WINTER MEETING. 197 



A SUGGESTION CONCERNING THE PURCHASE OF CLOVER SEED. 



Through no other medium is it as easy for the seeds of noxious 

 "weeds to be disseminated as through clover seed. The seeds of very 

 many troublesome weeds may be in the clover seed in considerable 

 •quantities and pass unobserved. Several instances of the introduction 

 of narrow leaved plantain — one of the most troublesome weeds in 

 Ohio and Pennsylvania — to Missouri soil by this means, have come 

 under my notice this fall while attending the Farmers' institutes. It 

 would be well, whenever possible, to purchase home-grown seed that 

 jou know to be free from such contaminations. When you are obliged 

 to go into the open market for seed insist upon having a sample — not 

 less than a pound — and send it to the Experiment Station for examina- 

 tion. The botanist is able, by means of the microscope, to readily de- 

 tect the presence of these impurities. This will cost you nothing 

 except the trouble of getting the sample and the postage required to 

 send it through the mail, and the information given you by the Experi- 

 ment Station may save you many dollars in the labor of ridding your 



farm of troublesome weed pests. 



H. J. Waters, 



Dean and Director Agricultural College, Columbia, Mo. 



A second number by the quartette was rendered. 

 Mrs. Robeson then read her paper on " Ideals." 

 Miss Alberta Murray recited a humerous selection. 



Salem Darius and the Apple. 



Salem Darius, fi'om his earliest youth. 

 Had what the good wives call an " apple tooth. " 

 He never was content, a single hour, 

 Save munching apples, either sweet or sour. 

 He loved all kinds that grow beneath the sky— 

 The Pippin, Baldwin, Russet, Northern Spy, 



The Seek-no-t'urther, Greening, Fameuse Ked, 

 Pound-sweets, and even Ox-hearts, dry as bread. 

 Whatever sort In any orchard grew, 

 Salem could tell the name— and rfavor, too. 



For various temporal prizes men may grapple; 

 Salem, like Eve, desired but one— the apple. 



His first excursion— at the age of three- 

 Was to the orchard, where, with infant glee. 

 He patted and made friends with every tree, 

 And wondered what the bursting buds might beV 



And there, too weary with his first emprise. 

 They found him sleeping— dimpled, rosy, wee. 



With blossoms drifting down upon his eyes. 



