422 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



it has done some good work in this direction and as the head, to co-ordinate 

 and direct the work of other experiment stations, could be made still more 

 useful. And such trial stations we must have. If Iowa has need of and sup- 

 ports twelve, can Michigan longer afford to do without any? We neeJ from 

 three to five, and one of these should be somewhere near the southwestern bor- 

 der of the State. And when we have such a station — well su])ported, properly 

 manned, and duly equipped for its work, the problem as to the production of 

 apples in southwestern Michigan will be in fair way, and far in the way, 

 toward solution. 



TIMBEK BELTS AND GRASS. 



Before closing, and as having an intimate relation to this subject, I wish to 

 urge upon your attention the planting of forest trees, not alone for protection 

 and a means for ameliorating climate, but for the money value as well. Some 

 of you know of the humble efforts made by the writer on his own farm, in 

 this direction, and those who doubt as to the paying nature of such enter- 

 prises might do well to look ofver his 3,000 transplanted forest trees. They 

 would see several hundred maples and pines by the road side, from the for- 

 mer of which have been made sugar and syrup for several years. They would 

 see black walnut, butternut and chestnut trees, grown from the nut, that 

 have borne fruit for fifteen years. They would see in his reserved wood-lot 

 hundreds of spruce, pine and other evergreen trees, a foot in diameter and 

 thirty feet high. They would see a grove of sugar-maple trees, some 70.0 in 

 number, in one body, some of them ready for the sugar-trough — now valuable, 

 and that may become more valuable for generations. And if every land- 

 owner from here to the Indiana line and west to the lake could be induced to 

 plant a timber belt on two sides at least of every 80 acres, in a few years you 

 could grow orchards anywhere in the country; and from trees duly tested at 

 the agricultural stations, no doubt, orchards as hardy for us as any in any 

 State, and as sure to feed with a generous and luscious bounty the generations 

 yet unborn. 



Mr. Lyon : I concur with Mr. Hathaway that tliB surest way to get the best 

 tree is by double working. I would perhaps give more weight to deteriora- 

 tion of soil ; but his notes on the forest are excellent. lie is a pioneer in 

 forest culture. I have watched with great interest his experiments in this 

 direction. 



Mr. Betts: I met with a misfortune in having a lot of young trees girdled 

 and cut them off and grafted, which is really the same as Mr. Ilathaway's 

 double working, and they proved the hardiest and bust orchard trees. 



Mr. Holloway: My experience corroborates that of Mr. Hathaway. I have 

 got my best trees from top-grafting, and I am satisfied we need to pay more 

 attention to the stocks into which the grafts are inserted. Trees weakened 

 by winter-killing are more apt to be infested with insects. 



Mr. Watkins: We are deteriorating in orcharding on account of insect 

 ravages and the effect of fungi. 



Mr. Coller: The trouble is, in our old localities, we are thieves; we steal 

 the elements from our orchard soils and put nothing back. Of course the 

 trees become tender and subject to insect incursions, and we richly deserve 

 all the calamities that come to us. We need to feed, cultivate and prune. 

 If we do ail this and use ordinary precaution with regard to insects, we shall 

 have reward. Even new orchards are planted upon starved land. No won- 

 der that disaster follows. 



