48 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



spread those limbs out. If when you come to limb it, it is short, and 

 down to the ground, you can not have space enough to distribute the 

 limbs on. They will go on and get established, and the third year you 

 will have a result of what they call a whorl of limbs, all coming out at 

 one place, and that is what you must avoid. You want them spread up 

 and down the body. They want to be scattered. You must have 18 

 inches, at least, to grow these limbs on. You must know how to limb a 

 tree in the orchard. Of course the young tree will grow easily, and if 

 you are planting a large plantation it is a cheaper tree to buy, and it is 

 an easier tree to plant. 



Mr. Benz: I would like to ask the speaker if he has any experience 

 in regard to fertilizer, for the tree at the time of planting. I notice a 

 large nursery firm advocates a solution of nitrate of soda as an induce- 

 ment to growth. I would like to ask if it has been tried? 



A. I never had any experience in that line. An old gentleman made 

 a remark that answers that question In Nebraska. He said that a fifteen- 

 cent boy with a twenty-cent machine, could manufacture more fertilizer 

 in twenty minutes than has ever been used in the state of Nebraska. We 

 tried it once however in a nursery, and I guess Mr. Brown had some of the 

 same experience. We tried four tons of it at our place, and we got four 

 or five different mixtures and took the advice of the expert Swift's man. 

 We took his advice as far as his knowledge went with our experiment, 

 and we used the bone meal, and blood mixture, and we could tell where 

 we were as long as the stakes lasted, but afterwards they broke down, 

 and we did not know where they were. Of course it might have helped 

 some, but we gave it up as a bad job. I have found, however, in sprout- 

 ing a tree, that if you have land that would be good corn land, all you 

 must have for trees is moisture. 



The Chairman: About the last thing before we close this session, 

 there will be a question box opened- The question box is open now for 

 questions, and any person who has a question that he would like to have 

 discussed at this meeting, will please hand it to the secretary, and it 

 will be put in the box and answered, or discussed before the meeting is 

 over. This paper has been quite amply discussed and we will listen to 

 one by Roy E. Marshall, on the "Influence of Cultural Mi'thods on the 

 Growth of Apple Trees." 



