12 TEANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



ORCHARD CULTURE. 



BY S. G. MIXKLER. 



You ask me to write on Orchard Culture. That subject is ex- 

 hausted, at least with me. I wrote all I knew years ago, and have 

 learned nothing since. The truth is, we must go back to first prin- 

 ciples, i. e.^ put the ground in its original condition of fertility by 

 clovering and manuring. Then set trees two rods each way. I 

 suppose there are but few who know how soon the roots will meet 

 at that distance — six years. 



Don't plant on old orchard ground, nor fill in. The elements in 

 the soil that the tree requires are already exhausted. 



For Heaven's sake, don't be as big fools as w^e have been (pa 

 don me, as I have been), to try to get the most varieties. Am 

 correct? It has been the greatest sin of my life. 



Russian apples: Brethren, go slow. The country is full of Rus- 

 .sian apples. One man says he exhibited seventy-five varieties of 

 Russian apples at a fair. Don't that beat Brother Budd, of Iowa? 



Then, we are expecting too much from that direction. Russia's 

 cold and our cold are two different things. It is not the amount or 

 degree of cold that kills; it is the condition of things. 



I remember of going one year to Freeport to attend our meet- 

 ing. When we arived at Amboy they reported 28 deg. below zero, 

 and the following summer we had peaches. 



MANNER OF PROPOGATING TREES. 



Brethren, I think here we have been to extremes. Budded 

 trees, grafted trees, first section, second section, third section; I have 

 tried all of these, and a tree is a tree, for a' that. 



Some say budded trees, but all there is of that, you have one 

 year's growth when you bud, and you succeed with the bud and root 

 graft alike. 



Then we go to extremes on seeds. Oh! we must have seed from 

 Russia or some other foreign country. 



Be careful of high-sounding names: we are often led astray 

 thereby. 



I have seen in the last few winters a calamity which has oc- 

 curred but once in half a century, and circumstances may never so 

 combine against us again, at least for fifty years more. 



An informal discussion upon grafting, budding, hybridizing and 

 transj)lanting followed these reports. 



D. B. Wier — Root grafting has nothing to do with the growth 

 or longevity of trees. 



