88 STATE POMOI.OGICAL SOCIETY. 



dangerously, but when that time comes of course it will be 

 necessary to have them cut out. 



Question. What about strawberries as an orchard crop? 



Prof. Sears. I should think they would be good where there 

 is a good market. We cannot handle them very well. We 

 have to grow crops that will not require too much labor, 

 because it is difficult to get floating labor where we are. 



Question. Don't you consider cabbage hard on the land? 

 We consider it one of the hardest crops that we can grow. 



Prof. Sears. I did not consider it so. I thought cabbage 

 had the reputation of growing on pretty raw land. I was not 

 aware that it was considered especially hare! on the land. I 

 should have said that in all of our crops, while we attempt to pick 

 out crops that are not going to damage the orchards, we reserved 

 six feet this year, and shall extend that six feet, along the rows, 

 for the exclusive use of the trees, sowing it down to a cover 

 crop without reference to the intervening land which may be 

 used for some other crop. So we do not plan to get any crop 

 near enough to interfere with the trees, or damage them. Of 

 course we plan to put in plenty of fertilizer. 



Mr. True. I would like to get more information in regard 

 to this low heading. Prof. Sears and Mr. Hale recommend 

 low headed trees, and it is singular, if they can raise apples on 

 low headed trees there, that we cannot do it here. But in my 

 experience a large majority of all the poor apples grow on the 

 lower limbs, with Wealthy, or Hubbardston or Nonsuch. It 

 seems to me that with low-headed trees the lower limbs are 

 going to lie right on the ground or very near it, and that is 

 where you will get your poor colored, poor quality apples. Is 

 there a difference in climate and soil enough to overcome that? 

 It is not all our snows. 



Prof. Sears. I spoke about the snow because I was warned 

 by one of your men that a low-headed tree would not be popu- 

 lar. I will tell you how we prune our trees. We plan to start 

 the branch as nearly upright as is practicable. Orchards with 

 branches started like that will not bend down as low as a high- 

 headed tree in which the branch is allowed to go straight out. 

 W''e do not plan to have our fruit get down on the ground any 



