PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 41 



avoided I think we will find the sweet cherry is nearly or quite as hardy 

 as the sour. There is no use, according to my idea, iii attempting to 

 grow them, if we allow them to grow too rapidly while they are yoang, 

 or allow them to grow up high where the sun has a chance at the trunk. 



Q. How would it do to sod them down? A. Last year, without any 

 expectation, any anticipation of such a drought, I had some cherries that 

 were growing too thriftily, and I sodded the ground; and surely I had nc 

 expectation of two such years, and this year they do not look very prom- 

 ising. It is true that if they are neglected or laid down to grass you 

 won't get as much fruit from them. 



Mr. Rice: Some fifteen or sixteen years ago I put out around the 

 house several varieties of cherry. My experience with Early Richmonds 

 has been rather against them. I have been handling trees about 

 forty years. I do not know of an Early Richmond tree that is bearing 

 good fruit. When they got about as big as peas they began to turn red; 

 they got a little larger, but they seemed to be so bitter we couldn't eat 

 them at all. The trees soon died out. Those that didn't die I chopped 

 down. But I planted Maydukes at the same time and they never have 

 failed a crop. I planted two Empress Eugenie and they are the most 

 healthy trees I have ever seen. This year the frost got them and they 

 had no cherries on at all. Mayduke is of course a very late cherry, 

 very sour, and a little bitter. You see your tree loaded with a ripe crop, 

 and about three weeks later you see your tree loaded with a green crop 

 — another crop. 



Mr. Morrill: The characteristics you described as of Empress Eugenie 

 is a Mayduke characteristic. I think anybody can raise Early Rich- 

 mond trees anywhere in Michigan, on high, dry ground. You will 

 see them loaded with perfect fruit. 



IRRIGATION AT THE COLLEGE. 



Mr, Brown: We have noticed a great thing on these grounds — their 

 system of spreading water. Let us have Prof. Taft tell us whether it will 

 pay or not. 



Prof. Taft: I can give my opinion regarding the question as asked 

 in a very few words. I think it will pay if water can be readily 

 obtained. There are many sections of the state where you can get water 

 from a lake or stream, and if the lift is not too great we can afford to 

 pump water for vegetables and small fruits, while, if it can be distributed 

 by gravity, it will pay to use it for many of the farm crops. 



The system we have here, as many of you have observed, has a num- 

 ber of hydrants located upon the higher points in the garden, to which 

 a steam-pump forces the water from the river through a three-inch iron 

 pipe, the smaller distributing pipes being two-and-one-half inch. By 

 means of a fire hose we can reach all points of the garden. We havp 

 tried various methods of distributing the water, and are of the opinion 

 that where the amount of water available is sufficient to supply a two- 

 inch stream, surface irrigation in furrows is preferable for most garden 

 and fruit crops. 



For subirrigation we used two-and-one-half-inch drain tiles, laid at a 

 depth of fifteen to eighteen inches, placing them so there will be small 

 6 



