396 State Horticultural Society. 



if sprayed earlier, the solution seems to prevent the development of the 

 fruit buds. While fruit trees are most liable to attack, berry bushes are 

 also subject to injury, with the entire range of ornamental plants. 



ORCHARDS. 



(.T. H. Darche, Paikville, Mo.) 

 KIND OF SOIL NECESSARY. 



First — What kind of soil is necessary for a successful orchard? 

 Most any good, deep soil that will raise good com will grow an orchard. 

 I have successfully raised apples and peaches on upland hard pan in 

 Eastern Kansas, where the humus and surface soil was only three to four 

 inches deep and underlaid with a cold, stiff, hard soil. Yet trees will 

 grow faster and more thrivingly on deeper soil. One thing essential is 

 good drainage. 



I have my farfn in the valley of the Arkansas River, where the 

 whole valley is sub-irrigated or the water is on one level with the water 

 in the river. The soil is a sandy loam all the way down, and the water 

 percolates through the soil. We think we have the ideal soil for an 

 orchard. At least we know what it will do, by what it has done, and 

 count on having pretty good crops most every year, especially in apples.^ 



KIND OF TREES TO PLANT. 



Second — In planting, what kind of trees shall we plant — whole-root, 

 piece-root, or budded tree 



The whole-root, as usually sold and delivered by agents, is a hum- 

 bug, and as often grown by some of the brag large nurseries is just as 

 much a humbug. The Kansas Experiment Station, after planting and 

 cultivating for some years an orchard set with all three methods of propa- 

 gation, decided that good trees are made by all three methods, and in 

 measurements and thriftiness, upright growth and permanent hold on the 

 soil, the good piece-root two-year apple is just as good a tree to plant 

 as any other. Now, for a couple of illustrations. About 1886 and 1889 

 I bought so-called whole-root apple grafts from eastern Kansas and 

 eastern Missouri, respectively, for the very purpose of testing the whole- 

 root theory as boasted of by these firms. In each case they were long 

 piece-root graft about one and one-half to two inches longer than the 

 usual piece of roots, and were probably all crown-grafts, but were cut 

 off to piece-roots all the same. In the nursery row the whole-root grafts 



