'22 State Horficiilfural Society. 



crop and sometimes above the average. I think it is good to have clover 

 in the orchard for the first five years, but sometimes clover has been in 

 for fifteen years. We never mulch. We have a very light soil. 



Mr. Schermerhorn. — We have a heavy clay subsoil, which some 

 people call hard pan. We have all kinds of subsoil. I can't see a very 

 marked difiference in the orchards. We have land that will grow clover 

 as well as it does here. It seems to me that the hard pan is as good 

 orchard land as we have there. 



Mr. Gilkeson. — How far is the hard pan from the top soil? 



Mr. Schermerhorn. — It is sometimes very near the top. 



Secy. Goodman, — Do you consider the hard pan land good orchard 

 land? 



iMr. Schermerhorn. — I do not see much difference in our locality. 

 It seems to produce just as well. We do not dig through the hard pan ; 

 it runs down about one foot from the surface. In some places the water 

 stands in basins. In one ten-acre orchard there was a basin in the 

 center and the trees have all died out around this. 



Mr. Gilkeson. — Is it not true that where the hard pan holds the water 

 that it kills the trees? You will find it in little patches where the trees 

 will die and about ten feet away the trees will be good. 



A. T. Nelson. — ^We have some rocky subsoil and the trees seem to 

 do well. I pick from twenty-five to thirty thousand bushels of apples 

 every fall and not over ten per cent, are cultivated at all. I have been 

 in a great many orchards that have never seen a plow. Five thousand 

 acres were sold to Iowa people. We dug holes and found the red clay 

 subsoil all over the tract. Prof. Wragg was with us and he claimed 

 that that was the best orchard land in the country. They were out eight 

 weeks looking for' orchard locations and were better satisfied with the red 

 clay subsoil than anything they found. It appears from twelve to twenty- 

 four inches under the surface of the ground. We haul dirt to cover the 

 roots of the trees. On some land the dirt doesn't cover the roots and 

 the trees are doing well. 



Mr. Tippin. — Before touching on this, I think our friend Mr. Todd 

 is open to criticism. I take it that he meant that soil that would pro- 

 duce a good corn crop would produce a good orchard. 



Mr. Todd. — I stated that upland that would produce good corn 

 would produce good orchards. Mr. Goodman struck the key note about 

 the subsoil. Our friend Schermerhorn is right about the hard pan, but 

 I do not think they have the kind of hard pan we have. 



Mr. Schermerhorn. — Clay county has more hard pan than any other 

 county in the State, and it is called the banner county for apples. 



