MY DUCHESS ORCHARD. 301 



with the gentleman who believes in seeding down an orchard. I 

 believe that cultivation is a good thing and that hogs are a good 

 thing in the orchard. 



Mr. Elliot: Were your trees injured by the hogs? 



Mr. Ferris : No, sir, they were not. 



Mr. Philips (Wis.) : While we are on the orchard question I 

 would like to hear from our friend Underwood. He is a large 

 orchardist and he has not had a word to say in this discussion, I 

 guess because you didn't give him a chance ; he hasn't even had a 

 chance to sing a song. He has renewed his youth, he has shaved 

 off his whiskers, and he looks like a boy. I believe he would dance 

 a jig if you asked him to do it. He knows a whole lot about this 

 question, and we would like to have him tell us a few things he 

 knows. (Applause.) 



Mr. Underwood : I wish to say that any change or improve- 

 ment you may detect in my personal appearance, of course, is due 

 to cultivation. (Laughter.) This is a good feature of the pro- 

 gram of this winter's meeting, and I believe it is of as much in- 

 terest to you or to anybody else who has an interest in fruit grow- 

 ing, whether it is apples or any other kind of fruit, as we can bring 

 up in the meeting. I do want to speak on this subject because I 

 believe, while it might be a repetition nearly of what I have already 

 stated on previous occasions, yet perhaps it is the only way to im- 

 press your minds, and the minds of others who may read our re- 

 ports, of the importance of what I wish to say on the subject. Mr. 

 Stone has brought out very clearly a point which I think is of the 

 utmost importance. You recollect what he said in regard to the 

 failure of his Wealthy and Duchess apple trees. Now, in my 

 opinion, there was just one thing that occurred. You say the cold 

 weather was too severe, or something of that sort, and you call 

 it winter-killing. You hardly know what it is, but you have a 

 vague idea that it is the severity of the climate, and my opinion is 

 that it is just one thing that is at fault, and that is the lack of mois- 

 ture. Now, don't you see? Mr. Stone informs you that he dug 

 basins around his trees to let the water come in. It is as simple a 

 proposition as any I ever met in business, and I simply repeat what 

 1 have said in this society before — I do not know how many listen 

 to me or how many believe anything I say, but it is my candid 

 opinion that there is not one person in a thousand that plants trees 

 who takes proper care of them in that respect. I think it was 

 two years ago that I read a paper before this society on this sub- 

 ject. I emphasized the fact that it had been my experience that 

 we could grow apples as well as they could in western New York, 

 where I was born. If we had enough moisture. We have a dryer 

 climate and a dryer soil, and there they have more moisture in the 

 air and more in the ground and not so much of extreme dry 

 weather. That moisture is needed, and anything you do to con- 

 serve the moisture that falls or to provide trees and plants with 

 sufficient moisture in the fall before it freezs up, is a step in the 

 right direction. That is all there is to it in my estimation. Your 

 trees die for the want of something- to drink. 



