216 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I am not in favor of mulching, even the older plum trees, year 

 after year, but think advantage should be taken of non-bearing sea- 

 sons and plow under a lot of this mulching, and then harrow, culti- 

 vate and mulch again for the next season's crop. 



Good crops of plums are often grown without mulching being 

 resorted to, but better crops can be grown by using stable manure 

 for mulching. After all, circumstances must largely govern our 

 actions in this, as in other matters. 



The point I wish to bring out in this paper is this : Cultivate 

 for growth of wood, but mulch for fine fruit. 



Mr. Frank Yahnke : What do you do for killing weeds when 

 you do not cultivate close to the trees? 



Mr. Dewain Cook: I take a sharp hoe and cut them off; some- 

 times I take a scythe. 



Prof. Robertson: ]\Iay I ask 'Mr. Cook why he gets more 

 growth by cultivation than by mulching: 



Air. Cook: That is true of young trees; I don't know why it 

 is so, but it is so. 



Prof. Robertson: I have commenced that mulching already, 

 that is the reason I asked the question, and, as Mr. Cook says, I 

 know one orchard that has had a hundred loads piled on it during 

 the last ten years. I know another orchard that has had oat strav; 

 piled on it in rack loads so as to cover the ground two feet deep, and 

 I know that orchard blights less than any other I know. I com- 

 menced as soon as I could and gave those trees a good mulch with 

 this strawy manure to keep the weeds down, and if that is not right 

 I would like to know w'hat the injury would be. 



Mr. C. W. Merritt: It would not injure them at all if you 

 should give them heavier manure; it would only feed the trees a 

 little heavier. Put on manure enough to form a mulch instead of 

 putting on straw manure ; put on heavy manure, and you attain two 

 results at once. Where I live we cultivate all our young trees three 

 or four years, that gives them a good growth, and after they branch 

 out too far to cultivate we go to work and cover the ground thor- 

 oughly with very heavy manure. 



Prof. Robertson : How do you get close enough to cultivate ? 



Mr. Merritt: We cannot get close enough to cultivate after 

 three or four years, but by dodging around under the limbs a little 

 you can get at the trees. They have orchard cultivators where the 

 wings pass between the rows and cultivate next to the trees. 



Prof. Robertson: In case you cannot cultivate what do you 

 do? 



Mr. Merritt: In case I cannot cultivate I mulch. I feed the 

 tree at the same time. 



Mr. Clarence Wedge: I am quite surprised at friend Cook's 

 heterodox doctrine in regard to the management of the plum orch- 

 ard. I had supposed that it was a very well settled fact that the 

 best management consisted in continual cultivation to keep the soil 

 open, while manuring was very important in keeping up the fertility 



