14 • TRANSAf'TIOXS OF TTIE IT.TJNOIS 



menting-. Sixteen feet is uiucli too close: the trees are forced u]) 

 too tall, and cannot bear so well. The Willow Twio^ wants light and 

 air all around it to produce tine fruit. Ben Davis and Winesap 

 should be fifteen or twenty feet across in ten years. Thirty-five feet- 

 apart is near enough to plant. Whether the injured trees which are 

 to be found in all our orchards will recover or not depends on the 

 severity of the present winter. If it })roves mild they may come 

 through all right: but if very cold, it will kill the new Avood layed 

 over that killed last winter, and the tree perish. Under favorable 

 circumstances a healthy growth of tree will cover up dead wood. The 

 peach tree is sometimes killed to the bark, and grows and does well 

 afterward. As to Dr. Schroeder's question. I think the mode of 

 grafting or budding has no effect on the fruitfulness or longevity of 

 a tree. 



S. (jr. Minkler — I think we, as a Society, will have to condemn 

 close planting. When too closely planted the roots meet, interfere 

 with and rob each other, and for lack of subsistence the trees fail, 

 and the fruit soon becomes of poor quality. 



A. C. Hammond — Is the theory of Mr. Nelson, that the highest 

 and driest locations are the best orchard sites, correct ? As a Society 

 we have always advocated and practiced it, but the experience and 

 observation of this season has shaken my faith in it. In Hancock 

 County the large commercial orchards are about equally divided 

 between dry-rolling and flat, moist land. Those on the flat land 

 passed through last winter with the greatest safety, and have the 

 past season produced more and liner fruit than the others. 



T. McWhorter — I am glad to hear these remarks. Trees do not 

 attain the size and longevity when grown on the bluff's or high 

 grounds, where we thought they Avould do much the best, as when 

 grown on the low lands. 



H. K. Vickroy — My observations corroborate these speakers. 

 Apple-trees do best on low lands. 



J. M. Robison — I am also glad to have these facts come out. 

 My orchard is on both kinds of land. I have trees twenty-five years 

 old that are still productive on the low lands, while those on ground 

 twelve feet higher are not so healthy or productive. On two acres 

 of land on which water stands nearly a month every spring, to 



