INDIANA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 4l9 



If you are gniii;: to plant iiuytliing for a summer crop it should be 

 cowpeas. If a man will cut ilie cowpeas In August, and wHl bauk tliem 

 around the trees and run over the ground with a spriug-tooth liarruw, aud 

 sow erimsou clover he will have another ciop. 1 do not care to break up 

 the sod. If you will dig into the ground you will find the roots are close 

 to the surface. When you plow an orchard like this you set it back for 

 two or three years. To cultivate iliis kind of an orchard you should pile 

 the fertilizer around it. Our friend Mr. Hale calls his method, tierce cul- 

 tivation. He goes in in the spring with a spring-tooth harrow, and plows 

 the ground and cuts it tirst this Avay then that. And he keeps this up. 

 Tliis costs lots of money and lime, l)ut it gives a tine growth to your trees 

 After they get this tine growth they cut the trees back, so what is the 

 use of trying to get it? This is not necessary to get a crop of fruit. 

 That is the point of difference between the man that does not believe in 

 cultivating and the man who wants his trees to grow to tlie skies and then 

 has to cut them back. This takes a great deal of time, expense and fer- 

 tilizer. A tree should be cut back to start with. Look at this tree in my 

 hands. Does anyone think tliey would have an ideal tree if they did not 

 cut it back at all? This is a handsome tree, and why not put it into the 

 groiuid just as it is and start it and push it? If you did not trim tuis tree 

 at all. the limbs would get crooked and grow aiouud each other, and you 

 would not have nearly so good a fruit producing tree. We don't want 

 wood, but fruit. Which metliod will produce the longest lived tree? 

 The closely trimmed one every time. 1 would be willing to bet on that, 

 it stands to reason tliat roots that never fail in their water supply will 

 live longer than those that are affected by drouths. Why does a tree 

 in the forest live longer than an orchard tree? Take for example the 

 maple. In ihe forest it will outlive the cultivated tree because it is living 

 under natural conditions. Its roots are never disturbed, and they do much 

 better. This would be the case with any kind of a tree. Excessive mulch- 

 ing introduces too many, surface roots. But how can you have too many 

 surface roots if you have a tap root, too? Wouldn't it be good for an 

 animal to have all the mouths and stomachs he could have? It would 

 not be good for a boy, but it would be good for a tree. I agree with you 

 that it would 1)6 a bad thing to have all the roots near the surface. 

 Plowing kills these roots. 



A .Member: If you had sot out trees last spring and had not pruned 

 them when you set them out; would you prune ihem yei? 



Mr. Collingwood: Yes, 1 think I would, moderately. 1 woidd not 

 prune lliein as much as 1 would were 1 just setting them out. 1 make a 

 tree as near the shape 1 want it as possible when 1 am setting it out. 

 Now the other method i)racticed in southern Jersey is on hilly land. 1 

 don't know whether vou have much hillv land in this State or not. We 



