Transactions at the Annual Meeting. 125 



cion when grafting, and set deep so as to get roots from the cion. 

 Another flanker would slit the bark near the ground when trans- 

 planting, thus aiding the cion to put out roots, the tree to be set 

 deep. Another would take up his trees when one or two years 

 old and transplant again in the nursery, setting six inches deeper 

 than before. All the array of flankers would mulch or water 

 their trees in the fall if the winter was likely to set in with the 

 ground dry. Now, it seems their faith was not very strong as to 

 their long cion and set deep theory ; hence they fall back on 

 mulch and water. Let us examine this a little. J. J. Thomas, 

 when at state farm, Michigan, found roots belonging to a tree four- 

 teen feet high, to extend fourteen feet from the trunk. Supposing 

 they spread as far the other way, you would have a spread of roots 

 twenty-eight feet, and the extremities of the>e roots need the 

 mulch or water more than the large roots near the tree, where the 

 mulch and water are always applied. Now. I will leave it to others 

 to figure out the amount of water needed to water the whole orchard 

 with a sufficient quantity to properly wet the roots. I only know 

 that every one would need an inexhaustible supply, with a wind- 

 mill, elevated tank and street sprinkler. And hereafter I suggest 

 that the mulch and water advocates, when selling trees, inform 

 the purchaser that he must procure the above named articles to 

 insure success. Now this horticultural mountain is not a local 

 affair; it is found to extend from New York to Illinois. At 

 South Haven, Michigan, in May, 1875, a committee appointed for 

 that purpose, sent circulars far and wide inquiring as to root kill- 

 ing, especially for the winter preceding. Responses were received 

 and published, extending from Geneva, New York, to Warsaw, 

 Illinois. There was nothing new or interesting to me except, per- 

 haps, that misery likes company. I found that our losses and ex- 

 perience of 1872-3 had extended two hundred miles south. The 

 committee in summing up say that there is but little difference as 

 to varieties in killing. So it would seem long cion and roots from 

 it did not save them. P. Barry reported instances rare of this 

 kind — one winter, some twenty years ago, and last winter the 

 only instances in thirty-five years. This is often enough for an 

 old man who has pretty much his all in an orchard. I will give 



