68 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. ■ 



uniform packages; that we may put them up more in boxes, and less in 

 barrels; that we do more wrapping of our fruit to preserve it in the best 

 and finest condition when it is placed upon our markets. These are 

 some of the present demands that are urgent upon us in the handling of 

 our orchard interests. And there is no field that promises more in the 

 present time of encouragement for the profitable using of land than in the 

 cultivation of our fruits of any and all kinds, provided we will grow them 

 of the finest quality and place them on our markets in the best possible 

 and most attractive condition. 



DISCUSSION. 

 LED BY PROF. L. R. TAFT. 



Commend.s the good advice of Mr. Powell in tlie matter of the destruction 

 of old disease-bearing: orchards, but people are too conservative to do it. It 

 would certainly reduce the dangers from insect and fungus diseases. Apples 

 promise splendid returns for new orchards. Many old orchards, with but decent 

 care, have this year given good returns. With but slight expense many of these 

 can be brought back into fruitfulness. Take the best of the old orchards, spray, 

 prune, break up sod and cultivate, and you will soon get returns in enlarged fruit 

 yields. 



Crimson clover is a most valuable cover crop, but on certain soils other crops, 

 though less desirable as a supply of plant food, are, all things considered, better. 

 Crimson clover is not, for instance, well adapted to clay soils. I suggest oats for 

 that class of land. They may be sown in late summer, and yet make a strong 

 growth in the fall. They are killed by the winter, but give a good supply of humus 

 as well as act as a mulch on the hard clay, softening it and improving its physical 

 characteristics. Orchards call for abundant fertility. Big crops necessarily ex- 

 haust the food supply, hence the necessity of frequent application of barnyard 

 manure, unleaehed ashes, ground bone, and cover crops. 



Spraying must not be neglected at the proper times and with the proper ma- 

 terials, arsenites, Paris green, white arsenic. Spray early and frequently. For 

 scale insects and plant lice use a mixture of kerosene and water rather than kero- 

 sene emulsion. For fungus diseases use Bordeaux mixture or copper sulphate 

 solution. 



J. N. Stearns, Kalamazoo Co.: Is one pound of copper sulphate to fifteen gal- 

 lons as good as one to ten? 



L, K. Taft: One pound to ten gallons is undoubtedly somewhat better. 



Q. What are the proportions of kerosene in the kerosene mixture mentioned? 



L. R. Taft: For dormant trees use one of kerosene to four of water. For or- 

 , dinary plant lice make it one to fifteen. For plum apliis one to eight is sufficient. 



Q. How do you prepare white arsenic? 



L. R. Taft: My method is to boil for a half hour one pound of arsenic and two 

 pounds of lime in two gallons of water, then mix with 400 gallons of water. 



FORESTRY. 

 FOKESTRY CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS. 



F. E. SKEELS, LANSING. 



The topic, forestry, seems entirely appropriate in a convention that has 

 for its object the improvement of Michigan and her people. Climatic 

 changes are calling our attention to the benefits we formerly derived from 

 the areas of standing timber. The small streams, no longer held in check 

 by the mass of leaves, humus and other forest waste, have changed from 



