466 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Montague. — I dig carrots by running a plow near the roots and then 

 pulling them up. The subsoil is certainly a great improvement. 



Mr. Drew. — Slanure in the fall for turnips, plow it in, cultivate with gang 

 plow in the spring, and never plant two successive crops on the same land. 



Mr. Parmelee. — I have a curious piece of wheat, or rather what was wheat, 

 for the wheat has disappeared. But I have seen no yellow leaves, nor have I 

 noticed the Hessian fly. What is the matter I don't know : perhaps cut-worm. 



Mr. Marshall. — The fly is here, but where they work the dead plant is 

 always found. 



Mr. Eeese. — I sowed two and one-half acres of wheat early on peas and oat 

 ground. It is pretty much eaten up. Scarcely any wheat or appearance of 

 wheat left, but where there is any I find the Hessian fly. This wheat never 

 covered the ground. Where the ground was well covered the fly has not done 

 so much damage. 



Mr. Tracy. — I have read that good root crops may be raised on clover sod 

 turned down in the fall. 



Mr. Marshall — Such ground should be gang-plowed in the spring ; the soil 

 must be finely pulverized for turnips. 



Mr. McCallum. — Will manure, put on the ground this fall one year ago and 

 plowed in, but no crop planted, benefit crops the coming year ? 



Mr. Parmelee. — Experiments seem to demonstrate that manure placed on 

 the surface does the most good, though I was educated in the opposite notion. 



Mr. Marshall. — I prefer, if the manure is not too coarse, to place it on the 

 surface and work in with gang plow in the spring. 



Mr. Parmelee. — I mulched one row of trees with strong manure and another 

 with straw, and if there is a difference, it is in favor of the straw mulching. 

 The straw prevents evaporation, and its benefit is seen in the growth of the 

 trees. 



Mr. Drew. — That is Nature's way. Leaves perform the same office for our 

 forest trees. 



ROOT CULTURE. 



Old Missiojf, Dec. 14, 1874. 



Club met on the evening of this day, Mr. J. M. Pratt in the chair, George L. 

 Eoberts, secretary. 



Mr. Reese exhibited specimens of ruta-baga and mangel-wurzel, the former 

 weighing 14| pounds. The ground on which these were grown was manured 

 in the fall, plowed in the spring. The seed was sown on the fourth day of 

 June, and yielded at the rate of 800 bushels to the acre. He thought if the 

 crop had been thoroughly tilled the yield would have been far larger. His 

 mangel-wurzels were injured by the worms; otherwise did well. They are 

 better for cows than the ruta-bagas, as they do not affect the milk, but they are 

 very tender, and as easily damaged by frost as the potato. Owing to their 

 tenderness they are more difficult to handle than ruta-bagas, and are attacked 

 by the cut-worm, though not by the fly. The fly will disturb the ruta-bagas, 

 but they are a harder root than the mangel-wurzel. 



