112 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL, SOCIETY. 



don't expect it to rain there althouj^h it sometimes does. I saw 

 a block of trees which had been irrigated from a wind mill three 

 or four times; and another block of trees which were so high 

 they could not be conveniently irrigated and had not been irri- 

 gated, but had been pretty thoroughly cultivated. At the end 

 'of three years the cultivated trees were the more vigorous, 

 there were fewer dead trees, and on the whole they were 

 in better condition than the trees that had been irrigated, 

 and should judge cultivation had not been considered impor- 

 tant. They turned the water on and let it run and let the wind- 

 miU pump and run filling the ditches full, or would dry up when 

 the windmill was not running. Now these things I believe we 

 ought to bring home to the people in some practical way. I 

 don't know just how to do it. I suppose all the horticulturists 

 here understand that thoroughly and I am not telling them any 

 thing new at all, but a matter of dissemination of this know- 

 ledge would be a matter of a great deal of importance. I sup- 

 pose you know better how to get this before the people than I. 

 Probably you have got to get an intense desire on the part of 

 the people to have these things before they will go to the labor 

 of continuous cultivation. I don't think many people know how 

 much moisture the sod will take out of the soil, when the grass 

 grows around a tree on the lawn as we like to see it growing 

 around the tree, I don't believe anybody knows how much mois- 

 ture that sod is robbing the tree of. But I believe that they could 

 in most places, at least during the first five or six years, per- 

 haps ten years that the tree is set, to keep a small piece of 

 ground around this tree, if not more than six feet in diameter 

 cultivated or mulched, and in that way save the moisture, at any 

 rate during all the dry seasons. Now most any of these orna- 

 mental things do well if you get them under congenial condi- 

 tions. Not many of them do well unless they are so kept. 

 Moisture is one of the things which is essential to congenial 

 conditions. I suppose most of our soil is fairly fertile, not 

 equally so and probably in a good many cases applications of 

 manure well forked in around trees or along rows of ornamental 

 shrubs, or where ever you want to enforce conditions, is essen- 

 tial to get the best growth. I have nothing more to say at 

 present. I think your program is fuU, and I am glad to meet 



