158 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Mr. Hay — I presume all of you have felt, in going across the street, 

 a sudden change of the atmosphere ; so in walking across a field, you find 

 a difference between the air on the high land and in the hollows ; these 

 differences in atmosphere have a very marked influence. 



Only last week, or the fore part of this week, I was digging a ditch, 

 and found there was not a particle of moisture a foot and a half from the 

 surface ; I suppose the roots of trees in such earth must suffer from want 

 of moisture. 



Mr. Parks — I believe that if we could provide for the supply of 

 evaporation, we should come nearer finding a remedy for the matter than 

 in any other way, and if there could be any way devised for retaining the 

 moisture in the ground, I believe it would help wonderfully; will not 

 mulching do this ? 



Mr. Nelson — Up north we are all aware that peaches were generally 

 killed, yet last year I had a row of two-year-old seedling peaches, and late 

 in the fall I trenched on each side of the row, and took a large portion 

 of the roots, for the purpose of grafting the Wild Goose plum on. At the 

 end where we trenched, the trees are scarcely hurt a particle, while at the 

 other end, that we did not trench, the trees were killed almost entirely to 

 the ground. 



Mr. Galusha — What time was this trenching done ? 



Mr. Nelson — It must have been about the last of October or first of 

 November. Now I attribute the preservation of the trees to the fact that 

 in digging that trench we stirred the ground, and that the loose soil 

 thrown in the trench held moisture and saved those trees ; while at the 

 other end the ground was hard. 



Mr. Minkler — Perhaps you had a shower, and the surface rain ran 

 into that drainage. 



Mr. Nelson — I think so. I had four thousand two-year-old apple 

 trees, and they were all injured very badly. I wrote to several men to 

 get their advice about the matter, and told them I had a notion to cut 

 them off at the ground, and finally came to the conclusion that I would 

 cut them off ; which I did, at the collar, and there was not one in a thou- 

 sand that sprouted, while the trees that I left, of the two-year-olds, have 

 lived, made a nice growth, and are fine looking trees to-day. 



Mr. Furness — I did not come from Indiana to teach you any thing 

 about managing your trees on your prairies, but I came to learn from you. 

 We suffer a little over in Central Indiana from this trouble, but not as much 

 as you do ; my position is rather elevated, and rather peculiarly situated 



