SUMMER MEETING AT LOUISIANA. 45- 



break. It did first rate. It make a wind break and at that time gave 

 peaches and stove wood both. I don't think one fruit taflects the other- 

 and I believe the wood itself pays. I don't think the peach trees did 

 the orchard any harm, for the food of one is not the food of the other ; 

 each takes its own. We ought to keep planting and if we don't get 

 peaches we will get wood. 



Mr. Burrotcs — I am sorry that we have to grow firewood in the or- 

 chard. If it is rightly attended to, the orchard is the most profitable 

 acre on the farm. The apple tree is worth all of the soil it can get, and- 

 short-lived orchards are caused by the exhaustion of the soil on which 

 they stand. 



Mr. Holman — I never knew peach trees to exhaust the soil. The 

 richest old land we have is wh^re we have had our peach orchards. To 

 double the apple trees would exhaust the soil. 



Mr. Ragan — -I came to Missouri seventeen years ago. I set ten 

 acres with apple and peach trees. I set a tree to every square rod- 

 three peach trees to each apple tree. My experience is, those peach 

 trees paid me more money than anything I ever invested in in Mis- 

 souri. I got three crops. I have been cutting those trees out, and T 

 can not see that they have injured the apple trees. We have had no 

 peaches for four years, and at my period of life I don't purpose to 

 plant any more, but those peach trees proved more profitable than 

 anything else I ever planted. As to the exhaustion of the soil, I live 

 on the Missouri bluffs, where the soil is fifty-three feet deep. 



Mr. Speer — I wish to state that my experience has been upon the 

 open prairie. My theory was advanced more especially for those upon 

 the open prairie. I advocate that the peach be planted with the apple 

 only in exposed locations. When they are cut down, the decay of the 

 roots of the peach will furnish more food than they have ever stolen 

 from the "apple. We very often overlook the important point that 

 what may be very good upon one soil and exposure may be very bad 

 upon another. 



il/">-. Bcujles — From my experience I favor separate planting, though 



t. 



I have no special reason except I like to see them separate. I have 

 hever seen many experienced horticulturists who plant together. Two 

 neighbors planted, fifteen years ago, peaches and apples together, and 

 in a few years had to cut down the' peach trees, for they were killing 

 the apples. The peach, being a quick growth, takes too much from, 

 the apple. 



