76 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Engle: I have always practiced shortening the longer ones only, 

 but I do not shorten until I know the trees are going to bear fruit; then I 

 remove some entirely, shortening others. Nor do I cut back at all until the 

 trees are four years old. 



Mr. A. B. Copley: I would rather have Crawford, Barnard, or Hill's 

 Chili seedlings than a lot of trees budded from the same varieties. If any 

 such trees are broken when they mature, the same fruit comes from the 

 sprout following the break; and I believe such seedlings to be more vital 

 and hardy. The Gregg raspberry will reproduce itself very closely, from 

 seed, in quality and appearance, with some variation in ripening. 



Mr. L. H. Stoddaed: Which is better: To let peach trees sway in fall 

 and winter winds, and stand the resulting damage, or to fall prune, with 

 the injury believed to come from that practice? 



Mr. Engle : I have cut back in the fall, at times, without perceptible 

 damage. 



Mr. Baetholomew: Which would Mr. Engle prefer, in planting for 

 seedlings, pits from separate trees or from trees in a block of the variety? 



Mr. Engle : From a block and from the center of it. 



Mr. Peaesall: I raised peaches from pits, at an early day, and often 

 got very fine fruit, but I would not recommend the practice. 



Mr. Hawley: To prevent injury from the swaying of trees I would 

 crowd earth up about them and even stake them if necessary. 



the tkee cutwokm. 



Mr. Rice asked what was good for the tree cutworm. 



Mr. Moeeill: Buckwheat plowed under when in bloorti is good for 

 one year. Bands of wool placed about the tree prevent the worms from 

 crawling up. They are superior to cotton batting, because the latter 

 packs and after a few days the worms walk over it. Sheep's wool will stay 

 loose, affording no foothold. The rot which was so prevalent in tomatoes 

 last season was due to a check of some sort in growth — cold, drouth, or 

 some such cause — after formation of the first fruits. This is the sum of 

 observations at Benton Harbor. A Niles grower has very successfully 

 met this difficulty by laying lines of tile from a ditch across his tomato 

 plat, by which he irrigates at any time he chooses. 



Mr. Hawley : These cutworms may be picked up in the day time. I 

 have captured as many as 100 about one tree. Buckwheat is sure death 

 to them, and some worms may be kept off by use of strips of tin about the 

 trunks. They can not crawl over wool, but they will sometimes crawl 

 under it and eat the bark. In gardens they may be poisoned by pieces of 

 turnip or potato laid about, having Paris green sprinkled upon them. 



Mr. Moeeill: Plow the ground just before setting tomato plants, and 

 the worms will go elsewhere in search of food. Poisoned leaves of dock 

 are effectual against them. 



Prof. Cook : I can scarcely agree to the theory that they may be starved 

 out. They will travel a considerable distance, and hence no small piece of 

 ground can be made wholly free of them by plowing. But in the last few 

 years we have been very successful in poisoning them, using clover, leaves 

 of mullein, dock, etc. Some practice throwing such leaves about in 

 bundles. I found as many as twenty worms under one bundle, but some 

 of these poisoned probably do not die before crawling back into the 

 ground. The solution for this purpose may be very weak, say one pound 



