214 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



it. "We plow the ground — raise it — sometimes to the depth of a foot 

 next the tree. Now, as he spoke of planting the trees on the surface, 

 and keeping the roots near the surface to strengthen the tree and its 

 foliage, I would ask if keeping the roots near the surface would not 

 cause them to be injured by the frost in our cold climate ? 



Mr. Meehan — If the tree were unhealthy, I should think it would 

 be injured, but if the tree were healthy, I do not think there would 

 any danger. If the tree were not adapted to the climate it would 

 make some diiference. 



Mr. Woodard — Two years ago the frost was so intensely severe 

 that some trees were frozen so that they were dead in the spring; 

 that was when the soil was dry in the preceding summer. 



Mr. Meehan — Destruction seemed to follow quicker after a dry 

 summer than after a wet summer ? 



Mr. Woodard — That is true. 



Mr. Meehan — The atmosphere is made so intensely dry that it is just 

 the same as if it were to be a burning sun. In a state of low temper- 

 ature there is just the same result as in a state of high temperature, 

 and we frequently see that plants die in the winter just in the same 

 way. If the summer is very hot and dry there is not anything to keep 

 the plant alive during the winter, and those that are left alive are unable 

 to appl}'- themselves to recuperation. 



Mr. Woodard — Would it not be well to cover the roots in winter? 

 Would it not be best to raise the earth above the roots, perhaps a foot 

 in winter? 



Mr. Meehan — It would have the effect of lifting it out of the water, 

 but I do not think it is of much benefit. Mr. Hubbard, of Detroit, 

 told me his cherry trees died as much that waj^ as they did the other 

 way. 



Mr. Woodard — You will find that James A. Wakeman has an orchard 

 of 80 or 90 acres. His orchard looks like the waves of the sea. He 

 says that by this process he gains temperature, and his trees bear late 

 in the fall and commence early in the spring. He says he gains tem- 

 perature, and by that means produces good fruit. 



