PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 23 



larity of soils and enabling plants to resist the unfavorable influence of droughts ; 

 and just iu proportion to the provision made to facilitate the normal perform- 

 ance of the functions of growth, will the abnormal or erratic tendencies of the 

 roots be kept within proper limits. 



It will be found, as a general rule, that when orchards are thoroughly drained 

 to the depth of three or four feet, where there are no perennial springs to keep 

 up the flow of water through the summer, the tiles will discharge no water 

 during the summer months, with the exception of a few days after heavy rains, 

 and under such conditions there can be no danger of a stoppage of the tiles by 

 the roots of trees. 



Where springs occur that are likely to keep running throughout the year, it 

 will undoubtedly be a wise precaution to provide for them a separate drain and 

 outlet, so that their supply of water will not be discharged through the general 

 system of drains. ? 



It is an established principle of agricultural practice that the full benefits of 

 thorough tillage and manures cannot be secured without the ameliorating influ- 

 ence of thorough drainage on the soil, and there are no good reasons for the 

 belief that orchards and the land devoted to small fruits cannot be benefited 

 to the same extent by such improvements as the land under cultivation for the 

 field crops of the farm. 



DISCUSSION. 



A. G. Gulley : I have taken up one year old peach trees with roots seven 

 feet long reaching to a tile drain. Crabs, peaches and cherries are very likely 

 to stop tile drains with a mass of fibrous roots. J. S. Woodward states that 

 he has been pretty successful in cementing the joints of tiles to exclude roots. 



C. W. Garfield : Three years ago, in Grand Rapids, a two foot sewer, with 

 continuous running water, was completely stopped by roots from a neighboring 

 plantation of trees. 



Peter Coller : I have seen a tile drain stopped by the roots of growing corn. 



T. T. Lyon : I have drained an apple orchard with four inch tile without 

 trouble from the roots. At another place, however, some three year old peach 

 trees filled the tile with roots and cut off the flow. Norway spruce trees of older 

 age standing near did not send roots to the tiles. 



8. B. Mann : A drain having a continuous flow of water is much more 

 likely to attract roots than one which has not 



C J. Monroe : It is surprising how little definite information can be got on 

 this subject. Some ten years ago I set a peach orchard of four acres. The 

 trees near some drains in the orchard were the best. At the end of the fourth 

 year, at the close of a wet winter, I lost every tree on the drained portion of the 

 field. On examination I found the three inch tiles stopped by peach roots, so 

 that the ground was wet, causing the death of the trees. It is useless to cover 

 the joints with anything but cement. I tried tin, but the roots got in. Poplar, 

 elm and willow are the worst trees to stop drains. 



E. H. Reynolds : I have had a tile drain in an apple orchard for twenty 

 years with no trouble. Soft baked tile will not answer. 



A. G. Gulley : In western New York, people have been troubled by their tile 

 drains filling with the roots of grapevines. 



The session closed with a report of A. G. Gulley, delegate to the recent meet- 

 ing of the Western New York Horticultural Society. 



The following are some of the points given : 



