184 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



enres for a long period. In the state of Florida, the frost line as indi- 

 cated bv a series of frosts, has moved abont fifty miles south, but that 

 has affected a newer industry than the raising of peaches in Michigan 

 and while perhaps the frost line has gone down a little lower in Florida 

 1 do not think that we are obliged to move the frost line for the Michigan 

 peach belt. Some things can be done to make them practically free from 

 frost. Mr. Rose has told you how he hauls stable manure on to all 

 exposed places on knolls. If you can get trash of any kind, mowed 

 weeds, marsh grass, and if possible mulch the trees around the crown 

 for .a few feet from the tree. Mulch the whole surface of these bare 

 spots, especially devoid of humus. Whenever possible use cover cro])s. 

 This whole question has had due consideration at this meeting and so it 

 will probably not be profitable to take it up in detail, but in passing I 

 might say that crimson clover, vetch and rye, even corn, sowed broad- 

 cast, not only furnish humus but catch the snow and make a good cover- 

 ing during cold weather. Then there is oats. I have never heard of your 

 sowing winter oats, but we have such in the South. Winter oats would 

 grow later in the season. In Virginia they grow oats quite late as a 

 cover crop. If possible you should get a growth after the middle of 

 August started on your peach orchard and get just as big a growth as 

 you can by cold w^eather. Then supplement that by an artificial applica- 

 tion of manure. If you cannot get that, then get chips from the chip 

 piles, bark or anything you can get. I have suggested putting prunings 

 around the trees. We have winter sun scald and these prunings piled 

 up around the trees will protect them. This wiiole question is not 

 separate from the one of soil poverty. I really believe that a good deal 

 of the frost injury comes from a poor condition of the ground. You 

 know you can take new land with a turf of moss and leaves, the forest 

 trash on it, and the ground will stay unfrozen and you would be able 

 to plow it when you could not think of ploAving in old land. The slight 

 mnlch has acted as a blanket. I suspect a great deal of root winter 

 killing comes from the fact that the soil is bare from covering. The 

 barer the soil is, the more subject the trees are to winter killing. T>vy 

 seasons make it worse than when there is plenty of moisture in the 

 ground. When you planted out these Michigan i>each orchards on new 

 land, you had all that humus; you had all that material in the soil and 

 the peach tree delighted in that soil, rich in humus, and prospered and 

 flourished and suffered much less from winter killing, especially root 

 winter killing, than on soil nearly worn out. 



Unless you use cover crops skillfullyj the ground is very apt to be 

 depleted in humus. You can practice rotation of corn and oats and 

 clover and renew your supply of humus through the clover in the peach 

 orchard, but unless you can have a cover crop there will be a wearing- 

 out of the soil and it will become deficient. The remedies for this whole 

 land poverty is to get on to new lands if you can, but there is in reality 

 but little land remaining suitable for peach growing that can be pur- 

 chased. But since this cannot be had the next best thing is to use 

 cover crops as far as possible. 



The next thing, when the land is well covered is the use of commercial 

 fertilizer. I am a strong advocate of this. One reason why is because 

 I took up a lot of abandoned land in the state of Maryland and nlanted 

 out 200 acres of orchard and have grown them on commercial fertilizer 



