JUNE MEETING, 1S77. 125 



place fi great deal of stress upon the proper use of water, but a majority of 

 those who set out trees employ it to tlieir disadvantage. The water is poured 

 upon the surface and often never reaches the mouths of the tree, and the bak- 

 ing of the wet soil in the hot sun is a positive disadvantage. I use water while 

 setting a tree before I linish putting in tlie earth, and in such manner as to 

 have it moisten the soil immediately about the roots, then put dry earth above. 

 I have an illustration in hand where one thousand cabbage plants were put out, 

 five hundred were planted and watered afterward, five hundred were set in the 

 water and dry earth hauled around afterward, the result was that the first lot 

 succumbed almost entirely to a hot sun wliile the last lot lived and did Avell. 



Mr. Dyckman. — Would you put water about newly set maple trees in the 

 spring if the weather was rpiite dry? 



Mr. Stearns. — I would most certainly, and by digging away some of the sur- 

 face earth first see that the water reached the desired spot, then haul the dirt 

 back again. 



Mr. Thompson. — I understand that Mr. Davis of Kalamazoo, when he wants 

 something particularly nice in the strawberry line for his market, goes to Mr. 

 Duukley, who irrigates his strawberry field by means of water drawn up by a 

 windmill, and makes it pay too. 



Mr. Fox. — I am quite well acquainted with Mr. Dunkley's jilan. He raises 

 some water with a windmill, but his main supply comes from a pond which is 

 fed by a little rill. His field is so arranged on an inclined plane that he con- 

 veys the water by a wooden box along the head of his rows, and by openings 

 along at intervals he is enabled to run a stream of water down his rows of straw- 

 berries when he likes. He mulches liis ground, and the water passing along 

 under the mulch gives the vines its full effect. The result is an astonishing 

 growth of vines, and when it comes to berries they are of the finest and best. 

 As regards the watering of trees, I do not advocate it in the least, because a 

 majority of those who might employ it would pour it on the roots, Avashing 

 the earth away, leaving as bad a condition of things as our friend Lannin had 

 in the pear orchard where the moles undermined his trees. I have had rare 

 success in planting out trees with no water at all, and I simply cultivate when 

 most people would water. Thorough and continuous stirring of the soil is 

 better in my opinion than watering. 



Mr. Stearns. — I wish to add a word about Mr. Dunkley's irrigation. He 

 has raised Seneca Chief plants this season that have borne a quart apiece under 

 his method, and having a natural spring above the level of his patch of straw- 

 berries it is not expensive for him to manage the watering. 



Mr, Spooner. — I have had very good success in using beneath trees trans- 

 planted a few pieces of potato in place of watering. 



Mr. Clubb. — I believe in using beach sand in place of so much watering. 

 On the top of our highest sand dunes, where the surface is a dry blowing sand, 

 you need to scrape only beneath the surface sliglitly to find permanent mois- 

 ture, and when trees are planted on this drifting sand there are scarcely any 

 that ever die from the effect of drouth. This sand makes an excellent mulch 

 to hold moisture. 



Mr. Garfield. — I wish to add my mite to the discussion upon this topic. I 

 am in favor of using water in transplanting plants and trees, and cultivating 

 them during the dry weather, too, and I am strongly opposed to the sprinkling 

 of the surface every day during a continuous drouth. Nothing could work 

 greater injury. I have an instance to give you. A bed of geraniums came 



