56 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



unloaded, sold, and distributed, and the empty ears hauled back to the side-track 

 in front of the orchard, ready for another load. 



There was a saving of the work of, at least, ten teams; all done quickly and 

 without fuss. That is what farming is coming to. The same thing might be done 

 in thousands of other localities. These light, electric roads must be made to serve 

 the farmer by hauling freight as well as passengers. At the opening of the peach 

 season Mr. Hale hired cars, decorated them with flags and labels, and made 

 great bowers of peach boughs with the fruit hanging. Then, with sixty local 

 fruit dealers seated in the cars, he ran all over the electric lines of Hartford. 

 Why not? Why not advertise the peach business as well as the clothing trade? 



The coming farmer must make use of all these new devices, or some one else 

 will take the chance away from him. It will not be many years before a carload 

 of cotton-hull ashes can be shipped from Georgia, and run right into the Con- 

 necticut orchard without being once opened. These electric lines must be of use 

 to farmers for freight. It is but a question of time before a large proportion of 

 New England marketing will be done by electricity. The fact that it can be 

 done, gives New England farmers a great natural advantage. 



Mr. Reid: Mr. President, suppose you give the growers some idea of 

 the practice of cutting back and heading in, which makes the cultivation 

 of peaches at twelve feet apart profitable. 



Mr. Morrill: I can not give any one an idea which would make prac- 

 ticable the setting of trees twelve feet apart. 



A Voice: I understood Mr. Reid to say that Mr. Hale's practice is to 

 cut them back. 



Mr. Reid: I understand that he does, somewhat after the manner of 

 Mr. Morrill's pruning today, and that he constantly heads in for several 

 years, successively, and grows the trees a short dista*nce apart, claiming 

 that he will get a greater profit in the lifetime of an orchard. It says 

 here that he sets 12 x 12 in Connecticut and 13 x 13 in Georgia. 



Mr. Hale: I have been all through his orchard in Tonnecticut, but the 

 trees are grown upright. I never saw trees with such long, slender 

 growth in my life. He does not cut back. He told me he thought he 

 would cut back his younger orchard. He fertilizes heavily; his three- 

 year-old trees look like six-year-olds. But they winter-kill, badly. He 

 said it had occurred to him that it might be because he fertilized too 

 much. One orchard, where thev had not fertilized at all, looked like 

 ours. 



Mr. Morrill : In Michigan, I would not set a peach orchard closer than 

 20x20. That is close enough for me. 



Q. How about i)lums? 



Mr. Morrill: You people know more about plums in a minute than I 

 do in a week. 



Mr. Rork: We would set them the same distance you do the peaches. 



Mr. Rouse: I put them 10 x 20, and it was too close. 



Mr. Morrill: Have they been cut back? 



Mr. Rouse: Some, but ten feet is not enougli. 



Q. Have they been systematically cut back? A. I guess not. 



Judge Russell: I should say twenty feet each way. 



Mr. Morrill: Thev sav Judge Russell has the finest orchard in the 

 world. 



Judge Russell: They have lied about me for twenty yearsi I am 

 setting eighteen feet apart. 



Q. And are you cutting back regularly? A. \'('s, sir; I am trying to 

 follow Mr. Wiilard's instructions. I do not know where I am going to 



