40 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Morrell — There has been a sort of ignoring in all of this discus- 

 sion of the difference in the different frnits. We have been talking abont 

 the treatment of peach orchards, while the treatment and habit of growth 

 of the apple is so much different from the growth of the peach that I 

 fear we may get a little confused. A peach needs a surface soil up to 

 the place where the rootlets will get light, but this is not understood 

 by some. The matter of the proper needs of root growth and the proper 

 soil necessary to secure the best results is the least understood of any 

 section of horticulture, and it is one of the most important. Above 

 the ground is much easier handled than that below. For a number of 

 years I was agent for a powder company and sold dynamite for the pur- 

 pose we have been talking here, but one thing I can tell you, if you use 

 it on wet, hard land, clay, it packs the soil under the shot just like 

 a kettle, and it will hold water just the same. Making a hole in the 

 clay soil would loosen the dirt if you had a wet season. I have used it 

 breaking down dirt in railroads. I had an experience in subsoiling in 

 181)2 for pears. I plowed eight or nine inches deep with three horses, 

 then put four horses on a subsoiler on good tile-drained clay. It began 

 to rain and rained until the 8th day of July, and those trees barely 

 lived, some of them did not live, and when we took them up they were 

 rotten from the lower end to one-half and two-thirds of the distance 

 to the top, because the soil being stirred up so deep, it simply held the 

 water to a dangerous extent. I have therefore come to the conclusion 

 that eight or nine inches of preparation is about all that we want. We 

 used to think the other Avay was the thing, but our experience just nar- 

 rated has made us careful about that. If we can turn under a good, 

 prepared clover sod, and then grow some crop on the soil to make it 

 pay its way two or three years, I think you have done all you can. 



A Member^ — Mr. Morrell has just hinted at a matter that I wanted to 

 say a word on and Mr. Ladd also mentioned the matter and that is, re- 

 cently I attended a meeting where one of the leading speakers in an 

 address stated that people were planting so many orchards that there 

 would not be people to care for them. He claimed that to pay from |75 

 to |125 iier acre for land on which to plant an orchard was a great mis- 

 take, especially if you did not have plenty of capital and labor to care 

 for it. I did not like to say anything there at the time, but my own 

 experience does not bear out this warning, for with the proper cultiva- 

 tion and care my 1,000 acres of orchard has paid, and more than paid 

 for the growing of the orchard until it comes into bearing. So I say 

 that no young man need be afraid of setting out an orchard, if he has 

 anything like a good location, for he can make it pay its way as he goes 

 along. 



Mr. Rose — I had a little exi)erience last spring in regard to this. I 

 wish you people could look at these trees I have in mind, especially 

 cherry trees. I ran out of trees and I had to buy 2.50 to finish the 

 orchard. Not over two-thirds of them lived and not more than two- 

 thirds of those that did live made half the growth that they should. 

 These trees were w^intered in one of the cellars in Indiana. Now, the 

 fact is, the moment the tree is put in the cellar from mother earth its 

 vitality begins to decrease. I would never buy cherry trees that were 

 wintered. I also had trouble with peach trees, but I did not mound 

 them as high as Mr. Morrell. There are different views on this subject 



