542 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



that it will restore it to him again. Of course, we must waste money 

 to begin with, and the returns are slow; we must plant and prune, 

 and cultivate and fertilize. Some time ago the Atlanta Constitution 

 sent out inquiries to the large peach growers as to what it costs to 

 handle the growing peach in order to get the best returns — the best 

 prices on the market, and the answers showed without a doubt that 

 those whose cost of production was low, also got low prices; those 

 who had the greater expense also had the greatest returns. We 

 can't get something for nothing anywhere in this country, and the 

 returns shown by our Experiment Stations everywhere all point one 

 way. 



The gentleman on my right asked the professor something about 

 the feeding of his orchard. You must ask the tree some questions. 

 The most successful orchards have been built up by men who con- 

 sulted their trees and gave them what they required. Regard each 

 tree as an individual thing, and study the local conditions attached to 

 it, and then give it what it neeeds, and you will get the best results. 



PROF. SURFACE : It has been recently said that in tilling an old 

 orchard for the first time it is necessary to cut back the branches 

 so as to make them balance with the root branches. I want to ask 

 Prof. Stewart if that is the right hypothesis. 



PROF. STEWART : I don't know that it is absolutely necessary to 

 cut back the tree in renewing tillage in an orchard. The tillage sys- 

 tem is going to conserve more moisture. The roots that you cut off 

 will be quickly restored by fibrous roots, which perhaps will enable 

 the tree to get as much moisture as necessary, so I don't believe 

 there is any real necessity for the maintenance of that so-called 

 balance that we have been assuming, between the top and the roots. 

 Of course, there is probably more or less of a balance there, but I 

 believe that the greater amount of moisture that should remain in 

 the soil under tillage will supply the tree, even with the shortened 

 roots, so I doubt the necessity of maintaining that balance. Of 

 course, in an orchard that has been neglected in the matter of tillage 

 and pruning, we will be compelled to do more or less pruning, but as 

 to whether it is absolutely necessary to maintain this balance, I do 

 not think it is. 



Now, then, one other word: Mr. Hale takes exactly the posi- 

 tion that I wanted to see. You can not get something for nothing, 

 except possibly in the case of plant breeding; our plant-breeding 

 friends would have us believe that they can increase returns without 

 increased expense. But in regard to his factory analogy, there is a 

 little danger there. Because with the idea that our orchard is ex- 

 actly like a factory, we have sometimes thought we could increase 

 our returns by cutting down the cost of production. Here is where 

 the analogy ceases. You can increase profits in factories by cut- 

 ting down the co.st of production, but usually this is not the case in 

 fruit production ; here, you will find it necessary to increase the cost 

 of production rather than decrease it because we are dealing with a 

 perishable product, but with that amendment, T am heartily in favor 

 of Mr. Hale's experience as to cost. 



