40 
PLANTS AND INSECTS 
thirty-six inches apart in the row. The plants are set from one and one 
half to four inches deep, according to their size. They must be ferti¬ 
lized frequently, and great care must be taken not to let any of the 
fertilizer fall into the bud or on the leaves lest they be burned. 
The fruit is picked green, about one week before it is mature, and 
it ripens on the way to market. On account of the spear-like points 
and sword-like edges of the long leaves, pickers need to be careful lest 
they pay for their carelessness with badly cut arms and hands. 
Usually great packing-sheds are built near the center of the field. 
There the gathered fruit is carried, carefully packed and nailed up in 
crates, and made ready for shipment. Sometimes the crowns are cut 
from the apples for they take up much room, and sometimes the apples 
are wrapped in brown paper to prevent bruising in shipping. 
—Eskell L. Blore. 
WINGED BEAUTIES OF THE CLOVER-FIELD 
f NE' bright July morning while visiting in the country I took a 
butterfly-net and a cyanide-jar and started for the clover-field. 
I was eager to catch some butterflies; for I had been learning the names 
of some species, and I wished to catch some that I was acquainted with. 
I had not been out long until I saw, flying here and there, a pair of large 
yellow wings, margined and striped with black. 
‘‘A tiger-swallowtail!” I exclaimed. Then waiting until it settled, 
I slyly stole near enough to catch it in the net. What a beauty it was! 
I slipped it into the cyanide-jar, closed down the lid, and soon it was 
quietly sleeping the sleep of death. 
Later I removed it and pinned its wings to a board, and after a few 
hours it was ready to take its place in the collection I contemplated mak¬ 
ing. It was surely a fine specimen. It measured four and one half 
inches from tip to tip of wings. 
Going farther into the clover-field, I beheld a pretty sight—gorge¬ 
ously colored butterflies of many descriptions, darting here and there. 
The silver-washed fritillaries seemed to be most numerous among the 
larger varieties. At a distance the general appearance of these was a 
medium brown, but at closer range the top of the front wings showed 
up darker with heavier black markings, and the hinder wings shaded 
to a light brown with fewer markings. Underneath the wings were 
