140 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Higbie: Would you change that rule in planting a steep 

 side hill? 



Mr. Underwood: Of course, in hill planting you cannot culti- 

 vate, and you would have to adopt some other method of furnish- 

 ing moisture. 



The President: Do you follow the contour of the hill in plant- 

 ing? 



Mr. Underwood: Yes, in our side hill planting we conform to 

 the surface. We follow the outline of the hill. Then we have to 

 have moisture enough to go round, and, of course, we would have 

 more moisture on the north side of a hill. I think twenty feet would 

 not be too far apart then. 



Mr. Jewett: Something has been said about the custom of 

 planting them in rods, a certain number of trees to the acre. I 

 explained that the arrangement of planting them 33x16 feet is ar- 

 bitrary.. The form is what we contend for; 16x33 feet would give 

 us the same number of trees to the acre as if planted twenty feet 

 apart. You plant your rows thirty-three feet apart and put them 

 fourteen feet apart in the row, and you get the same number of 

 trees to the acre as you do by the other way of planting. 



Mr. Wedge: I have been setting a few acres in orchard, and 

 I do not know the best system of planting now as I thought I did 

 a few years ago. I feel just as Mr. Underwood does about culti- 

 vating. I believe in cultivating and do not believe in anything else, 

 but the first thing I ran up against when I began to enlarge my or- 

 chard and put it outside of the level ground was a tremendous wash 

 of the soil. This has occurred a number of times during our heavy 

 rains. I will observe that our ground is only gently undulating, 

 we have no such bluff orchard as my friend Underwood has. The 

 ground is only ordinarily rolling surface, but the wash is something 

 almost beyond comprehension. The only way we could plant was 

 with the contour of the land. Some of the knolls are not larger 

 than four or five times the size of this room, and, of course, we 

 cannot break our rows to meet such conditions as that, so I have 

 been tempted to use a large amount of mulching over a good share 

 of my orchard. I began with close setting, but I have finally 

 adopted the plan of setting the rows two rods apart and the trees 

 one rod apart in the rows. I think there is a great advantage in 

 having the rows wider apart one way than the other. It helps out 

 the principle of air drainage in the orchard, and it is especially of 

 advantage in spraying and driving through with the team for any 

 purpose. I have noticed when trees are set twenty feet apart it is 

 quite difficult to spray or to drive through to gather the fruit with 

 wagons or racks. The outer branches are quite in the way even 

 among young trees, and I think it would do very little harm if they 

 were crowded a little. I have to fight against root-killing. I do 

 not know what Mr. Underwood's plan is to avoid root-killing. I 

 do not believe cultivation will do it; perhaps mulching will do it; 

 but it is a pretty serious thing in our orchard. My plan at present 

 is mulching. Mulching and deep setting, as Mr. Andrews suggests, 

 is a good thing, but even the Hibernal will kill in our severest win- 



