THE WINTER CARE OF FRUIT TREES. 35 1 



when we were living in Illinois, and nearly all the orchards were 

 wiped out. We cannot lay loo much stress on this : if we want to 

 save our orchards we must let them go into winter quarters with 

 wet feet. I spent a few years m}self in growing apples, and I know 

 that apple trees need wet feet in winter, and that is what keeps 

 them alive and in a healthy condition ; hut you let a tree go into 

 winter quarters with dry feet, and it is hound to die. A tree in 

 summer time is a pump. It needs an immense amount of water, 

 and it will pump the ground dry all around it, and if it is not re- 

 plenished it cannot possibly go through the winter. The safest 

 and the best way to conserve the moisture is to have the trees in a 

 depression and put two or three barrels of water around them. 

 At the same time you give the tree water give it cultivation, and 

 the cultivation will do something towards conserving moisture. 



Capt. Reed. You can hold a tree back by mulching. I know 

 you can hold it back by mulching. 



Prof . Hansen : Yes, fifteen minutes. (Laughter.) 



Capt. Reed : The sun has some influence in starting the sap, 

 because a tree is injured after the sap starts too early; but a heavy 

 mulching will prevent the sap from starting too early and will 

 hold the tree back one or two weeks. 



Prof. Hansen : That has been tried many times, and it has been 

 shown that you cannot keep the blossom back fifteen minutes by 

 mulching, but if you delay mulching until it is frozen you can keep 

 the frost in in the spring. 



Capt. Reed : I never mulch until the ground is frozen. 



Prof. Hansen : If the mulch is so deep that it will keep the 

 frost in the roots the tree is badly injured and sometimes killed. 

 The only way to keep back the sap is to cover the whole tree. You 

 can keep a strawberry back if you cover the whole plant, but you 

 cannot cover a whole tree. It will start as soon as the air is warm 

 enough, and the leaves will come out. 



Mr. Radabaugh : The question regarding the possibility of 

 holding a tree back came up here three years ago. I made a trial 

 here in the city, and on the eighth day of May the plum trees in 

 the city and country were in full bloom. I tried this experiment of 

 mulching upon one plum tree in the yard, and I held it back until 

 the 17th. That was actually the case, but whether it was good for 

 the tree or not I don't know. I also had good success in hold- 

 ing l>ack gooseberries. I think this idea that mulching will not 

 hold trees back is a mistaken one. I mulch in the winter time ; I 

 put on a heavy mulch, and the tree will do just as I stated. 



The President: When I was out with the' Farmers' Institute 

 as horticulturist six or seven years ago this question used to come 

 up at nearly every institute, and I would answer it practically as 

 Prof. Hansen has done, not from personal experience ; but I made 

 up my mind I would try an experiment on my own place, and the 

 first winter I was out with the institute afforded an excellent oppor- 

 tunity. The ground that winter froze very deep. I went through 

 my orchard and mulched alternate trees of the same varieties, 

 which is the only proper way to make the experiment. I mulched 



