440 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ful fruit growing requires more scientific knowledge, reducible to prac- 

 tice, as well as more skill in the performance of the work required, than 

 is necessary for the same measure of success in the growing of ordinary 

 farmcrops. It is blind folly to think of success in commercial fruit 

 growing by mere guess-work and blundering in the dark ; it is a useless 

 waste ot time and labor. 



An apple orchard, for commercial purposes, should comprise but 

 few varieties, and they should be such as are known to be hardy, pro- 

 ductive, and adapted to the soil and locality of the grower. The fruit 

 should be of good size, handsome appearance, of good keeping qualities, 

 and firm enough to ship well. Apples, when gathered, should be handled 

 as carefully as eggs. Apples for shipping, should be gathered earlier 

 than is customary with most growers. They will not only ship better 

 but keep better. When gathered and left in the orchard until barreled, 

 they should be piled on clean wheat straw, and covered with corn fodder, 

 to protect them from sunshine and to carry off the rain. Never cover 

 with straw; the chaff falls down among the apples, sticks to them, and 

 greatly injures their appearance. 



To make a success of peach growing, one should select elevated 

 sites, and warm, sandy soils, or localities near large bodies of water. In 

 most situations a peach orchard should be well cultivated. Keep down 

 all weeds and grass, in order to repel the borer, so destructive to peach 

 trees. Wash the trunk of the tree with strong suds made of soap and 

 carbolic acid, and scatter wood or coal ashes around the roots of the 

 tree. 



BIRDS. 



THE SPARROW TEST. 



The pest of the English sparrow is in very deed becoming intolera- 

 ble. Multiplying in numbers two or three times a year, they cover a fresh 

 area of territory of fully 500,000 square miles every year, they are rap- 



