FirTY-NINE YEARS EXPERIENCE WITH FRUITS IN THE WEST. 429 



ground as they fell, and much of the water will remain where it 

 fell, and the ground grows richer in all the elements that make it 

 rich and loose and able to withstand drouth instead of growing 

 poorer. 



Mr. Hitchings, of Onondago county, X. Y.. had one of the finest 

 collections of apples on exhibition at the state fair in the fall of 1901, 

 and he says that he does not prune at all, and also says "The under- 

 lying principle of the most successful management of an apple 

 orchard lies in the fact that one must keep the soil loose and porous 

 so that air and roots can penetrate deeply. The soil must also be 

 filled with humus to hold moisture and maintain bacterial action." 

 As far as my experience goes I believe these conditions can be main- 

 tained more successfully and far cheaper by leaving the orchard 

 in sod than by cultivation. Mr. Somerville had the best of success 

 by mulching and cultivating with hogs' noses, and they did not 

 have rings in them. I cannot do that, so grow grass and some 

 weeds and let them fall down and rot, and that with the leaves makes 

 a fine mulch. That vacancies can be filled in orchard under these 

 conditions, the large growth I have here is proof of. 



Raspberries, currants and gooseberries can be grown success- 

 fully in a young orchard, as the mulching and covering in connec- 

 tion wdth their cultivation keeps the ground from being too much 

 exposed to the direct rays of the sun. which I believe is a bad thing 

 for an apple tree. 



The first meeting of the society that I attended w^as held at 

 Owatonna. At that time and for several years after I stood almost 

 alone in advising the general planting of the Wealthy. At present 

 I believe we want the ground loose and porous, full of humus, and 

 that we want as much as possible to keep the water where it falls — 

 not let it run off but soak down into the subsoil to come back to the 

 surface in dry years. I believe in order to do this successfully and 

 cheaply we must have the ground covered. Clover if you can, but 

 even weeds and blue grass will answer. 



Mr. F. E. Pease (low'a) : I was greatly impressed in listening 

 to the discussion and the relation of experiences by those who have 

 had a greater opportunity for observation than I have had. I 

 thought I was the only crank here, but I find a man must be a 

 thorough crank in order to be a successful fruit grower. I think 

 if some of the members of the society would go to different parts of 

 the state and note the varying conditions of the soil and other fea- 

 tures they would not differ so much, but they would see why those 

 differences of opinion exist. 



