170 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ground. Several harrowings followed this plowing, and our ground 

 was ready for planting. 



Did this method of plowing pay? Yes. The planting was 

 done in '98. In '99 we ate from that planting some raspberries, 

 blackberries and currants, and feasted on strawberries. The past 

 season, the third in the growth of this fruit, we ate four varieties of 

 apples from the orchard, while strawberries, raspberries and cur- 

 rants got to be very common articles. Incidentally, the potatoes, 

 corn, pop-corn and beans grown between the rows of apple-trees 

 have in their increase of yield more than paid all the extra work of 

 preparation. At the end of next season's growth I shall look for 

 some of the trees of this orchard to be as large as those that have 

 been struggling in the grass for eight or nine years. 



Have I gone beyond my subject and talked about fertilizer? I 

 can't help that. Plowing must have an object. Is my method the 

 method for you ? I don't know. Your case must be settled accord- 

 ing to the conditions. I needed humus, a better tilth, deeper soil, 

 a conservation of moisture, a higher temperature, less baking, a 

 ready connection of soil with roots, and I got it by thoroughly incor- 

 porating the straw and manure, and plowing to a greater depth. In 

 closing permit me to say that there is no better tool on the farm 

 than the disc-harrow. 



Mr. J. S. Trigg, (Iowa) : Didn't the gentleman make a mis- 

 take in putting in millet ? Would it not have been better to have put 

 in clover? 



Prof. Robertson: I wanted to use the land next spring, and 

 there was only this short time to prepare it. There was nothing 

 .else convenient to put on except the millet, and I followed it up with 

 the straw manure again, and the only thing I was afraid of was that 

 we got in too much material. On my apple trees I got one branch of 

 this year's growth that was five feet ten inches long, and that is 

 growth enough for one year anyway. 



Mr. J. P. Andrews : Laying "the question of fertilizer aside, I 

 thought the proper time to apply it would be in the fall to loosen the 

 ground so as to give it the benefit of the fall rains and then plow it 

 late before the ground freezes up. It would have a tendency then to 

 loosen up the ground. Of course, fertilizing is best and deep plow- 

 ing is best if we have a deep soil. 



Prof. Robertson : I have only about two inches of soil to plow 

 under at the surface, so if that statement is correct my plowing is 

 wrong. 



Mr. S. D. Richardson: Is it not a fact that in many portions 

 of our state subsoiling is all right if you get the manure on and 

 get it stirred in. I have a piece of land on my place where I made a 

 knoll and built a house and dug all of the top soil into the clay sur- 

 face, and then I went to work and put five inches of well rotted 

 manure on and stirred it in, and that soil is as good as any I have on 



