

 hundred thousand seedling apple stocks, many of which should be re- 

 jected as utterly worthless. Nothing but the finest and best roots should 

 be grafted. Then will Nurserymen greatly advance the interest of Hor- 

 ticulturists, in that of having longer lived trees and better bearers. To 

 adapt or affinitize the stock with fast or sloXv growing varieties requires 

 much scientific classification of the stocks. There should be a perfect 

 adaptation of scion to the stock, then we shall have a satisfactory result. 

 Our attention was called to this subject thirty-three years ago. In An- 

 drew county I observed that some apple trees were either budded or 

 grafted about three feet from the ground. I also noticed that some of 

 the bodies were very small, with quite an enlargement above the junc- 

 tion of the scion with the stock, and vice versa, showing the great dissim- 

 ilarity between the scion and stock. During the severe storms of 1855, 

 many of the trees were broken off at the junction of the cion and stock, 



