No. 7. DEPARTMENT OT' AGRICULTURE. 663 



MR. HALE: I should have to take jou to the orchard, but the 

 first indications I have fouud are generally in the thick setting of 

 the leaves up in the tops. I have seen the leaves eight inches long 

 and two inches wide, set not more than half an inch apart on a 

 rapidly growing central branch. 



A Member; How deep would you have the cultivation? 



MR. HALE: Three, four or five inches; rather five inches than 

 anything else. 



PROF. SURFACE: What implement do you cultivate with? 



MR. HALE: Every implement of soil torture that I have ever 

 heard of — plows, spring tooth harrows, disc harrows — everything I 

 have ever heard of. I have some rocky land where the stones are 

 very thick and we use everything we can get — anything that will 

 loosen up the soil. 



A Member: What next? 



MR. HALE: Oh, well, we get a slow-going pair of horses, and go 

 over it with a sharp plow, lengthwise and crosswise, and contrairi- 

 wise — any w^ay we can get around those stones; if you were to come 

 there you would probably want to know where the land was; you 

 would not see anything but stones. 



A Member: What varieties of winter apples is it possible to raise 

 in your section? 



MR. HALE: Oh, well, there is the Baldwin, the Rhode Island 

 Greening, the Rome Beauty, the Jonathan — they are all winter 

 apples. 



PROF. WATTS: Are you including the Rome Beauty in your list 

 of high quality apples? 



MR. HALE: It is very much better with us than here in Penn- 

 sylvania. 



MR. ELDON: How do you get your Italians, and how do you like 

 them? 



MR. HALE: They are mostly from the North of Italy, and love 

 the land and love to work in it. Once get one good man, and you 

 will soon have a lot of others. I always have more than I can use. 

 Most of our men spend the winter in New York as waiters at 

 hotels. I believe if you went to New York to-day you would find 

 some of our men waiting on you at the Waldorf-Castoria, or some 

 other joint. 



MR. ELDON: What do you have to pay for that class of labor? 



MR. HALE: A dollar and forty cents a day, and a house to live 

 in. Men with families have a house, while the rest live in a bar- 

 racks. There is a good, big garden on the place, and the men seem 

 to taki' delight in working it; it looks like a veritable flower garden. 



PROF. SURFACE : Uo you have a cover crop for the peach trees, 

 and cultivate the same as for apples? 



MR. HALE: Yes. 



MR. ENGLE: Do you cultivate for young apples the same as for 

 old? 



MR. HALE: No. 



MR. GOOD: You spoke about having weeds for a cover crop; do 

 you allow them to go to seed? 



