132 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 371. 



and postage free, so that the books would 1)6 the only ex- 

 pense to members. Persons of any age were invited to 

 join the circle. They were all entitled to the publications 

 of the state experiment station, and they were encouraged 

 to address questions on any doubtful points to the faculty 

 of the college. When any reader completed a book he 

 could obtain a blank from the secretary and make a written 

 report on the leading topics of the work, and if this was 

 satisfactory he was entitled to a written voucher which 

 certified to this fact ; when all the books in any one course, 

 whether relating to the garden and orchard, to live stock, 

 to soils and crops, or to any other special subject, was 

 completed, the reader would be entitled to a certificate of 

 the ne.xt grade, and on the completion of any three courses 

 a diploma was to be issued. 



Professor Mumford, who is the secretary of this circle, 

 writes that it has met with unusual success. Three hun- 

 dred readers are pursuing their work now, more than a 

 thousand inquiries have been made, and twenty-five hun- 

 dred persons have asked for circulars. In experience the 

 course seems to be cumulative, and as one person reads a 

 book he recommends it to a friend, who likewise reads it, 

 and thus the circle widens. Expressions of appreciation 

 have been received from influential farmers in many states, 

 and from every evidence the course has begun a career of 

 genuine usefulness. There can be little doubt that an 

 organization of this kind will prove a genuine help to agri- 

 culture. The short courses in many of the colleges, schools 

 of dairying, farmers' institutes and horticultural assemblies, 

 like the one recently held in Chautauqua County, will ac- 

 complish a genuine service, even if they did no more than 

 to bring farmers into contact with men of science, either 

 personally or through books, and convince them that there 

 is such a thing as scientific truth, upon which the best prac- 

 tice is always based. The young man, or woman, who 

 reads a few books, will not be an accomplished practitioner 

 in any branch of agriculture or horticulture, but if he is 

 able to pass examinations in these works he will learn the 

 value of study and mental application, he will learn how 

 to think consecutively about his business, and he will 

 know where to turn for information when he needs it. 



The White Fine in the West. 



THE White Pine has a peculiar record in the west. In 

 Illinois and the greater part of Iowa it is one of the 

 most satisfactory conifers that can be grown. I know of 

 no tree anywhere that surpasses in symmetry and vigor a 

 splendid White Pine-tree in the old James Smith home- 

 stead, south of Des Moines — a tree that was over fifty feet 

 high when I last saw it, several years ago, and there 

 seemed not a branch missing from its widely spaceH, reg- 

 ular whorls. Along the Missouri River, in Kansas and 

 Nebraska, White Pines can be found as vigorous and thrifty 

 as any planted specimens anywhere. At the home of 

 Hon. J. Sterling Morton, Nebraska City, are a number of 

 White Pines of unusual beauty, the best of which is forty- 

 nine and a half inches in circumference three feet from the 

 ground, and forty-four feet eight inches high. Mr. Morton 

 planted this tree thirty-two years ago, carrying it to its 

 place in a water-bucket. It is thus seen that the White 

 Pine grows as rapidly in the clayey liluffs of the Missouri 

 River as in the sandy soils of Michigan. At Lincoln, Ne- 

 braska, only sixty miles back from the Missouri River, the 

 White Pine is not a success. At Fairbury, almost due south 

 of Lincoln, it does not compare with the other Pines, while 

 at Franklin, more than half-way across the state, a few 

 specimens have barely managed to exist during several 

 years, in which the Scotch and Bull Pines have made vig- 

 orous growth. Nowhere back from the Missouri did I see 

 vigorous trees, except at Salina, ]\ansas, where there are 

 two good specimens twenty-four feet high, but these do 

 not compare with the White Pines at Nebraska City, nor 

 with the Scotch and Austrian Pines growing near them. 



