420 HOAIU) of AGRlCULTttRi:. 



have 111 the southern part of our State. This huid is low, and sandy, too, 

 in some places. Our people think this land is fine for peaches. Their 

 method of procedure is different from anything? 1 have spoken about. 

 They put trees in with fairly lonj? roots, headed back pret'ty well. For 

 a space of four or five feet around the trees they do not cultivate at all. 

 Some places if there are any stones they will pick them up and pile them 

 around the base of the trees, but not close to the trees. In the cultivated 

 space they sometimes raise cowpeas and sometime sweet corn, and fre- 

 quently potatoes. In some cases they iiave asparagus planted in rows 

 five feet apart, but every two or tliree years they raise a crop of cowpeas. 

 Their object is to get just as much as they can. Their trees are headed 

 low. 



There is one problem tliat we are up against in the Kast, and that is 

 spraying. This is a hard projxisition. We liave to begin now to .spray 

 with lime and sulpliur wash, and then with Paris green. I don't know 

 whether it is something we have done, or haven't done that we are so 

 cursed with insects. We have to eliminate them as far as it is possible 

 for us to do so. There is another tbing that bothers us, and that is to 

 get men to run the sprayers, or even to do any kind of work for us. We 

 are so close to the city that they get into the notion they must stay in the 

 city, where they can get from $2 to $2.75 in the factories, and of course 

 we can not compete with that price. We are at the mercy of the farm 

 laborer. We can get a foreigner and get along very nicely until he under- 

 stands the English hmguage. As long as you keep them ignorant they 

 will stay, and iiltliough I believe in higher education I sometimes doubt if 

 it is the best thing here. I have a friend in Maryland, and he says that 

 the foreigners are fine at first, but they soon get so they will nat go to 

 work until the whistle blows, and when it comes quitting time they will 

 quit. We are left at the mercy of the hired man. Now, I think I have 

 talked my alloted time, and I'll give away to someone else. 



Mr. Hobbs: I fear that someone will get the idea that the only way 

 to get a taproot system is to prune it into that system. There are other 

 facts that determine root form. The most important factor is the soil 

 itself. The next is the variety. Now^ if you have a deep, rich soil in 

 which the water level does not come too near the surface, you will have 

 a deep-rooted tree, or plant. If your soil is favorable for roots, the roots 

 will grow. If you have a cold, heavy w-et soil with the water level com- 

 ing near the surface, you will necessarily have surface-rooted trees, sim- 

 ply on account of the soil. All of these things are to be taken into con- 

 sideration in this matter of root formation. The Ben Davis is not like 

 the Rambo. I wanted to put in these remarks to level things up a little. 



A Lady Member: I would like to ask a question as to wiiv tlie 

 farmers should be at the mercy of the laborers. Why can't they so ar- 

 range their business that they can pay the price that other people pay? 



