Winter Meeting 181 



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ing, and of course the first four or five years the roots don't reach out 

 enough for the tenants to cut many roots. After our trees get to bear- 

 ing we want to keep everything on the ground that we can get there 

 and leave the leaves on the trees. Th growth of the clover, the growth 

 of the weeds, the sun flowers that grow, and sometimes they grow as 

 high as the trees, they make just lots of mulch, and mulch is one of 

 the best thi-ngs we have, after the trees come into bearing, and then 

 leave the surface roots alone. 



Mrs. Good. — I have an orchard that is five years old. It is 

 30 miles east of here, near King City. The first three years I kept 

 it in corn. Then two years I had it in red clover, and the first 

 year that I had it in clover — the first crop I didn't let stand. I 

 cut it for hay. The second crop I let stand. This last spring I cut 

 the first crop for hay. It is unnecessary to say that there was nothing 

 to cut later for seed. Now I have engaged a man to plow that under 

 this fall with the understanding that he is to put it in corn next year. 

 Now those trees are 30 by 32 feet apart, and I want to know how 

 many rows of corn he can put in there. I have told him that he could 

 put in four, not over five rows of corn. Will that make it too close? 

 That will be about four feet away from the trees. Will that throw the 

 corn any too close, and how many inches, how close i:p to the tree and 

 how deep can they plow right up to the tree. Would five inches be 

 too deep, and in plowing Tour or five feet from the tree is there any 

 danger of injuring the roots of the tree? 



Secretary Goodman. — I^ would like to answer partly some of these 

 questions, because we are confronted with the same problem ourselves. I 

 cultivate or try to cultivate my orchard at least every two years with 

 a turning plow ; much of the ground I plow every year during the win- 

 ter. Some of it I plow all winter long.' In the case that the lady speaks 

 of, I should plow that ground up to within four feet of the trees at least 

 four inches deep. From four feet from the tree, on up as close to the 

 tree as I could get, I would run just as shallow as I could turn even 

 if only two inches and not break any more than possible. The next 

 four feet, I would not object to going down 6 or 8 inches, and then 

 plant the corn within four feet of the trees and plow thoroughly all 

 summer and you will get good results. 



President Murray. — I will try to answer Air. Long's question, in 

 which he asked me how to cultivate. The orchard I spoke of awhile 

 ago, I plowed with a turning plow every three or four years, and used 

 a common corn cultivator. Now that is the orchard I spoke of several 

 times as having borne fruit every year with scarcely an exception. We 



