MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 379 



Mulcli on Peaches. 



There are many accumulations of straw, grass, hay, corn stalks, 

 etc., that cau be used for mulch, and if utilized would become very 

 profitable. During the season of 1893, after my strawberry bed was 

 through fruiting, I raked the straw oflF, which had been used for mulch, 

 and scattered it around some peach trees near by, covering about the 

 same space as the branches, to the depth of two inches. This was 

 done about July 10, thus aiding the ripening of the fruit for the same 

 season. But the greatest result was noticed last season, when the 

 peaches were ready to gather. They were smooth, of large and uni- 

 form size, while those on adjoining trees were small and inferior. No 

 other reason can be assigned for the superior fruit but the mulch. The 

 soil under the trees where the mulch had been applied, although at the 

 close of the extended drouth, was loose and moist, while the soil under 

 the other trees was baked very hard, and cracks several inches deep 

 were visible. Was it the fertilizing properties in the straw applied 

 that caused the difference? Certainly not, since straw protected the 

 strawberries during the winters of 1892 and 1893, before it was applied 

 to the peaches; if there had been any available plant food in it, it cer- 

 tainly would have been taken up by the berries. — Meehan's Monthly^ 



Le Conte and Kieflfer. 



The Le Conte and the Keiffer pear craze of a few years ago will 

 not only bring ruin upon those who planted these varieties so largely, 

 but also upon the growers of choicer varieties. 



A few weeks ago numbers of car-loads of the Le Conte were 

 dumped on the St. Louis market every day until the market was so 

 glutted that commission men refused to pay the car-load freights, and 

 then the pears were sent to other commission houses and sold for 

 what they would bring to enable the railroad companies to get their 

 freight. 



Now, the Keiffer is coming to market in car-load lots in such quan- 

 tities as to glut the market and destroy the sale, or profitable sale, of 

 choicer varieties. While these varieties look well and ship well and 

 bear well, their quality is so poor as to disappoint buyers, and one 

 pear is enough to satisfy the taste for pears for a long time. 



