114: STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



age. About half of that spot was planted with dwarf pears. I think there 

 were 9U0 of them, and the}- have done finely, they have succeeded admir- 

 abl}', and seem to be peculiarly free from blight. The other part of the 

 land was planted again to peach trees and they were an absolute failure. 

 I have given it up. 1 can not grow a peach orchard on that piece of 

 ground, yet the laud is good. It was planted to corn and it grew an 

 enormous crop. It has had lots of ashes and stable manure, and good cul- 

 tivation and subsoiling, but I can not grow peach trees on that land. 



Prof. Waite: AA'as it a peach nursery or orchard? 



Mr. Graham: A peach orchard. 



Prof. Waite: You can not grow peach after peach, that is it. 



Mr. Graham: Well, my pear trees have done better following the peach, 

 and are freer from blight. 



3Ir. Haring: Why can't you grow a peach orchard on that ground? 



Mr. Graham: I do not know why. It is simply a matter of fact that I 

 can not. 



Mr. Haring: Do the trees freeze back, or simpl}' not grow? 



Mr. Graham: They do not grow. 



Prof. Waite: I have often heard that, but I never could fullv believe 

 it; that is, that you could not put manure and ashes and fertilizer on the 

 ground and have fruit grow. 



Mr. Graham: I know, I think, five different instances in mv immediate 

 neighborhood where that has been tried, and every one of them was a flat 

 failure. 



Prof. Waite: When do they begin to fail? Mr. Graham: Immediately^ 



Mr. Keid: There seems to be a difference in that respect, then, from 

 the general practice in Allegan county, of putting a new peach tree right 

 in the place of one that has been taken out for yellows or any other cause. 



Mr. Morrill: It may be an old bearing orchard that has exhausted it- 

 self, but usuallv it has been during the first five or six vears. 



Mr. Eeid: Well, perhaps so, because yellows kills out a great many, 

 and yet I have known them to be set right in among old orchards, ten 

 or fifteen years old, the young ones thriving in places Avhere the old ones 

 had been taken out. I do not see why there should be an exception. It 

 is the general practice there. Yet, as the President says, they are likely 

 to be put in among comparatively young trees. 



Prof. Waite: Then they are at a great disadvantage. 



Mr. Eeid: Yes. but the.y do grow and succeed. 



Mr. Slayton : We can analyze soil and think, perhaps, we know all that 

 is necessary for the growth of the peach tree, and we re-supply it again 

 to the soil, an.d yet the peach trees do not grow. Is it not possible there 

 is something that is necessary in the growth of the tree, in the formaticn 

 of the protoplasm or something for the cells of the tree, or something un- 

 seen like our own spirit or nature, that we do not know and can not supply 

 to the soil, and therefore the soil does not produce the trees the second 

 time, even when we think we have manured it enough — is not that possi- 

 ble? 



Prof. Tracy: I would like to inquire, if you please, of those who are 

 acquainted well enough to answer the question, whether it is ever true that 

 upon removing of a forest, any forest, and the re-establishment of a 

 second forest there, the second forest is of the same species as the first? 



