INDIANA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 261 



Mr. Rockhill: Our draining the marshes does not affect our timber, 

 or do you claim it is destroying the timber? 



Mr. Garfield: I don't know positively. Of course, draining the coun- 

 try into the rivers and getting the water out of it in that way possibly 

 does not leave enough water back in some places. You know in horti- 

 culture about ninety-nine per cent, of our products are water, so it is a 

 pretty important thing to hold it as long as we can and get it into the 

 fruit; so that anything that gets the water quickly away from it is hurtful 

 to fruit growing. 



Mr. Frame: I would like to ask this question: It is not so much in 

 producing rainfall as that it affords so much greater evaporation. Evap- 

 oration upon the open fields is forty-four per cent., while evaporation 

 from forests is twelve. And Avith the timber cut out the water evaporates 

 so quickly, and then in addition to that, if the water is all drained off 

 and run into the rivers, that is where the great detriment is done. 



Mr. Graham: One man on tlie fioor today told us to drain our land 

 for trees, and the other told us to leave the water in the soil to get it 

 into fruit. What kind of a conclusion are we to form from that? 



Professor Huston: I guess that is all right. The fact is, it is not 

 so mueh upon the amount of water as the distribution of the water you 

 want. If you were to adopt the suggestion I threw out and irrigate, 

 you would simply pile up some water already fallen and put it on the 

 land again. I think there is no question about the fact that it is desirable 

 to have satisfactory drainage, because everyone who knows anything 

 about raising plants of any sort knows they will not grow very well with 

 the roots in the water. We must get the general water level low enough 

 so that there is satisfactory drainage of the soil where the trees are to 

 grow, and then irrigate, if necessary. If we had thirty-three inches of 

 rainfall in this country, and it was evenly distributed throughout the 

 year, we would not have to irrigate any. The gi-eat trouble is that we 

 have it for five or six or eight or nine weeks and then we don't have any 

 more at all, and that was the time I was talking about— when we have so 

 much rain. I don't think what has been said has been inconsistent with 

 getting stagnant water out of the ground. 



Mr. Witmer: I wish to ask Mr. Garfield whether, from experience, 

 it is better to set a grove of miscellaneous trees than to have the trees 

 of one kind? 



Mr. Garfield: I can simply relate ray own experience. I planted this 

 grove ten years ago, and I didn't know very much about forestry matters 

 at that time — practically nothing except what I had read. A man reads 

 a good deal sometimes, and thinks he knows a lot, and then finds that 



