TWENTY FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 161 



Mr. Hoag: That gentleman is not here, but I happen to live just 

 across the road from him and I will answer Mr. Kehoe's question briefly. 

 The owner of this farm never lived on it, and he sent a man down from 

 Chicago to work the place. The man had never lived on a farm and 

 knew nothing about growing fruit, and that orchard had been somewhat 

 neglected. The owner had planted this orchard of eleven acres, and 

 treated it very carefully; in fact, he would not allow any crop to mature 

 upon it. He cultivated it and grew the trees, those that lived, very 

 nicely. He pruned them very carefully, indeed, and the orchard had 

 borne but one full crop, and for the last two years previous bore scarcely 

 anything. Well, this man proposed to raise a crop of corn, and went in 

 there to plow. It was so dry that he had to get a neighbor to help him, 

 and they did use four horses. Well, the fact is, that they cut off all the 

 surface roots, and if it does not ruin the orchard entirely I shall be sur- 

 prised; but he did get quite a crop of apples from part of the 

 orchard. Several trees bore good crops; I hope they may in succeeding 

 years. 



Q. Are muck ashes valuable? Our swamps have been burned and 

 the ashes left three or four inches deep. When the speaker mentioned 

 the good qualities of wood ashes, I was thinking it might be a good thing 

 to scrape out these ashes and use them in our orchards. 



Mr. Bailey: I think they would be valuable if the muck was not too 

 thoroughly decomposed — if the potash is still there. 



Q. I notice our trees all went into winter quarters the middle of 

 October.- What will be the result another year? 



Mr. Willard: Unless injured in some way, I should think it would be 

 a good omen. I think it augers well for the future. 



Mr. Morrill: Referring to the deep plowing and the consequent pro- 

 duction of apples, I hope our professional men will not allow that to go 

 by without making some statement. For fear they might not get the 

 idea I have, I will mention it. Everyone doesn't realize that the crop 

 was laid out last year. The plowing was done this year. The plowing 

 might have a certain effect, and it might be the effect produced on the 

 tree, that at the last moment before death exerts its utmost efforts. 1 

 should be afraid that would be the result. 



Mr. Helme: If I were going to set any fruit, I would set an apple 

 orchard, for seven eighths of the apple orchards in Michigan have gone 

 to pieces and the apple is the king of fruits. Apples can be utilized 

 from the time they begin to fall from the tree, when they can be fed to 

 stock, right through to the end; you lose nothing. I think there is a 

 good future for the apple in Michigan. 



Mr. Hoag: There is one matter of practical importance to fruit- 

 growers, and that is the kind of soil in which to set an apple orchard, and 

 I would like to ask Mr. Willard what soil he considers best. While 1 

 am on my feet I will say that our soil is a gravelly loam, and these 

 dry years have been ruinous, not only to production but to the trees 

 themselves. I had one of the finest Oldenbursrhs, that bore excelleut 

 crops, and this j^ear it bore a heavy crop and died. It was in the most 

 gravelly place in the orchard, but the drousrht seemed to use it up; and 

 my theory is that a clay loam, rich and well underdrained, would be bet- 

 ter. If there are people who contemplate putting out orchards it might 

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