24 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



this freezing and thawing. You secure the same thing by mulching, and 

 by a grass plat, precisely that you secure on the northern declivity. It 

 is freezing and thawing which destroys our plants, instead of the excessive 

 freezing, as a rule, and that will account for the fact that this year, in 

 many places, we have lost valuable trees where they seemed to be nicely 

 protected, and it will lead us to the question of distribution of our plants, 

 instead of hedging in our orchards and vineyards. 



Mr. Minkler — I do not suppose that the practice of growing belts 

 of trees around our orchards is a panacea for all the ills which fruit trees 

 are subject to, and I think it had but little to do with our last year's expe- 

 rience. It is well known that in the northern part of the State we have 

 had it exceedingly dry for three years. We have had no moisture in the 

 subsoil, which is necessary to protect the roots of any tree in winter. I 

 presume, if we had had moisture enough to penetrate our subsoil, the trees 

 Avould have been all right. The roots froze up in so dry a soil that they 

 could not get a supply of sap, and they died. Probably one cause was 

 the exhaustion by overbearing the year previous — that is my view of the 

 matter. The Early Richmond went to rest early — it did not draw so 

 hard on the soil late in the season as others did, and hence it was not 

 destroyed. 



We have been talking about soils a great deal, but I tell you when- 

 ever the climate is right we have fruit, both North and South. It is not 

 excessive freezing that kills the trees of the North. Twenty-eight years 

 ago the thermometer at Mendota was 24° below zero, and the next season 

 we had peaches. This shows that it is the condition the trees are in at the 

 time, that destroys or preserves them. I have no doubt that if there had 

 been sufficient moisture in the subsoil last fall they would have come out 

 right. I do not think protection has much to do with it. 



Mr. Hilliard — It is a question whether overbearing, and the extra- 

 ordinary crop two years ago did not, in a measure, cause all our loss of 

 apple trees this last winter. I am sure that my grape vines had borne 

 so fully that this year they did not properly ripen their fruit, and it is a 

 question with me whether apple trees did not fail from the same cause. 



Dr. Mosier — I have had some little experience in the rearing of 

 trees, and I would say that my trees are not yet in bearing. I have 

 about 1,500 trees set five years ago; the balance, to make up 2,300, were 

 set four years ago last spring. I have cultivated them in corn up to last 

 year, planting two rows between the trees to partially pay me for culti- 

 vating. A portion of the ground had became so ridged up to the trees 

 that last year I reversed my plowing, and instead of plowing to the trees 



