136 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a couple of years as in the first place. It packed again. We had only 

 trifled with the difficulty; it needed something else. It profited as much 

 by tiling and green manuring as by subsoiling. 



In orchards you can subsoil only twice in the lifetime of the trees; but 

 when it comes to strawberries, where you can turn over the land fre- 

 quently, you can subsoil at every rotation. 



People often look upon drains, it seems to me, from a wrong point of 

 view. They look upon them as ditches, as a means for carrying off water, 

 but that is not always primarily the object; it is to make a reservoir for 

 holding water. The land becomes broken up and fibrous, and holds 

 water by capillary power. It is important to put the drains in deep 

 enough, say from three to four and a half feet deep, and then you have 

 your reservoir deep. This piece of land that we subsoiled with such poor 

 success, is an excellent soil since we have drained and manured it, and we 

 are now raising roses on it. When we put fibre in it, we increased its 

 capacity to become a reservoir of moisture. 



I do not make these remarks for the purpose of discouraging experi- 

 ments upon irrigation, which are exceedingly important, but I only want 

 to impress upon you the fact that no man has any business to talk about 

 irrigation until he is thoroughly convinced that good culture and every- 

 thing else must go along with it; otherwise he would not get enough 

 to pay for the cost of the water. 



In regard to the cultivation of apple orchards, there are many points I 

 would like to discuss, but I will mention only a few. First, in regard to 

 the current discussion about the use of crimson clover. I suppose half 

 the experiments with crimson clover have been failures. The reason 

 why it fails, it is not necessary to enter into. I might say, however, that 

 the crimson clover is an annual and, if sown too late, will not mature; 

 and if too early, will become too ripe. We think that the middle of July 

 or first of August is a good time to sow. I do not believe that very many 

 people know why it is sown. The great majority of fruitgrowers in New 

 York state, who talk about crimson clover, think that it is good to pro- 

 tect the trees from frost. I do not suppose it makes one degree of dif- 

 ference with the temperature of the soil whether it has a covering of 

 crimson clover or not. 



It is a part of the general philosophy of tillage to introduce this crim- 

 son clover at the end of the season. We know in the first place that 

 rotation is necessary. Now, this is a means of introducing some sort of 

 rotation into our land, by means of which we put fibre into it, and at the 

 same time increase its fertility. The reason why nursery trees "exhaust 

 the land" is not because they take too much potash from the soil, but 

 because the land has been "killed," as the nurseryman says. It has 

 become hard, settled down, dead, and lifeless, because of its injured 

 mechanical condition. I do not believe that crimson clover is the only 

 crop which should be used as a catch-crop to cover our lands in the win- 

 ter. I believe that we should not confine ourselves to any. We need 

 rotation of manures. Rye, buckwheat, corn, oats, winter wheat, all 

 these things and many more, can be used as catch- or cover-crops. But 

 of all these, crimson clover, I believe, is the most valuable; but I would 

 not use it exclusively, year after year. 



