ANNUAL MEETING AT LEXINGTON. 169 



the trees in the same orchard are dead. It has been pruned to death, 

 all the water sprouts being kept cut off. I think water sprouts are the 

 result of effort on the part of the tree to form a new top and keep 

 itself alive. If this is true, some of the best water sprouts should be 

 left on old trees. 



Mr. Scott of Kansas — The orchard in Kansas, of which Mr. Murry 

 spoke, was planted only sixteen feet. Too close planting is one cause 

 of its failure. I think clover does an orchard no harm. A hill of corn 

 will grow well in a bunch of clover. So in a meadow, if you sow half 

 timothy and half clover you will have more timothy than if you sow 

 timothy alone. I would plow under the clover occasionally and hog it 

 a little. 



M7\ Teiibner — Here are some apples from a twelve year old or- 

 chard; you see how they are spotted. The orchard is now in grass 

 and seems to be on the decline. I venture that if it is left alone three 

 or four years longer the trees will fail very rapidly. 



Mr. Taylor of Iowa — The apple crop is a failure in my part of the 

 State of Iowa, the southwest part. In the eastern part the old or- 

 chards are nearly all dead. We have had trying times on orchards for 

 four or five years. In western Iowa the trees are in bad shape. 



Mr. Follet — We find references in the books as to growing sweet 

 apples for stock. Would it not be profitable to grow them to prevent 

 hog cholera ? Is a sweet apple less likely to be worm eaten than a 

 sour one ? Are they not better for cider ? They are very wholesome 

 baked. Would it not be profitable to grow them extensively? 



Mr. Nielson — You all agree that it is better to cultivate an orchard. 

 Why is it better ? It is all very well to say that such and such a thing 

 is better, but we want to know the reason. The principle of the thing- 

 is what we wish to know. Does not cultivation let in the air, the sun- 

 light and save the moisture in the ground ? 



Mr. Burrows—In five years' experience in allowing hogs to run in 

 the orchard we have not lost a hog, even when they were dying on the 

 adjoining farm. 



Mr. Murry — I confirm the gentleman's experience. Before I had 

 fruit I lost hogs from cholera. My county has lost thousands of hogs. 

 They benefit the orchard by eating the wormy fruit, and the fruit keeps 

 the hogs healthy. Two bushels of sweet apples are said to equal one 

 bushel of corn in fattening hogs. Thousands of trees have been 

 planted in the east, but I do not know what has been the financial 

 result. 



Mr. Menifee — My hogs run in the orchard, and for five years I have 

 regularly not escaped the cholera. 



