152 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to take the water in and no plan to take the water out, it may become, 

 an injury. I agree with this idea of preparing the land deeply, but 

 you must have an idea to draining the water. Root rot is attributed 

 to deep planting, and some attribute it to an invisible disease. Of 

 course, all these things combine together. The right thing is to get 

 them as near as possible to the depth they were in the nursery. 



Prof. Waters — I would like to say that in Barry county, with the 

 soil inlaid at the depth of 12 or 16 inches with a stiff retentive soil 

 that will hold water, subsoiling has been tried quite thoroughly. Both 

 the drained and undrained land, used not only for orchards but for 

 common farm crops, was tried. It was believed before we began that 

 it would not be benedcial unless drained. It has not shown any bene- 

 ficial results from subsoiling. I do not mean to draw a general con- 

 clusion from this. There are not many localities where land cannot be 

 profitably subsoiled for orchards. It should be tried carefully and on 

 :a small scale, for as Mr. Murray suggests, there are many instances 

 where the injury has been serious and great from subsoiling, and many 

 others where it has been used advantageously. 



Mr. Durand — I would not plant on any land that would hold water, 

 but on land that would naturally drain itself. There is plenty of land 

 in any section in Missouri that does not need any underdraing for com- 

 mercial orchards. If one wants an orchard for his own, then of course 

 he must prepare it in the best way he can. 



Mr. Goodman — Mr. Gardner struck the key note about root rot, 

 woolly aphis and bores throughout the southern country, but there are 

 certainly other causes. I do not know whether he is correct in saying 

 that most of the trouble comes from deep planting. I believe that the 

 woolly aphis is the cause of the destruction of a great many trees in 

 Southern Missouri. We have found a fungus growth upon live roots. 

 The Professor of the Department of Pathology at Washington exam- 

 ined 100 different trees in different parts of the State. He was satis- 

 fied that there is a fungus growth upon the roots of the trees, and as 

 we have found fungus growth among all varieties and ages. 



The great trouble has been the deep planting. One remedy has 

 been suggested, and that is that we subsoil. If we subsoil we will 

 overcome this somewhat, but we never can overcome the bad effects 

 of too deep planting, unless we plow away from the trees. Too many 

 have been killed by planting too deeply, but in some places it seems 

 almost necessary to plant a little deeper than in others. Where the 

 ground slopes it is almost absolutely necessary to make a bank on the 

 lower side, and it is necessary to have these trees planted deeper. As 

 to the woolly aphis, I believe an emulsion of kerosene oil will kill them. 



