36a STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



increased. To determine the actual loss to the planter in any given 

 case, must necessarily be an uncertain and difficult problem ; yet there 

 is scarcely room for doubt that, in a court of last resort, the planter 

 would be awarded damages substantially upon the theory suggested. 



T. T. Lyon, South Haven, Mich. 



An Old Riddle. 



I am obliged to plant a grove 

 To galu the hand of her I love. 

 Said grove she says I must compose. 

 Of just nine trees In ten straight rows, 

 And three In every row must place, 

 Or ne'er expect to see her face. 

 But If the grove In order rise, 

 I win V.ie girl, a glorious prize. 

 Ye learned bards with laurels crowned, 

 Assist my hand to till the ground. 

 That this fantastic grove may shade 

 The blushes of this charming maid. 



Mounding^ Up Trees. 



Some years ago a gentleman residing near Cincinnati created a 

 sensation by what he regarded a new method of keeping j each trees 

 healthy. All that he did was to pile up earth about the trees, the 

 mound reaching up to the branches. It took several cart-loads of 

 earth to make these mounds, and the little orchard had the appearance 

 of bushes growing out of the cone of earth. Ev^ery one used to look 

 on and laugh at the thought of burying up the trunk of a tree in order 

 to make it healthy. Those who saw simply stated their belief that it 

 was only a coincidence, and that the trees would probably have been 

 as healthy without the mound of earth as with it. Since it has come 

 to be well recognized that many of the diseases of plants, not merely 

 of the peach tree, but of other trees, are caused by the mycelium of a 

 minute fungus attacking the roots, it is not at all unlikely that this 

 mound of earth operated beneficially by preventing the growth of the 

 fungus which preys upon the roots of trees. Meehan's Monthly says 

 that it is not well understood that all plants of a very low order of 

 vegetation, which we know as fungi, will only grow under a peculiar 

 combination of circumstances. Among other things they must be very 

 near the surface of the earth, and if buried to the depth they would 

 be under a mound, it is unlikely that fungi would find a satisfactory 

 home. Some will say right here that they thought of burying up the- 



