PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 183 



Is it adoisable to grow small fruits at any time between roivs of fruit trees ? 



Prof. Slayton: If you hadn't said small fruits, I would state to the 

 audience that on the i2th of June, 189G, I was in the oftice of the presid3ut 

 of the Michigan State Pomological society, and was told that he had forty 

 acres of fruits (that is where the word "small" bothers me) — muskmelons 

 and canteloupes — growing among fruit trees. If he does it, I suppose it 

 must be proper. 



Mr. Judson: I find that it pays pretty well. It may be that the young 

 trees will not grow quite so fast; but so far as I am concerned, 1 don't 

 want a young tree to grow very fast. I think if they grow slower they are 

 longer lived. A tree that grows too rapidly dies quicker. I think a 

 medium growth is better, and I find it desirable to have a little profit 

 off my land the first few years of growth. Then, in case a peach crop is 

 a failure, it is desirable to have a few strawberries or raspberries 

 between. 



Mr. Morrill : Are you not likely to have a failure in your peach orchard 

 if you follow this plan? 



Mr. Judson : I think there are very few who have peaches when I don't. 



Mr. C. E. Hilton: I think it is Downing who recommends such fruits as 

 raspberries and blackberries to be grown in young orchards, especially in 

 apple orchards, for the purpose of driving the roots of the larger fruiis 

 deeper into the soil. Where soil is of the proper depth and texture to 

 take a deep root, we have this authority, and I think it is very good advice. 

 Mr. Judson is all right; it does I'etard the early, rapid growth, which 

 in my estimation is sometimes an advantage. 



Mr. Staehlin : I have had a little experience in this matter, and I find 

 that in the part where I set strawberries the growth was retarded con- 

 siderably, in some cases so much that the trees are entirely absent at the 

 present time. 



Mr. Morrill: I believe there never was a fruit patch grown in an 

 orchard but that the orchard suffered. You may grow strawberries 

 successfully, if you want to sacrifice the orchard, but I think it is better 

 to grow strawberries in one field and the orchard in another. I am per- 

 fectly satisfied of that from observation and experience, and the idea 

 of forcing the roots of a peach, or those of any other tree, to go where 

 they do not want to, doesn't seem to me a proper practice. It seems to 

 me that the proper practice is to encourage them to grow and do well 

 wherever they naturally go. Mr. Judson said something about a slow 

 growth. That is very good and all right, but 1 f\'ant just as large a groAvrh 

 as I can get, if I get it at the ]>roper time. In May, June, and July. I want 

 my tree to grow; after that, I want it to ripen, and if I can secure that, I 

 don't care how big the growth is. 



Mr. VanDeman: I think the argument is good. 



Q. Can you force the ri])ening? 



Mr. Morrill : I can, by getting the growth as early as possible, by early 

 crowding and then ceasing cultivation. But if people, in the cultivation 

 of their orchards, wait until everything else is done, and then commence 

 the growth of the orchard, which you can do by your culture, and *^hen 

 carry it along a little too late, injury is likely to result. 



Q. Aren't they more easily killed by frosts? 



