Missouri Country Life Conference. 221 



found it completely tunneled out under the bark. I called his 

 attention to the little holes in the bark as though the i)ark had 

 been shot with fine bird shot. I told him that those holes were 

 where the beetles had come out and gone to other trees. I said, 

 "If, when you saw that tree dying, you had cut it down and 

 burned it all you would perhaps have saved trouble this spring." 

 We talked on a little while and I dare say that he was my friend 

 when I left. I had performed a real service for him. 



Another man called me in as I was going by one day and 

 said, "I want you to look at my orchard. I don't know what is 

 the matter with it, but the trees seem to be dying." I looked 

 over the orchard, an eight-year-old orchard, and I did not find a 

 tree that could possibly live through the summer — this was 

 early last spring. I explained the trouble to him and explained 

 that no doubt the trees were diseased when he got them, and 

 that if he had understood how to examine that disease he per- 

 haps could have prevented having to take the ax now and cut 

 down the orchard after he had been taking care of it for eight 

 years, cultivating it for eight years, been spraying and taking 

 the best care he knew, but now after eight years work he would 

 have to take the ax and destroy it. Another real service, a 

 genuine service that could have been performed had we got to 

 the man's orchard in time before the trouble had gone too far. 



At another place where I was taking dinner one day the 

 lady said, "If you can tell us how to grow just enough potatoes 

 for our own use we will think maybe you are earning part of 

 your salary." "Well," I said, "Can you grow good tops?" 

 She said, "The finest tops you ever saw." I asked the man if 

 he could grow good straw piles. He said, "Yes, fine straw 

 piles. A field looks like it will make twenty to thirty-five 

 bushels per acre, but it does not make fifteen." They told me 

 what their troubles were. I told them what to do. I went 

 away; he promised me that he would do what I told him. I did 

 not see him any more until State Fair and then just a few min- 

 utes, but I asked him if he grew any potatoes (it was awfully dry 

 down in his neighborhood). He said, "I did where I followed 

 your directions; where I did not I did not grow anything. I 

 had never been able to raise potatoes on this farm, while even 

 with this awful weather I had a good crop." He told me those 

 were the only potatoes he had ever grown on that farm. 



So it goes all along; so many opportunities for rendering 

 service. The Hessian fly was reported as making lots of trouble. 



