no MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



said about it. The only man I have seen successful in mulching at 

 all is Mr. Somerville and a few others who mulch and put their 

 hogs into their orchards. That is only another and a cheaper way 

 of cultivating. If they did not turn in the hogs their mulching 

 would be an inglorious failure; I know it because I have tried it. 

 If the soil is dry you want to cultivate whenever the soil needs it, 

 and after a rain you w^ant the ground in a nice condition to re- 

 ceive another rain, so that all the moisture you get will benefit the 

 soil, and I would stir the top to retain that moisture. If you will 

 follow that practice you will be successful. If it is wet you do not 

 need to cultivate so much. If you have a series of weeks of rain, 

 and the ground gets dry at any time stir it up again, and in a very 

 dry fall keep up the cultivation in order to maintain a dust blanket 

 and enough to keep that loose surface soil. I believe I am right 

 in this, and I hope the society will make that point emphatic in its 

 publications. I think you w^ill find that the people who get along 

 by seeding down to cover or any old thing are making a mistake. 

 I find people make a mistake in growing fruit by lack of cultivation. 



Mr. H. H. Pond: Do you leave the ground bare in the winter? 



Mr. Underwood: I draw manure every winter. 



Mr. A. B. Lyman: Are you ever troubled with washing of the 

 soil? 



Mr. Underwood : On hillsides and loose soil that is a different 

 thing. You may have to get down there and do your cultivating 

 with a spade. That is what we do on rough ground where the soil 

 washes. 



Mr. Thos. McCulley: Do you favor fall or spring plowing? 



Mr. Underwood: We cultivate right up to December if the 

 ground is dry. In falls when the ground is wet it is not necessary. 



Mr. McCulley: You spoke of using a plow? 



Mr. Underwood: We plow in the spring. 



Mr. Philips: How did those plums ripen up in that plowed 

 ground? 



Mr. Underwood: We had a splendid crop of plums there. I 

 do not know why unless it was on account of the cultivation we 

 gave them. Mr. Penning says he cultivates his plums. Wherever' 

 you find a man making a success of fruit, a constant success, you 

 will find he is a cultivator. There may be occasions when some- 

 body mav get a good tiling out of the sod, but it will not last long, 

 and I want to put myself on reqord here that they will see the day 

 sooner or later when they will wish they had cultivated their land. 



Mr. Kellogg: Would jiot the disc cultivator be better than 

 the plow? 



Mr. Underwood: I have not tried it, but I will next spring. 



Mr. Kellogg: Why did the grapes kill out from drouth that 

 were well cultivated the wdiole season? 



Mr. Underwood: Well, that winter was, of course, an unusual- 

 ly severe one without any snow protection, and it must have been 

 that the ground was dry. That is the only reason I can give. Still 

 if you did not cultivate your vineyard the ground must have been 

 drv. 



