74 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



they did much better, but I tliiiik for me I got better results by breaking 

 the orchard once iu two or three years. In regard to the exjiense of cul- 

 tivating the orchards, if we break the orchards in the spring and not 

 cultivate too late, so we can sow a cover crop like peas, if there is not 

 too much sod, or if we can put it iu iu corn and not cut the corn, and 

 then turn in the hogs on the corn instead of cutting it, you pasture the 

 hogs cheaply and get a humus on the ground. 



Mr. Hall — I am from Ionia county. We have one orchard up there 

 that I do not know as it Avas ever plowed since it began to bear, and 

 that is the N. B. Hayes orchard. The approximate yield of that orchard 

 as he gave it to me was about 2,800 bushels of No. I's and No. 2's, or 

 a little over |8,000 for the crop. His system is sod mulch with plenty 

 of stable manure and sheep. I would not dare to tuni sheep into an 

 orchard of mine, but he does. He has more nerve than I do. This is 

 considered one of the best orchards in southern Michigan. 



A Member— If there is anything that I want to discourage it is sod 

 mulch. I know of an orchard whose owner had a sod mulch and it Avas 

 not worth half as much as Avhen it Avas cultiA'ated. 



A Member — I would like to ask Avhat kind of sod mulch that is? 



Answer — I cannot answer that question for I am not endorsing that 

 system. 



Mr. Kowe — I umy say that I am Avatching tAvo orchards and have 

 been ff)r a number of years — the Watkins' orchard in .Jackson county 

 and the Farnsworth orchard at Toledo, \yatkins' orchard Avas never 

 ])loAved, and the Farnsworth orchard has not been ploAA'ed, and Avlien I 

 was there Mr. FarnsAvorth Avas gathering apples and the groAvth under 

 the trees was so thick that an apple could not get to the ground. I 

 asked him what he thought of plowing that up, and his reply was, '*No, 

 no."' NoAv both these orchards are producing large crops of excellent 

 fruit. 



A Member — I have been raising apples for the last tAventy-five years 

 on sod mulch. And so favorable am I to it that I would not allow a 

 man to plow it up if he would do it for nothing and board himself, for 

 I can produce just as good fruit Avithout cultivation on my land as 

 with it. 



A A^oice — I would like to hear from ^Iv. Hall. 



Mr. Hall — We haven't any patent on our system. As long as I haA'e 

 come to this meeting to learn something, I don't ju'opose to be a sponge 

 and absorb altogether and not giA-e anything if demanded. HoAAever, 

 I do not feel particularly proud of our attainments, but after all, they 

 have been fairly satisfactoiy. Twenty year-s ago, as has been stated, 

 I planted out the best twenty acres of land on my farm to an orchard, 

 and some of my neighboi*s said that they felt sorry for me. I could 

 raise from twenty-five to thirty-five and sometimes forty bushels of 

 Avheat to the acre. "It Avas too good a field to six)il.'' they said, and I 

 confess that at one time I felt that way for a little while, too. Fourteen 

 yeare did seem like a long time to wait before any revenue came in from 

 the orchard. But all during this time I continued to raise wheat. I 

 have been accused of being a robber and I plead guilty to the charge. 

 But this summer I Avas fortunate in having one of the men Avho so 

 charged me visit our place this summer and he went out through the 

 orchard — he was a rather short man, and I had Canada field peas up to 



