160 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A. That is as one may think best. I don't believe in deep plowing for 

 an orchard. Our plowing is done as shallow as we can do it. People 

 have different opinions about that and it can be argued for hours. My own 

 experience teaches me not to cultivate deeply. 



Mr. ;Morrill : Permit me to say, for fear a misapprehension may have 

 arisen, that Mr. Willard has spoken to you of two men with two methods; 

 one is Mr. Bradley, who is a thorough cultivator, and who carries the fer- 

 tilization in. The other Mr. Woodward, who does not cultivate at all, 

 but puts fertilization on through the medium of sheep, and I think Mr. 

 Willard will say that the diflflculty with the ordinary farmer is to get the 

 details of the system into his understanding and then get him to practice 

 them. Either of these methods is a success in the hands of a man who 

 carries out every detail. 



Mr. Willard: But on the whole I would choose the man who culti- 

 vates. That is my practice, and I don't believe I could raise good plums 

 and a flue quality of other fruits unless I did it. I have made a reasonable 

 success, and that has been the method I have followed. 



Q. If I have an orchard just coming into bearing, so that it bears two 

 or three barrels of apples, and I want to fertilize it with wood ashes, how 

 much would I have to put on annually in order to keep it in good con- 

 dition for ten years? 



Mr. Willard: I don't know that I could answer that question, because 

 we have never been able to use wood ashes to the extent we would like, 

 for we haven't had money to buy them. Our rule is to put on a bushel 

 at a dressing and to do that dressing once a year — a bushel to a tree. 



Mr. Morrill: Do .you make no dilference, according to the amount of 

 trees to an acre? 



Mr. Willard: I don't know that I could tell you as to the acre. We 

 have to have some rule for the men to work by, and I have laid down the 

 rule, a bushel to a tree. We use them upon our pears, quinces, and 

 plums, so far as we can. 



Q. The inquiry was particularly in regard to the apple. 



A. I don't think there would be any danger in using twice that 

 amount. 



Q. Would you put them under the soil, drag them under? 



A. I don't think there is any loss if applied to the surface; the subse- 

 quent cultivation takes them in. Perhaps it would be best to apply them 

 in the spring, but we have to spray for scale insects and everything on 

 earth, and we usually do it at this season of the year (winter), trying to 

 put them on when the ground is not frozen. Prof. Bailey perhaps would 

 be able to tell you whether it is better to apply in the fall or spring, but 

 I think there is little danger of any one applying too many wood ashes 

 to any tree or fruit of any kind. 



Mr. Kehoe: I understand there is a man in Adrian who plowed his 

 orchard this summer with four horses, and it had an abundant crop of 

 apples. If the gentleman is here, I would like to learn whether this is 

 true or not; whether it is a good plan to plow deeply. Mr. Willard 

 recommends shallow plowing and continuous cultivation, but if this other 

 gentleman plowed deeply with four horses, and had a good crop such a 

 year as this, I should like to hear from him. 



