PRUNING AND PLANTING TREES. 293 



Mr. O. M. Lord: Mr. Richardson's experience calls to mind 

 some of my own. I received some trees last spring from Mr. 

 Mitchell, of Cresco, Iowa. Most people have a habit of cutting 

 off the limbs of trees when they set them out. I thought I would 

 adopt Mr. Mitchell's plan and not cut the tops back. I set them 

 out with a good deal of care. I had rarely planted a tree without 

 using the knife, and I must say those trees did not give me the 

 satisfaction they did when I cut the tops back severely. I talked 

 with Mr. Patten this morning, and he said he did not believe in that, 

 he believed in trimming them pretty severely. Mr. Howard stood 

 by, and he said it depends upon the season. He said we had a dry 

 season, and if I had cutback the trees severely I would have been 

 all right. He said my trees should have been cut back severely 

 in the tops. That is the plan he adopted. You can pay your 

 money and take your choice. (Applause.) 



Prof. Hansen: Just a word on the trimming question. I 

 think we may put the case in this way, that the trimming should 

 not be done all over, the growth in some shape should be left en- 

 tire so that an outlet may be afforded for the sap. If you cut it all 

 over, there is no outlet for the sap, and it is likely to ferment and 

 cause trouble. If you leave on all of the top, and there are too 

 many limbs, you will have trouble in that case also, and the general 

 practice in this country and in Europe is that you should leave part 

 of the top rather than cut it back all over. I do not know which 

 is the right way or the wrong way; I always trim the roots and 

 then trim the top back half way. I do not believe in severe prun- 

 ing, and I do not believe in leaving the full top on, onlv partially 

 so. 



Mr. Gibbs : I have had at least fifteen or twenty years of ex- 

 cellent success in planting fruit trees, and I would choose a tree 

 with as good a root system as possible and then break off the big 

 blade of my jack knife. 



Mr. C. M. Loring: What is to be done when doctors dis- 

 agree? I have never had any experience in planting fruit trees, but 

 I have had a great deal of experience in planting shade and orna- 

 mental trees. I can give you some experience in that regard that 

 to me has been very valuable, and, I think, to some of my neigh- 

 bors. In the city of Washington the trees were planted by three 

 of the best arboriculturists in the United States, if not in the world. 

 The venerable William R. Smith planted over one hundred thou- 

 sand trees, and the loss was less than one-half of one per cent. I 

 planted in this city a row of trees along the street, and my neighbor 

 continued the planting. He would not wait for his trees to grow, 



