284 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Dr. Hull presented the following report from the Committee on 

 Orchards: 



CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS— MARCH. 



So various is the work which may be done this month, I can allude 

 to only a part. It is the best of the spring months for transplanting 

 fmit and ornamental trees. Ground should be prepared as soon as it can 

 be worked, and the trees set, if possible, before the buds begin to swell. 

 The sweet cherry and pear, if the planting be delayed until the buds 

 are much swollen, hardly succeed at all. The roots of all trees should be 

 examined and the small bruises, made in taking them up, cut out and the 

 shattered ends of the roots cut off with a sharp knife. Have ready a large 

 barrel, or tub, half full or more of strong tobacco-water. Into this put 

 from a pint to one quart of soap to each bucketful of water ; stir until 

 the whole is well mixed, and then stand your trees in this two hours or 

 longer before setting. On taking out one lot, another may be set in. I 

 have often left trees in over night without injury. This treatment is 

 equally good for grape-vines — in fact for all plants. Immerse vines and 

 small plants, tops and all. Remember all plants may have lice on their 

 roots, and this treatment will kill the last one of them. I have some- 

 times used unleached ashes instead of soap and tobacco, with the best 

 results, throwing in two or three quarts to each bucketful of water. In 

 setting the trees spread out the roots about equally on all sides, without 

 bending them more than necessary. Cover with loose earth, and if you 

 can tramp it in firmly without making it adhesive, do so; otherwise press 

 it in lightly, covering the top roots, say not more than one inch deep. 

 Then throw in about three inches of old loose manure, and cover this 

 with earth to the depth of one or two inches; thus a double mulch is 

 secured, which will retain both air and moisture about the roots and stimu- 

 late double the growth that a mere covering of soil would do. 



I will here venture to trespass slightly on the field of the Small-Fruit 

 Committee. We were told, at the January meeting, that the crown-borer 

 of the strawberry always winters in the stems of the plants. If this is true, 

 we have a sure thing on such as are in the plants we desire to set, for I have 

 ascertained that while sprinkling them with the mixture I have described, 

 in which to dip the roots of trees, does not seem to hurt them, yet 

 when immersed in it for fifteen or twenty minutes it kills them. There- 

 fore, before setting your plants, press them down into this mixture for a 

 few hours, and it will destroy all that happen to be in the plants. 



In selecting trees for the orchard, there is no objection, so far as I 

 know, to employing such as are on dissimilar roots, as pear on quince, or 

 pear on apple, provided the point of union of the stock and graft is 

 planted deep enough to admit of a lip being raised on the side of the 

 graft, say four inches below the surface of the ground, and kept open by 

 crowding in glass. From the ends of these lips roots will push, and in a 

 year or two they will become the main roots of the tree, and in a few 

 years, it is often the case, the roots of the stock will disappear, when the 

 roots and tops of the trees will be the same. 



