26 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



year is certainly an exception and not the rule. We can and usually raise 

 good fruit in Hudson. I liave detained you too long. 



One word about pears. I have set in Hudson first and last over 100 pear 

 trees. All ray trouble and ill success in raising this fruit has been due to 

 blight alone. For years I practiced the rule of setting two trees where one 

 died. Blight has mastered me. I have surrendered. I have tried many 

 remedies; all have proved alike failures. Either by chance only, or for some 

 other cause, there has been with me a little choice in varieties. The Bcurre 

 D'Anjou and Flemish Beauty have done the best for me, out of over twenty dif- 

 ferent kinds tried. There are those here who can entertain and instruct you 

 better than I can. Let us hear them. 



President Lyon : I heartily agree with the essayist as to the importance of 

 the thorough preparation of the places in which to set trees, but I would go 

 still further than he and make the holes as large as the orchard ; in other 

 words thoroughly prepare the whole area. 



Mr. Steere : Would not subsoiling be better than the method of digging 

 holes and fitting them so nicely? 



Mr. Peirsou : No, I think not. I want the cream of the soil where the 

 roots will at once take hold of it ; and this can only be secured by preparing 

 the holes as I liave indicated. 



Mr. Potter : I would subsoil, then plow again, throwing the surface dirt 

 towards my lines of trees. 



Porter Beal : I would like to inquire as to the profitableness of the Wagener 

 apple. 



Mr. Peirson : It bears young, but will last but a few years. Probably by 

 judicious thinning its life might be prolonged and the variety thus rendered 

 more valuable. 



J. S. Woodward : I certainly should not dig holes and pay as much atten- 

 tion to fertilizing close about the tree. Why, gentlemen, in six months from 

 the time a tree is set in the spring the roots will be a long ways outside of the 

 hole if the tree does at all well. I don't believe in feeding a little pig very 

 high and when he gets to a certain stage bring him down to ordinary diet. I 

 don't believe in pampering a boy until he gets into his teens and then all at 

 once submit him to the hardships of life. In the same way with a tree ; I 

 want it to have the kind of feed at the start that I can give it through its life; 

 so I would fit the whole area of an orchard or fit none of it. 



Mr. Peirson : I confess that I cannot agree witli the gentleman. It is a 

 good thing for a tree while enduring tlie shock of transplantation to have a 

 little pampering, to have its food of the best kind and within ready access ; by 

 this means it will rapidly gain the vigor necessary to push out for its living. 



Mr. Tracy : We are apt to forget how soon the roots get away from the 

 body of the tree, and how soon tliere are few feeders close to the body. Long 

 before the first growing season is over the roots have reached out and are feed- 

 ing outside of any hole that a man would ordinarily make for it. Unless one 

 has given special attention to tliis suljject of roots he will be surprised at the 

 distance they reach out. I have had a tile drain stopped by parsnip roots 

 three and a half feet below the surface of the ground. 



Mr. Woodward : I have set a number of orchards and have been fairly 

 successful, and my practice has been based upon some knowledge I received by 

 having a railroad bed cut through an orchard. I then found that apple tree 

 feeding roots were principally out from once to once and a half the height of 



