Summer Meeting. 51 



dreds of acres in new lands, where the old decaying roots poison our 

 apple roots and cause the root-rot. We put health}^ trees near old 

 stumps, and the roots on that side of the apple tree will die. On a 

 hickory flat the> roots were near the surface and the two-year trees got 

 to be two inches in diameter, but never had a good root. We believe 

 that new ground should be thoroughly cultivated and the wild nature 

 worked out. But Mr. Helvern thinks that old land fertilized is better 

 than new land where the roots decay. 



Secretary Goodman — We are too prone to jump to a conclusion 

 from one experience. It is true that some places in the Ozark coun- 

 try have root fungi, which will injure the apple roots, even the Black 

 Jacks were so afifected that they would break oflf at the touch, but it is 

 not so of good land. All rotted roots do not infect the apple roots. 

 But even in land cultivated for 25 years the root-rot may affect the ap- 

 ple. We had one spot like this, and there we had the worst case of root 

 rot. But one special instance does not give us general conclusion. 



The proper sub-soil is worth ten times as much as the top soil, for 

 we can make the upper soil what we want it, but can never change the 

 sub-soil. We clear the land in August, plow it in October, and plant 

 the trees on it in the spring. 



President Whitten — The horticultural grounds at the Station con- 

 sist of the oldest cleared land in an old town. This piece has been 

 cropped for 80 years, and }'et we have one corner which is still infected 

 with the root-rot. Nine years ago we put out some trees, and in some 

 cases have made five replants, and these still rot off. Where the soil is 

 congenial to this rot it continues. The trees from one to five years 

 old die. This proves that the fungus lives long after the forest trees 

 have rotted out. It lives in pockets, and it would hardly pay to wait 

 for it to die out. We find it in the oldest as well as the newest land. 



TALK ON INSECTS. 



(By Prof. J. M. Stedman, Columbia, Mo.) 



I wish to talk today more especially to the people of Morgan 

 county and this immediate vicinity, because I have not had the pleasure 

 of being in this locality before and of discussing the injurious insects 

 more frequently met in your orchards. 



As a general rule, it is absolutely necessary that we should deter- 

 mine whether we are to deal with a biting or a sucking insect before 

 we can apply intelligently the proper remedies for combating the pest, 



