No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 803 



not continue to grow small fruit in my young orchards. Gentlemen, 

 this is a broad field; I hope the discussion will give us more light 

 than I am able to give in so short a time; let us learn from one an- 

 other. 



Mr. Barnhart: What would Mr. Johnson do with au orchard that 

 has been five years in sod. 



Mr. Johnson: I would bring it into cultivation. Try and get a 

 healthy look and growth, and then you can expect some fruit. 



Mr. Allison: Cultivation induces wood growth. How do you 

 bring the trees into fruiting? 



- Mr. Johnson: 1 first want trees large enough to be able to bear 

 fruit. I want them to make a good wood growth. They will then 

 make fruit spurs and bear fruit. 



Mr. Suavely: I would break up a five-year-old sod in orchard by 

 using a disc plow or spading harrow. To induce wood or fruit 

 growth, would fertilize as the occasion requires. 



The President: 1 have seen an orchard killed by plowing; all 

 the feeding roots have been cut off. If we plow deep before plant- 

 ing, and set trees the proper depth, there will be no trouble. Con- 

 stant cultivation will not make excessive wood growth. Nitrogen 

 is the wood-maker. We must have new wood if we want apple trees 

 to bear every year. I have no trees that do not bear every year, but 

 I never allow them to overbear. 



SOME POINTS IN DOOK-YARD PLANTING AND DECORATION. 



By L. B. PIERCE, Tall mail ge, Ohio. 



There is a popular idea among country people that landscape 

 gardening is not an art for the masses; that its practice and what- 

 ever advantage may accrue are only for the wealthy and idle. They 

 also affect to believe that the orchard form of planting in squares, 

 or a helter-skelter way of planting where there is most room, are 

 much superior for a farmer to the skilful planting based upon true 

 artistic principles. 



That these common beliefs are all wrong, I think I shall be able 

 to demonstrate in what I shall have to say at this time. 



In the first place, the principles — the A, B, C of landscape garden- 

 ing are no more difficult to acquire or remember than the funda- 



