24 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



stock. A wagon box of this material -was used to every four tree?. If mem- 

 ory serves me riglit I lost but three trees the first year from setting, which I 

 attribute largely to this mulch. The ground was then plowed as soon as pos- 

 sible, marked in rows for corn in such a manner that each tree set occupied 

 the place of a hill of corn. I planted corn in this way for three years. Not- 

 withstanding the rapid growth made, perfectly matured apples were grown in 

 this orchard the third year after setting; they grew on Wagener trees. From 

 the fifth year these trees bore heavy crops; tlie limbs were propped up. They 

 were encouraged to overbear, and to-day they arc mostly dead or dying. 



To one thing more do I believe myself largely indebted for the healthy and rapid 

 growth of this orchard. I had thoroughly proved years before I set that or- 

 chard the virtue of long, hand-threshed rye straw, in protecting trees from all 

 their enemies, whether mice at the surface of the ground, or rabits, or borers 

 above, and even the worms themselves seem to shun the trees protected with 

 this material. In the fall after setting, every tree in this orchard was spirally 

 wound with rye straw from at least one inch below the surface to the branches. 

 In the spring following it was taken off, and in June the trees were washed 

 with a strong mixture of the best soft soap and water. Over a half: barrel of 

 soap was thus used. The pruning knife was used every month till October in 

 restraining a too rampant growth in any one limb at the expense of others. 

 In the fiUl succeeding all the trees were again wound with the straw, and this 

 straw remained on the trees for nearly two years, gradually giving way to the 

 growth of the tree, and at the same time proving a perfect protection to 

 and from all their rodent and insect enemies. In all this time I never found 

 on tree or straw one cocoon, miller, codling moth, bug, or worm, although I 

 had hunted for hours at a time for them. I consider long, hand-threshed rye 

 straw invaluable in orchard culture. I know that the seasons vary greatly in 

 regard to the number of insect depredators, yet I cannot think these years so 

 very exceptional that none would have been found in this orchard if there had 

 been no straw winding there. 



Owing to injuries received in the winter of 18G3, from v/hich I never fully 

 recovered, I sold this farm in the spring of 1865. Soon after its present owner 

 purchased it, he grafted over a block of over 100 Astrachans, the only early 

 fruit set in the orchard. For want of proper care the borers got into nearly 

 every tree, and a large per cent of the number were virtually destroyed by 

 their ravages. For five dollars I could have wound those trees from two inches 

 below the surface to the limbs, and my faith in rye straw is such that I would 

 have been williug to have insured the trees from injuries by borers during 

 the three years necessary to change their top for ton cents per tree, I to give 

 five dollars for each tree destroyed that was kept fully protected as above des- 

 cribed. 



On the small place where I have lived the most of the time during the past 

 fifteen years, I set something over 100 trees, and not having my favorite straw, 

 I used various things for protection of these trees — newspapers, tarred paper, 

 and hay Ijands twisted. Now if you want to call all the worms, millers, 

 moths, etc., in the lot to a certain point, I know of no better way than to wind 

 a young tree with a band of twisted hay. I believe that will fetch them every 

 time, for I hardly ever searched without finding something of this kind, which 

 I never found in pure rye straw. I say good, long, hand-threshed, pure rye 

 straw, this, and no other. Who of you old farmcr.s here assembled ever saw 

 a scaffold of this grain, with the bundles all cut to pieces from the deprcda- 



