GRAYLING INSTITUTE. 365 



Mr. Fundi : I think a leaf mould mulch from deciduous trees very good 

 for trees lately set. The Transcendent and the Ben Davis are the hardiest 

 trees, but I have had none kill back, though many die altogether. My Ben 

 Davis bore the third year from setting. 



I grow Black Cap raspberries, strawberries, currants and goosberries 

 (English). 



Mr. G-lidden: Are peaches ever grown here? 



Mr. Eose : I know of but four trees and they have not bloomed. One, a 

 seedling, is five feet high and thrifty; two on hills near us hold their 

 leaves longer than the trees down here. The hills are not frosted as early in 

 the fall as the lowlands. 



Mr. Funch : I have picked one and one-half bushels of peaches from two 

 trees on my farm 110 feet higher than this, in South Branch township. 

 They have not borne for two years because of cold winters, but the trees are 

 not killed. They are seedlings. I raised 22 bushels of apples last year. 



Mr. Steckert: Around Houghton Lake they raise apples and plums 

 successfully. 



Mr. Eose : In New York I set some trees in half dirt and half old leached 

 ashes. They grew little or none. Next spring I washed all but three with 

 strong lye, as strong as for soap, and mulched with leached ashes, both with 

 good effect. 



Mr. Funch : I find wood ashes improves fruit. 



Mr. Glidden : Ashes only benefit through the roots. Trees naturally have 

 rough bark which should not be scraped off. 



Mr. Funch : My washing was not to scrape off the bark but to wash off a 

 black scum. 



Dr. Beal : Probably it was small bark lice that the wash took off. 



Mr. Eose : There are pores in the bark and if they become grown up it is 

 well to wash it. 



Mr. Steckert: Would Mr. Glidden slit the bark of a tree? 



Mr. Glidden : No, I see no use in it. 



Dr. Beal : As to bark of trees. A good healthy tree has, when several years 

 old, an impervious layer of cork around it which won't even let liquids out 

 of a bottle, and fertilizers must be applied to the roots. 



My effort in experimenting here has been to test varieties of grass and 

 clover and forage plants on one rod square plots, some sown late, and no 

 fertilizer used. We sowed 90 to 100 species. I have yet more kinds to try 

 from Iowa, from Eussia and elsewhere. 



We have also tried many trees from Eussia and elsewhere, 6,600 of them, 

 planted in rows as corn is for cultivation. 



In Germany, 100 years ago, they began planting trees, and now find those 

 white pines that they imported from this country a most valuable timber 

 tree. 



In Walton, Oscoda and Baldwin I tried plats of spurry, clover, timothy, 

 Orchard grass, Eye grass, Alsike and others, singly and mixed, and so far 

 find all the mixtures better than any single kind. 



Another trial was to sow ten kinds on ground with no preparation. 



At Harrison we rented an old piece that was thin, jack pine land that 

 had been cropped six seasons running, until the land was pretty well run 

 out and discouraged, as was its owner. We want to see what we can do with 



