108 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



is liable to check worse than almost any other variety and it grows 

 rather too small for 10 pound boxes, 



Q. Are yon troubled with aphis on cherry trees? 



Mr. Rose — No sir not to any extent. It is a matter that can be 

 handled very easily without any spraying. 



Q. How do you do it? 



Mr. Rose — Every tim-e you find an aphis you will see that it starts 

 right at the base of a large limb in new growth in the spring. If you 

 will go in there early and watch for it, you can break that twig off and 

 in this way you can head it off. 



Q. What do you do with your crops when you don't plow? 



Mr. Rose — We don't plant anything but what rots in the winter. It 

 holds the leaves where they are in the winter. The secret of plant 

 food is bacteria in tlie soil and anything that will produce that bacteria, 

 even though it is not of the best in the world, it will give plant food 

 with the mineral elements necessary to supply the want of the tree. 



Q. Do you clip j'our cherries? 



Mr, Rose: — No sir. Because you are liable to injure them. Every little 

 while that sharp point will puncture the cherries and the public don't 

 want punctured cherries. 



Q. Do you advise, on a soil of average fertility, 4-8-5 — will this be 

 sufBcient? ^ —mt - 



Mr. Rose — Understand me, this formula is wlf|ff I have used myself. 

 I use a lot of bone meal and so the nitrogen i* equalized. When the 

 peaches are about the size of butternuts we put 1,000 pounds of this 

 which costs $30 a ton on the land and I get results from that last appli- 

 cation of commercial fertilizer than from any other. The fruit was so 

 'large this year that we could hardly nail the covers down on the carriers. 

 Word came from Chicago that they wanted five car loads a day of 

 them. This shows that Ave can sell- thes'^' Elbertas and as long as the 

 trade wants them I am going to furnisJ- them. I have never received 

 a wire or a letter from any source askin^^ me for any other variety of 

 peaches than Elbertas. I never hear from them again when I tell them 

 that I cannot furnish Elbertas. 



Q. Mr. Hale; tell us what success you have had in fertilizing your 

 peach orchard. 



Mr. Hale — Several years ago. Prof. Waite with several other gentle- 

 men, fruit growers, from Hart and Shelby visited my orchard looking 

 for disease. Prof. Waite was advocating fertilizing with some of the 

 commercial fertilizers and said that the effect was such that it could 

 be detected in the growth of the tree. His theory was not believed 

 by some and it Avas not thought that an orchard using, commercial fer 

 tilizers and one on Avliich the commercial fertilizers were not used, 

 furnished sufficient difference so that it could be detected. One of the 

 gentlemen, thinking that he kncAV my business, as we had often ex- 

 changed views, told Mr, Waite that I did not use any of the commercial 

 fertilizers on that orchard. When Prof. Waite made an examination 

 he contended that I did. He looked at the foliage and then said, "You 

 can't fool me, I knoAV that commercial fertilizers have been used on 

 this orchard. Then they ran across my foreman and asked him if that 

 orchard Avas fertilized. The foreman replied "Yes," Avhereupon the 

 other gentleman asked "What did he use?" but the foreman not being 



