12 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A Member — What kind of soil is this? 



Mr. Overton — Clay sub-soil; a part on heavy clay soil, sandy loam 

 with clay sub-soil. 



A Member — Have yon suffered any from drouth? 



Mr. Overton — To no extent. 



A Member — What varieties do you have? 



Mr. Overton — Johuithaus; Dutchess and Oldenburg. 



A Member — Are all of these trees twenty feet apart? 



Mr. Overton — Yes, sir. 



A Member — Are your Johnithans large and marketable? 



Mr. Overton — Yes, sir. 



A Member — What did you do with the tops of the trees that are 

 twenty feet apart? 



Mr. Overton — When I planted this orchard I planted it with the 

 idea that to succeed I must know not only how to conserve the fertility 

 of the soil, but also the growth of the trees. I have done this by an- 

 nually heading-in and heading-back as they came into this allotted 

 space that had been given to them and they are not crowding any 

 today. They filled the space five years ago and they are no larger to- 

 day than when they came into that space which was allotted to them. 

 It is my intention to hold this orchard where it is, a semi dwarfed 

 orchard made so by annually trimming it. 



A Member — When do you do this? 



.Air. Overton — In the fall and winter; at any leisure time I have be- 

 fore the growth starts out in the spring. 



A Member — How much do these trees bear? 



Mr. Overton — Three barrels to the tree. 



A Member— What did you say the age of them was? 



Mr. Overton — Sixteen years. 



A Member — How many acres do you have? 



.Mi'. Overton — Five acres. 



Mr. Wilson — I would like to ask if you thin out your trees so as 

 to let the sunlight get in? 



Mr. Overton — Yes, sir; and I may say that under the Sod Mulch 

 System, we are not growing as much wood as we were under cultiva- 

 tion, but we are getting the fruit, the quantity, the quality and the 

 color. 



A Member— That's good enough. How much alfalfa do you use? 



Mr. Overton — I do not know about that. 1 cannot say for certain. 



.Mr. Wilson — I just want to say a word about this alfalfa business. 

 1 seeded down a little orchard that I have of Ben Davis and some 

 oilier varieties. A year ago last spring I got bacteria from the college, 

 ami there was ;i good growth of mammoth clover, but among the 

 mammoth clover there musl have been a few seeds of alfalfa. This 

 had been growing for some time until this year when we started in 

 plowing it up and we found roots of the alfalfa as big as your wrist 

 that would turn a plow out of the -round. I had read of roots of 

 alfalfa going down L37 \'w\ to the coal mines for moisture and so 

 my boy, who did the plowing, thought he would dig down and see how 

 far those roots extended downward. He dug down for three feet and 

 the root remained (he same size. Then there were two roots, double the 



