98 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Oliver Gibbs : 1 have had a Httle experience in planting 

 squashes among apple trees. I find they will climb the trees and 

 hang all over them, and they give them the same kind of protection 

 the anaconda gives the deer. Thev hang their fruit on the tree — and 

 how can a young apple tree stand it with a twenty pound squash 

 hanging to it? The shade is very nice, but deliver me from any- 

 thing- that will climb the tree. I have had watermelons hanging on 

 the side of a chicken fence three or four feet from the ground, and 

 they hung there long enough to demonstrate the fact that when they 

 get too heavy they drop off. If Mr. Lord will tell us some way of 

 having those squash vines among the trees without having the 

 squashes get into the trees I will take back all I said. 



Mr. E. R. Pond: I can tell him how he can prevent that; just 

 pass along occasionally and cut off the vines before they grow up 

 into the tree. 



Mr. O. M. Lord : I have found it necessary for the protection 

 of my orchard and fruit to give it some care. If I wanted the vines 

 to grow into the tree I would have said so ; they should be planted 

 in such a manner that they could not climb the trees. 



Mr. J. S. Harris : I have a few apple trees, and the most profit- 

 able crop I ever raised on them were apples and pumpkins. I have 

 been able to raise a few apples for the state fair, and I have also been 

 able to get some very fine Hubbard squash. 



Mr. C. W. Spickerman : Almost any kind of vegetables planted 

 among young trees would be proper, but when you come to rasp- 

 berries, blackberries and currants I do not think they ought to be 

 planted among apple trees because they are wood producing plants 

 and draw from the earth the sustenance that should properly go to 

 the apple tree. I think the trees are injured. I planted some trees 

 in a black cap patch, and I had to remove them. I found it verv in- 

 jurious. Those set in the black cap patch did not make as much 

 growth in three years as those in the truck patch did in one year. 



Mr. S. D. Richardson : The old saying is that "The proof of the 

 pudding is in the eating." I have seen raspberries, blackberries and 

 currants planted among the orchard trees with the best results. In 

 our section of the state experience has taught those who have been 

 growing fruit the longest to shade the ground. It is not the natural 

 condition for a tree to stand in the hot sun. An orchard left clean 

 all the way through to November in the hot sun will be injured. I 

 can show you orchards under cultivation grown up with weeds where 

 they have grown lots of apples and have sold them and turned them 

 into money. If you can set your orchard to small fruit and give the 

 ground shade, you will find it the greatest benefit. Wherever I have 

 seen it trie4 it has been a grand success. 



Mr. R. H. L. Jewett : Perhaps our experience is more in the 

 way of raising apple trees between the raspberry rows, and our or- 

 chard is set out in raspberries, strawberries and gooseberries. The 

 berries did not get enough fertilizer to carry them all together. We 

 put on this year about two hundred loads of good strong fertilizer, 

 and we see them doing nicely. I want to say something about grow- 



