52 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



it and give it the most intense culture possible; I think they should spend 

 the cost of that tillage in fertilizing, and put it on the other half of the orchard, 

 and cut the grass which grows there and leave it on the ground. In other 

 words, gentlemen, it is always a more forcible illustration to see improvement 

 than it is to see degeneracy. No human being can go through that orchard 

 that Prof. Hedrick has been talking about, without being impressed with the 

 fact that the tilled part is far superior to the other; the growth on the trees 

 would average four or five inches of new wood; the growth on the sod mulch 

 would barely equal one inch — half an inch I think would come closer to it. 

 A man with good spectacles, or a telescope, twenty miles away, in viewing 

 that orchard could tell where they stopped tillage. But I don't think that 

 is exactly the point anyway. You seed down any orchard, however good 

 it is, and the first tendency would be for the grass to grow and take away 

 plant or moisture from the tree. You have to put fertilizer on that grass 

 in order to make it compare with the tillage. 



Prof. Hedrick: We did part of it. 



Mr. CoUingwood: I believe that will help the experiment. I went home 

 and I looked at my old rough hills all covered with rocks and stone walls, 

 and I noticed that the very best trees on my farm are just like a lot of trees 

 in that experiment that are on a stone wall. I think Prof. Hedrick will 

 agree with me there are a dozen trees in the orchard which are growing 

 within comparatively few feet of a stone wall, that are just as good as any 

 he has in the tilled portion. Am I right, Prof. Hedrick? 



Prof. Hedrick: Yes. 



Mr. CoUingwood: I think so. Those trees have not been cultivated, 

 and evidently there is something in the soil under that old wall that makes 

 the tree grow and makes the fruit grow and gives it high color. Those of 

 us who have two-thirds of our ground covered with rock — I have three 

 miles of stone wall around my farm — I may say that, going there and com- 

 paring the cost of tillage with the cost of the other sod, made me go home 

 and think I would plant all the trees I could along my stone walls and let 

 them alone. But there is one thing I am going to do, and I wish I could 

 get fifty men in this audience to go into a club with me — is to take 400 peach 

 trees planted in the sod, that have not been ploughed or cultivated; I am 

 willing to plough half of that orchard up and handle it just exactly as Prof. 

 Hedrick will say. I have got an orchard of 500 apple trees, and I will try 

 to do the same thing with that. Not one of those orchards have ever been 

 ploughed, mind you. That is different from yours. I will plough half the 

 orchard up, and I will put the cost of the tillage in fertilizer on the other half, 

 and cut the grass; I will do the same with the apple. I think a lot of us 

 ought to get together and not leave the burden of this experiment on this 

 one station. Mr. Hale will do it; he will seed down several acres of his peach 

 orchard; yes, he will. 



Mr. Hale: I don't dare to be a fool, when I know better. 



Mr. CoUingwood: All right. I think one of the best experiments we 

 could have would be to make a universal experiment. Let us ask Prof. 

 Hedrick to make out a schedule for handling that half of that orchard, and 

 let us go right in and rip up that sod and do just as he tells us. Let us put 

 fertilizer on the other side, cut the grass and leave it around the trees, and 

 report from year to year. I think that would show something, because it 

 would scatter it all over. I have come to the belief that this matter of 

 mulching is largely a matter of sowing, and perhaps a matter of variety. 

 If we had a very wet sowing, with natural water running out of it, springs 



