CLOSE PLANTING OF TREES. 137 



Mr. Harris : Here is another thing I have learned : Never buy 

 a tree from an agent. I will wager you that if an agent were oft'ered 

 $500 to come to my place he would not come near. 



This whole country is flooded with men who say they 

 represent certain nurseries. If you corner them they deny that 

 they are representing the nursery they claimed they were. I 

 learned by sad experience twenty-five years ago to let those fellows 

 severely alone. Go to the nursery direct if you can, and if not send 

 your order direct. Be sure the agent you are dealing with is repre- 

 senting a responsible nursery — then trade with him. The agents that 

 are sent out ought to be horticulturists. They ought to be able to 

 know what a tree is ; they ought to be able to distinguish the variety ; 

 they ought to know what kind of a location an orchard would do 

 best on ; then if sent to a farmer they could tell him what varieties 

 would do him the most good in his family orchard and could tell 

 him on what part of his farm to plant his orchard and how to prune 

 them and how to take care of them — then those agents would almost 

 be angels — but the nursery sends out the man that is the best talker^ 

 and the best talker is the man who can tell the biggest lies and can 

 prove them. 



Mr. W. L. Taylor : Does Mr. Harris want to apply what he 

 said to his locality or to the prairie country ? I notice where they 

 stand thickly on the prairie they stand all right, but where they are 

 far apart they don't amount to much. 



Mr. Harris : I would set a shelter belt, and I would plant my 

 trees not quite so far apart, but I would not set the trees closer than 

 twenty-five feet apart. 



Mr. Taylor : How would it do to alternate the apple trees with 

 forest trees and then cut them out after a while? 



Mr. Harris : You might cut the apple trees out after a while. 

 (Laughter.) 



Anon. Don't you think setting a row of native plums would 

 make a good shelter belt? I believe Mr. Kimball had some plums,. 

 and I know another place where he lost some by root-killing two 

 years ago, and I believe if he had had a shelter belt of native plums 

 he could have saved them. 



Mr. C. E. Older : It seems to me there is one point that we have 

 lost sight of. On Mr. Harris' place he cultivates on both sides. If 

 we set trees we have to set them close together. The wind sweeps 

 across our country, and we have to have shelter belts, and we can 

 get our rows north and south inside of our shelter belt close together 

 and let one tree protect another from sun scald, and still have 

 an open space for the air to circulate through. I know an orchard 

 of Duchess where they get three hundred bushels of apples every 

 year. 



Mr. O. M. Lord : In Mr. Philips' orchard, at West Salem, Wis., 

 any one can stand and look as far as the eye can reach in every direc- 

 tion. He says from his long experience he does not want any better 

 windbreak than a few rows of Malinda apple trees. 



