78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



you would not want to cut off many large limbs without giv- 

 ing them a wash ; that is, something to keep the air out. 

 They may be trimmed any time from the time they drop their 

 leaves until spring. 



Question. What wash do you use ? 



Prof. Clark. I use principally metallic paint. It is an 

 iron paint and is very cheap — about five cents a pound. 



Mr. Williams. If the wash prevents the moth laying her 

 eggs near the surface of the ground, will she not lay them 

 elsewhere just as well ? 



Prof. Clark. I think the moth will lay her egg in one 

 place just as readily as another. Of course, when they get 

 under the bark it is soft, and they have got to go through the 

 bark above the ground, because the eggs are a little above the 

 ground. 



Mr. Williams. My impression is that they are more apt 

 to enter the bark at the ground, where it is soft, than above. 



Prof. Clark. I think that two-thirds of the thirty I dug 

 out were eight inches from the ground. They seldom run up ; 

 more often run in a slanting direction downward, but some 

 will run straight down. 



Question. What cultivation do you give the ground where 

 you set out your trees ? 



Prof. Clark. We plant the ground with corn, potatoes, 

 squashes, or anything to keep it under cultivation ; that is, to 

 keep the soil stirred. I should not want to sow it with grain. 



Question. Don't you think it is advantageous to have the 

 land rich ? 



Prof. Clark. No, sir; not very rich, because if you have 

 the land very rich it will induce a rank growth of wood, 

 which will not ripen. For instance, the fall of 1880, I think 

 it was, was a damp fall. Our first frost came the 5th of 

 October, and the trees were growing. That frost was a freeze, 

 the thermometer went down to 20. It killed the young peach 

 trees, and apples, pears, quinces, and plums quite to the 



