24 - STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



hours after this topping had begun, I was driving down one of the avenues 

 of the orchard, and a negro, who had formerly been a slave on the place 

 and had never been off it, one of our best and most faithful men, stepped 

 out on the avenue and stopped me. He says, "Cap'n, I'se po wailful sorry 

 for you for this loss. You know, Cap'n, I'se here when you put dem fust 

 little sticks in the ground." He says, "I remember when you fust planted 

 dem fust little sticks in the ground, an' foh five yeahs we see de money 

 comin' out dat winder eb'ry Sat'day night. De Lawd know where it come 

 from; but it comes fum somewhere. Den you get some good crops, and you 

 go 'long, and eb'rybody pros{)erous ; and den dere come dis great frost. 

 I thought it was bad 'nuff when yo' done lose de crop; but now I see yo' 

 done lose de trees; cut se tops all off. I'se ben talking to de boys 'bout it. 

 We'se sorry for yo'. We don't wanter go off dis place. I'se talked it over 

 with de boys, and we all wants to hab yo' lower our wages one-half, and 

 we'll stay with yo' 'till dis orchard comes into bearing again." 



Think of men, getting 60 and 75 cents a day, coming and vohuitarily 

 offering to cut their wages in two because they were sorry for you! That 

 is sympathy that wins. And I said to the man then, ''There will be never 

 any lowering of wages. That sort of spirit will make these trees live. They 

 have just got to live and pay these wages, so cheer up and keep at work." 



We took out the brush; and put on fertilizers; and we shook up the orchard 

 with culture as it was never shook up before, big new tops were grown on those 

 old butts in one summer and the next year's crop was the largest and most 

 profitable we ever had, and I tell you that old colored man's spirit and the 

 loyal help of all those helpers had a lot to do with it. The Creator of all 

 good things never goes back on work of that sort. 



Q. What is the best treatment for young apple orchards, that were killed 

 to the ground in the October, 1906, freeze, and have thrown up from one to 

 eight sprouts above the graft? Will it pay to leave a young tree that is 

 dead one-half way around the body? 



Prof. Fletcher: It will depend, I suppose, upon the age of the trees in 

 the first place, and also upon how seriously they have been injured. I 

 cannot tell you — Mr. Hale wouldn't want to tell you I know, whether it 

 would or would not pay. But we can say this, that the older the trees are 

 the less likely it is it would pay to keep them. To make an off-hand guess, 

 I should give it as my opinion, only as my opinion, that trees over two years 

 planting, which have been injured as seriously as this states, and which had 

 thrown up these suckers, it would not pay to keep. But if the trees had 

 been only planted one or two years, and one of those sprouts above the 

 graft was stalwart and smooth and promising, it might pay to keep them. 

 But the weight of my opinion would be strongly in favor of getting new trees 

 and starting from the ground up. Trees cost little; a few dollars an acre 

 buys them. The care and attention you give the trees costs ever so much 

 more. So one would be reasonably safe, I think, in saying that it would 

 almost pay to get new trees. 



Q. Would it pay to leave a young tree that is dead one-half way around 

 theV3ody? 



Prof. Fletcher: I don't think it would. I am pretty safe in saying it 

 would not. If there is a small wound around the body, that can be healed 

 up; but an}^ injury like a freeze extending over any length of the body, 

 half-way of it, I would not think it would pay to keep the tree. In other 

 words, i think that you should err, if you err at all, on the side of getting 

 new trees, because trees weakened by the freeze as seriously as these seem to 



