STATE POAIOLOGICAL S0CIE;TY. 8i 



Some one in speaking this afternoon rightly urged the 

 importance of the careful preparation of the land before the 

 orchard is set. And I believe on general principles that if a 

 man is planning to set an orchard he should get his land 

 in first-class shape by one or two years of cultivation before 

 he attempts to set the trees. But we did not do that. We 

 bought run-down farms. One of the neighbors told us that 

 on one of the farms the practice had been to grow alter- 

 nately potatoes and rye until the rs'e would no longer reach 

 knee high, then to plow up a piece and put it into orchard. We 

 went right ont;) that land and plowed it and harrowed it thor- 

 oughly, fitted it in first-class shape, then planted our orchards, 

 and I don't believe that any one could ask for any better growth 

 than we got on the majority of the trees. We set out 650 

 Mcintosh and they are as pretty a bunch of trees as you ever 

 saw. They have made all the way from two to four feet of 

 growth, and have ripened up finely this fall. Of course we 

 had an exceptional season there, and the first thing we did after 

 the trees were established was to go over the orchard and put 

 an ounce of nitrate of soda to each tree. We had practically 

 no plant food in the soil and we had to supply it. Then we 

 kept our cultivators going right through the season up to the 

 time the cover crop was sown, and while we have had the driest 

 season on record, pastures gave out, wells gave out, and the 

 ordinary crops failed, there wasn't any time that you could not 

 go into our orchard and kick down through the dust mulch 

 there and find the dirt moist enough to hold the impression of 

 your hand. We wouldn't ask for another drop of water on 

 that land. The trees didn't suffer the slightest from lack of 

 moisture, owing to the thorough cultivation. It was merely a 

 question of cultivation. The land doesn't have much humus 

 in it. 



Just a word or two in regard to the laying out of an orchard, 

 because I have been in the business of laying them out for a 

 good many years, and I think we had an improvement over any- 

 thing I have seen tried. We had there a young man, a graduate 

 of our college, who came to take charge of the plant, and he 

 had for several years past been extensively engaged in the plant- 

 ing of trees. His method was this : In the first place we 



