260 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



agriculture and horticulture is with the highly trained and scientific 

 expert, and that the old-fashioned half-educated farmer, with his slipshod 

 ways, his unobservant fatalism, and his misused farming implements 

 rotting in the corners of his fields, is a menace to his neighbours and 

 foredoomed to failure. 



Tin Statf is generously doing its part in America in providing or 

 assisting agricultural education and in carrying out scientific and experi- 

 ui« ntal work, and it is for the younger generation of farmers to take 

 advantage of what is being done for them, and to see to it likewise that 

 the business side of their profession is managed with the same intelli- 

 gence, the same practical common sense, and the same straightforward 

 honesty as make for success in any other branch of trade. 



But, given men with the necessary training and a real love of their 

 work, and these speakers, at all events, are fully persuaded that there is 

 not only health and enjoyment but fortune also to be made off the land in 

 Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. 



For such a man these papers are full of hints, suggestions, and useful 

 maxims ; for example : 



" Low temperature makes fine fruit. Select stock for planting that has 

 been propagated from stock known to be healthy and above the average 

 of its kind in size, colour, and productiveness. The law of transmission is 

 just as potent in the vegetable as in the animal kingdom. Don't grow 

 Peaches on wet soil. On receiving young trees in the autumn, lay them up 

 in a trench where water cannot stand, and at an angle of 45 degrees above 

 the ground. Plough the land to be planted as early as practicable in 

 Bpring, prepare it nicely, and set the trees at just the depth they grew in 

 the nursery. 



" Remember that fruit trees need air drainage as much as water drain- 

 age. Trees planted in a pocket at the end of a valley or with surround- 

 ing forest trees will never thrive." 



" Cultivate orchards, but don't grow Strawberries, Drilled Corn, or 

 Sorghum as a cover crop. Tomatos, Potatos, Melons, and Indian Corn 

 may all be grown, Tomatos for choice out of this list, but Crimson Clover 

 is best of all. 



" Plums are more reliably profitable than Peaches, but only some 

 varieties will resist iot in the moist climate of the Peninsula. 



" ( i rade j onr fruit by a fixed standard and pack it attractively, but above 

 all fairly and straightforwardly.'* All this was preached with men's own 

 experience as text and illustration. 



Thk lael question of the proper packing of fruit for immediate sale, 

 for export, and for cold storage is receiving a good dealof attention in 

 America, ami experiments are being made in delivering ripe summer 

 Apples, Sweet Potatos, Pears, and Peaches in London, with encouraging 

 reimUa.- • • r --» ■ •> , 



An a< count of - the cold storage investigations undertaken by the 

 I'' I'artmrm of Agriculture is given, but these have not yet lasted long 

 • •noii-li to produce inuch result. However, it has been shown already 

 hat fruit, to ke n <an tfactorily, must be stored ;<is soon as possible after 

 pitting, llild that a temperature of B2 degrees is the one which produces, 

 the be^t-resuHsr^-'- tf-'j .:. * . — , k wi 



