186 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



little practice iu the mixing of trees. Tbe plan worked well until the 

 trees got a certain giowth. and after that not so well, so I prefer now, 

 with the little experience 1 have had, to divide my orchards of all kinds, 

 and I would do this certainly if I grew extensively. You can take care of 

 your orchards cheaper by having them divided.- 



Mr. Spink: 1 don't think I have made a success raising small fruit 

 with tree fruit, even where 1 set one row. I set my peach orchard, for 

 instance, sixteen feet apart, and put one row of blackberries in on one 

 half of the orchard. Well, the half which wasn't set with blackberries 

 bore enough better to more than offset what I gained from the black- 

 berries. 1 have also set apples and peaches together, and on the whole 

 I don't think I have made a success of it. Still, strawberries, one or two 

 years, will do, but most of the other fruits seem to be a detriment by the 

 time they come into bearing. I think they are more of a detriment to the 

 tree than a profit. 



Mr. Merry: I have made a practice of raising some small fruits among 

 my trees. I have a pear orchard of between three and four hundred. 1 

 set pear trees into a blackberry patch. The rows were seven feet apart. 

 The trees are 21 feet apart — 20 x 21. The trees and the blackberries have 

 both done well. The past year I have taken some of the blackberry 

 plants out, those that were nearer the trees, and I shall continue to take 

 them out as I see they draw on the trees. 



Mr. Cunningham: My experience in planting small fruits among the 

 larger fruits is that it is a failure, if j'ou want the larger fruits. I 

 noticed last season, iu the peach market in Chicago, there were thousands 

 and tens of thousands of baskets of peaches dumped into the Chicago 

 market that were worthless. The planting of strawberries among the 

 fruit trees has been mentioned. Now, by the time a strawberry crop 

 has been gathered, the ground will be so thoroughly dried and tramped 

 down, that it will be almost impossible for the trees to get anj" moisture. 

 It is just as impossible to get good peaches from such an orchard as from 

 a stone. Now, there was a cause for the quality of those peaches which 

 were dumped on the Chicago market, and I think we may look for it in 

 some such ways as this. 



Do you use eommereial fertilizers more here, or manures f 



A. Commercial fertilizer, barnyard manure, and ashes, all are good, if 

 we have moisture; but when we have such a season as we had last year, 

 no amount of commercial fertilizer will help. The peaches will be small 

 anyway. 



Mr. liose: I beg to differ with the gentleman, because I think it 

 depends largely on the nature of the soil, where you feed it in proportion 

 to the fruit you take off. 



A. That would hardly affect the growing of two kinds together. Per- 

 haps the use of plenty of fertilizer, and spraying and giving them plenty 

 of room, plenty of feeding ground and culture, might pay. I think it 

 would. 