At Brookings, South Dakota, the same care that gave sat- 

 isfactory results with Scotch Pine produced nothing but 

 complete failure with White Pine. Five hundred trans- 

 planted trees, from ten to fifteen inches high, were received in 

 fine condition, and were grown one year in nursery, being 

 mulched during the hottest months. Very few died, but 

 no appreciable growth was made. Good buds were formed, 

 however, and the next spring they were set in forest-plats 

 with White Birch and Box Elder. In three years not a 

 Pine remained. 



It would seem, then, that White Pine is not a promising 

 species for planting much beyond the Missouri or in 

 Dakota. In all the northern part of Missouri the White 

 Pine can be successfully grown. At Columbia, half-way 

 between St. Louis and Kansas City, and ten miles north of 

 the Missouri River, there is a splendid avenue of White 

 Pines on the old Rollins homestead, which average fifty 

 feet high and show most satisfactory growth. Doubtless, 

 the increasing aridity of the atmosphere west of the Mis- 

 souri River is the reason of the failure of the species in that 



locality. 

 Washington, D. c. CJiarles A. Keffer. 



Marketing Apples. 



SOME essential points to be considered in the marketing 

 of fruit were given by Mr. George A. Cochrane in a 

 paper read a few weeks ago before a meeting of the Mas- 

 sachusetts Fruit Growers in Worcester. We quote in a 

 condensed form a few paragraphs, which will be found 

 interesting to buyers as well as growers : 



For several reasons the barrel is too large a package for ap- 

 ples, which should be marketed in boxes no larger than those 

 used for oranges and lemons. Last fall I advised the trial of 

 such a package, and suggested that each apple be wrapped in 

 paper as oranges and lemons are. Three tliousand cases were 

 sent to me for shipment to Europe. Out of fifty growers of 

 apples only three understood what a close selection of fruit 

 meant, and the apples sent by these three .growers sold in 

 London at $2.40 a case, when fruit in a barrel, which held 

 three times as much as one of the cases, brou.ght only $4.00. 

 Some growers sent windfalls, in the hope that wrapping ttiem 

 in paper would insure their safe arrival in England. Some 

 sent Snow apples and Russets mixed in the same case. Of 

 course, when barrels are used, new ones, and not second- 

 hand Hour-barrels, should be used, for, no matter what care is 

 taken to dust and wash them, sufficient flour will remain in 

 the seams or staves of old barrels to rattle out in transporta- 

 tion and dust the fruit. 



In packing a barrel select a fair sample of the contents for 

 the bottom layer. Place the apples, stems doWn, in the form 

 of a ring, beginning at the outside, and having secured this 

 layer firmly, place the second layer in so as to fit closely in tiie 

 interstices, tlien fill the barrel quickly and gently, and when 

 one-third full rock it slightly to settle the apples. Repeat this 

 rocking when the barrel is about three-fourths full, and when 

 it is filled place a padded l)oard on top and rock it while the 

 board is held down firmly. Then place in enough more 

 apples to form a cone at least two inches above the chime. 

 Now force the head down with a barrel-screw presser, nail the 

 chime hoops, both top and botloni, securely, and have the head- 

 lining sufficiently large to lap the presser that forms the 

 head. 



Never pack red apples until they are of a good color. It is 

 an expensive blunder to wait until the last moment and then 

 strip the tree of all its fruit. It is also a mistake to pick the 

 apples faster than they can be packed. It is a good plan to go 

 over the trees a week or a fortnight before the .general picking 

 and remove the well-developed and well-colored fruit and 

 market it at once. Aside from the advantage of early mar- 

 keting, such pickings help the fruit which remains, increases 

 its size and improves its color. Apples should be headed up 

 at once, and if they are to be held they should be hurried into 

 cold storage as near a temperature of thirty-two degrees as 

 possible. They should never be allowed to lie on the ground, 

 and under no circumstances should they be exposed to sun or 

 rain after being picked or packed. Fall varieties decay quickly, 

 because they are exposed to a lu.tjher temperature after leav- 

 ing the tree than the winter varieties are, and more fruit is 

 lost after being picked in ihe heat than from the frost. Growers 

 who keep apples in bins to market din'ing the winter should 



