Winter Meeting. 313 



was slightly more clay than would be found along the high hills and 

 bluffs. The land was plowed in the fall, and the sod being very 

 tough, some difficulty was experienced in turning the sod thoroughly, 

 but all was finally plowed before freezing weather. 



The plowed land was marked off twenty-five feet apart each 

 way, with a two-horse turning plow, one round being made in each 

 furroAV, thus throwing the soil outward going each way. This left 

 quite a furrow, which made it necessary to do but little digging to 

 plant the trees. No attempt was made* to harrow or otherwise molest 

 the remainder of the ground, this work being left until the follow- 

 ing spring. The trees were unpacked in the field and heeled in at con- 

 venient places in the furrows. Two-year-old trees four to five feet 

 high were used exclusively. At the time of planting the tops were 

 properly shaped and the roots pruned to correspond with the heads. 

 All the trees were wrapped with common wooden veneer wrappers 

 immediately after setting, as the rabbits were very plentiful and 

 earlier experience showed that it would be necessary to thus protect 

 the young trees as the}'- would be injured if allowed to remain un- 

 wrapped for a single night. This was especially true along the 

 borders adjoining some woodlands. Although planted as quickly as 

 possible, cold weather came on and it was very difficult to wrap the 

 remaining trees owing to the fact that the wrappers would freeze and 

 would split when being placed in position. Finally, having run out 

 of wrappers, there were a number of trees left that could not be 

 wrapped. The last wrappers were used along the outside, leaving 

 the unwrapped trees toward the middle of the field. The ground 

 being frozen it was impossible to set them in the soil properly. How- 

 ever, after the first thaw it was an easy matter to go along and shove 

 the wrappers in the ground to the proper depth — about two inches, 

 lliis was even better than if they had been buried in the usual way 

 in the first place. 



The unplanted trees were left heeled-in in the field througliout 

 the winter and came through in good condition, although it was neces- 

 sary to construct a tight woven wire fence around them to protect 

 them from the '•abbits. In the spring as soon as possible the plant- 

 ing was resumed and all the trees wrapped as before. The land was 

 rented to a farmer to be planted in corn, the rental being one-half the 

 crop after being gathered, the cultivation of the trees during the 

 season being paid for in cash. There were six rows of corn between 

 each two rows of trees and one row left vacant where the trees oc- 

 curred. The corn was drilled in the rows, in only one direction. 



