300 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Stone : No, I don't ; there is never any water allowed to 

 stand to do harm after freezing weather comes on. 



Mr. A. K. Bush : Before leaving this matter of pigs in the 

 orchard, I would like to say that on my farm we are keeping about 

 150 hogs, and we let them run out in the orchard as soon as the 

 trees come into full bearing. I find where the pigs are allowed to 

 run and pick up the windfalls and decayed apples we are troubled 

 very little indeed with scabby or wormy apples, but in othef 

 orchards where pigs are not allowed to run a large percentage 

 of apples this last year were deformed by scab or there was some- 

 thing else wrong with them. But in this one orchard in particular, 

 the best site I have on the farm, I gathered twenty-two bushels of 

 apples from two trees and sent them to the city market, and there 

 were very few that were culled out. In the orchard that I had 

 cultivated, and it was done with what I regard as very intelligent 

 care, a very large percentage of apples were not fit to ship. I 

 think it is all right to keep pigs in the orchard. My orchard pays 



DUCHESS ORCHARD AT MR. ELI STONE'S PLACE. 



me well in the big amount of fruit I get out of it, and when the 

 pigs are of sufiicent size I turn the large hogs in there, and I think 

 it is a benefit instead of an injury. I do not know of a better in- 

 vestment of time and money than that orchard that has been turned 

 over to the pigs. I let the pigs run in the orchard until the apples 

 are large enough to sell. They are pastured there a large share 

 of the summer, and they never injure the trees in the least. 



Mr. Stone : This gentleman's pigs must be a little different 

 from mine ; my pigs gnaw the bark right off the trees. 



Mr. Ferris (la.) : The question of cultivation has been raised 

 here, and I am near enough to Minnesota so that my experience 

 may be worth something. I have an orchard of ten acres planted in 

 1880 to 1885, and I cultivated it up to two years ago. I gave 

 them very thorough cultivation between the rows. Two years ago I 

 seeded it down to clover. It is a healthy orchard of a mixed 

 variety of apples ; I presume there are sixty to seventy varieties 

 of apples in the orchard. Two years ago I^eeded it down to clover 

 and turned in the hogs and plowed the whole ten acres. I con- 

 sider they have been a benefit to my orchard, and I do not agree 



