398 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
get them for one-half less, and we will reap in the increased ~ 
quantity of fruit from five hundred to one thousand per cent. 
If there are any fruit growers here who wish to talk this mat- 
ter over,I should like to meet them to talk this matter over,and 
let us ship a carload and see what the result will be. I think 
that is the only way in which we can make fruit growing as 
profitable as it should be. We cannot depend upon our fertili- 
zers here; we must have them ina more concentrated form. 
BARRELING APPLES.—Many of the most profitable operations in 
commercial life depends in the first instance upon very simple 
facts. Most persons would pass by without observing the barreling 
of apples as acase in point. If apples were placed loosely in barrels, 
they would soon rot, though passing over but a very short distance 
of travel; and yet, when properly barreled, they can be sent thous- 
ands of miles—even over the roughest ocean voyage, in perfect se- 
curity. Thisis owing toa fact discovered years ago, without any 
one knowing particularly the reason, that an apple rotted from a 
bruise only when the skin was broken. An apple can be pressed so 
as to have indentations over its whole surface without any danger of 
rotting, providing the skin is not broken. In barreling apples,there- 
fore, gentle pressure is exercised so that the fruit is fairly pressed 
into each other, and it is impossible for any one fruit to change its 
place in the barrel on its journey. Apples are sometimes taken out 
of the barrels with large indentations over their whole surface, and 
yet no sign of decay. In these modern times, we understand the 
reason. The atmosphere is full of microscopic germs which pro- 
duce fermentation, and, unless they can get an entrance into the 
fruit, rot cannot take place. A mere indentation without a rupture 
of the outer skin does not permit of the action of these microbes. 
This is a simple reason why the early observation enabled the 
barreling of apples to be so successful._Meehans’ Monthly for 
August. 
A good wash for atree is as beneficial as the currycomb for the 
horse, as the bath for a man—perhaps moreso. Strong soapsuds, 
lye and whitewash seem about equal in their good effects. For 
small trees the application may be made with a rag tied to a stick— 
the boy can do it—but for large trees the spray pump would be best. 
For killing bark lice, the spraying should be done just after hatch- 
ing timein the spring. Under the scale there are thirty eggs, more 
orless, notas large as hen eggs but similar in appearance. As 
these hatch they appear as very minute white specks around the 
shells, and they spread and attach themselves to the bark and form 
new scales. They exhaust the vitality of the tree and ruin it if very 
numerous. They are sometimes destroyed by extreme cold weather, 
and I do not know that they are troublesome in Minnesota. Once in 
Wisconsin I saw the snow in an infested orchard covered with 
scales toward spring.—H#. H. S. Dartt. 
