338 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTUKE. 



DISCUSSION. 



Dr. Smith said he had a farm of 70 acres tliat lie had cat out of the woods. 

 The subsoil is a stilf clay and holds tlic water long. He tried to raise wheat 

 before doing any draining, and had raised 3G bushels from ten acres, — now that 

 same ten acres is thorouglily drained and has produced -42 bushels to the acre. 



There was a low j)lace in my orchard where I could not succeed in making 

 trees grow. Four years ago I ran a drain through it and planted trees ; they 

 are doing well. 



Dr. R. C. Kedzie — It is not generally understood why the soil is so much 

 warmer for being drained. There is a vast amount of heat used up in evapo- 

 rating the water. It takes 0,7 times as much heat to convert water into vapor 

 as to convert ice into water. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 

 Hon. B. F. Partridge read the following paper on the 



GROWTH OF FKUIT AND FRUIT TREES. 



Mr. President, Gentlemen and Ladies: — Having consented to write a- 

 few lines on the subject of planting and raising fruit trees and fruits, I will 

 try to read to you what I have hastily prepared, condensed as much as pos- 

 sible. So much has been written and published in books and newspapers 

 that one hardly knows, in this age of printing, where to begin ; but I will 

 give you what I have thrown together in my feeble way, and what I think 

 every one should know. It seems to be a fact that common subjects require 

 the greatest amount of study to put them into proper form, for the considera- 

 tion of those commonly using them. 



The raising of fruits and fruit trees seems common enough, as nearly every- 

 body makes some effort to ))roducc fruits. Many more have failed than have 

 met w.th any degree of success, — while some have seemed to possess all the 

 secrets of success in this fascinating pursuit. 



Now this fruit raising is no paradisean occui)ation, I assure you, when prop- 

 erly carried on. Tiie historian and even the general observer of human pro- 

 gress ere this has discovered that no advance has ever been made that did not 

 cost the best efforts of the best talent in the land for the progress, — so it will 

 readily be admitted that no improvement in the culture of fruits has been made 

 without the best efforts of the inost patient, persistent and talented horticult- 

 urists ; nearly all fruits were of vei-y indifferent quality, until our civilization 

 demanded better and greater varieties, when talents and experiments came to 

 the front, and througii a long series of years of study and anxiety the skill 

 and labor of many bestowed ujion tlie plants of culture has given us every va- 

 riety of good fruits in the greatest abundance. 



In this region less than twenty-five years ago, there were not five hundred 

 fruit trees all told. Look about here now and you will see innumerable or- 

 chards and fruit gardens to fill the spaces where then a dense forest covered 

 the land. The Romans esteemed apples an important and valuable article of 

 food. If so then, is it not now the duty of every cultivator of the soil to plant 

 aud cultivate fruits. 



