MULCHING. 413 



of any man — and give him the privilege of a thorough examina- 

 tion — that I have apple trees that have borne thirty-eight con- 

 secutive crops that for twenty-five years of that time have never 

 received any cultivation that I am aware of. My experience 

 with mulching has not proved it a detriment, but, on the con- 

 trary, it has been of the greatest benefit I have ever found in 

 my orchard business. My mulching has been done with clover. 

 When I concluded I did not want to bother with cultivation I 

 seeded the orchard down to clover. I have never been so greedy 

 that I cut that clover and took it off from the ground. I just 

 let that clover grow, then cut it off and let it lie on the ground, 

 and it is in that way I mulch my trees regularly every year. 

 I am too careful a man to try to remove that mulch. I want 

 my trees to live well and to do something. For thirty-eight 

 years they have borne crops, and this past season I marketed in 

 Minneapolis about six hundred bushels of Duchess. From 

 some of those Duchess thirty-eight consecutive crops have 

 been taken, and from one tree last year I took thirty-five bushels 

 of merchantable apples, and from another tree I took twenty 

 bushels of merchantable apples, besides taking off a good many 

 bushels of cider apples. Don't be afraid to mulch your trees ; it 

 is the salvation of your trees. It preserves the tree in winter, 

 but it also preserves it in summer, and my experience and ob- 

 srvation goes to prove that there are more summer-killed than 

 winter-killed trees. It is a good deal like a scabby calf that 

 is born in the fall, lives through the winter and dies in the 

 spring. A great many people say it is winter-killing when it 

 really is summer-killing. 



Mr. Elliot: Do you use any mulch besides clover? 



Mr. Studley : Yes, every year. I use manure from the cow 

 stable and horse stable. 



Mr. Andrews: Do you mulch the entire surface? 



Mr. Studley : Yes, sir. 



Mr. Andrews : Do you mulch more about the trees than 

 you do on the rest of the surface? 



Mr. Studley: Yes, sir. I usually put about one-half of a 

 good sized load around every tree. I usually mulch two trees 

 with one load. 



Mr. Andrews: Does the clover grow under the trees? 



Mr. Studley: No, nothing grows under the trees. 



Mr. P. J, Bentz (S. D.) : Has any one had any experience 

 with alfalfa in the orchard? 



Mr. A. B. Lyman: We have had two small orchards seeded 

 down to alfalfa for four or five years. I do not know whether 

 to recommend it or not. One objection is that it being a high 

 forage crop the dew stays on until almost noon and interferes 

 with picking the apples, and then again it needs cutting three 

 times in one season, and I do not care to go into the orchard 

 as often as that. 



The President: Do they still keep alfalfa in the Peterson 

 orchard? 



