438 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ORCHARDS. 



COMMERCIAL APPLE. 



Apples of greatest commercial value: 



Summer — Early Harvest, Red Astrachan, Maiden Blush. 



Fall — Summer Pennock, Rambo, Grimes Pippin. 



Winter — Ben Davis, Winesap, Johnathan, York Imperial. 



Distance apart to plant apple orchard twenty-five to thirty feet, 

 owing to lay and quality of land and varieties. 



Proper height for top to form, three to four feet. Reasons why: 

 Trees will last longer, won't break near so bad; will not sun scald or 

 bark burst so bad as if higher, fruit will be much easier picked. I meas- 

 ured a number of our Ben Davis planted sixteen years ago; found them 

 from three to five feet. Soundest and best trees are the three feet 

 trunks; worst are five feet trunks. I place myself on record in favor 

 of the top at three to four feet high. — N. F. Murray. 



SELECT PEARS. 



A correspondent wishes to set out a small pear garden, and asks 

 for a select list of a few for a succession, more particularly of such varie- 

 ties as are uniformly good and can be depended on every year. In an- 

 swer we name as earliest the small Summer Doyenne, a good grower 

 and great bearer, but not cf the highest quality, its merits being its ear- 

 liness, ripening with the wheat harvest. If the crop is thinned early 

 in the season, the pears will be larger, handsomer and better in quality. 

 One or two trees will be enough. Next to this is Gifford, an excellent 

 pear, but the tree being a slender and crooked grower, it is but little 

 raised by nurserymen. It should be worked standard height on some 



