328 MINNESOTA STATE HORTlCULTUliAL SOCIETY 



from anything that Mr. Harris mentioned in his paper, and I would 

 like to hear from our friend Seth Kenney, of Morristown. 



Mr. Seth Kenney : 1 have an orchard of about 600 apple trees, 

 and 300 of them are Wealthy. Most of them bore a full crop last 

 year, and I mulched with the pressed stalks of the sorghum cane. 

 We had an abundance of that material, and the results were very 

 beneficial. I have a lattice work two and a half feet high around 

 my trees to keep the rabbits and mice away, and it also shades the 

 trunk of the tree, and that, with the mulching, has kept back the 

 trees two weeks in the spring so they would not leaf out so quick 

 as without the mulching. We could easily see the value of mulching, 

 and any one could see the difference. The orchard bore so heavily 

 we had to pick off a good many apples to keep the limbs from 

 breaking, and sometimes they would break the tree. I am very fa- 

 vorably impressed wnth the value of mulching. In the dry time last 

 summer I pulled away some mulching about the trees and I found 

 the soil was damp, and the apples did not check, and they did not 

 fall from the tree. I had some 300 bushels of Wealthy, and the 

 merchants to whom I sold them said they were the most salable ap- 

 ples they had ever got hold of. I went from one town to another 

 and delivered them, about twenty bushels to a load. I would leave 

 the barrels at a place, and the next time I would take them back 

 with me and leave some full barrels. I picked them and delivered 

 them myself, and I had no commission to pay, and they had them 

 all sold by the time I got around with another load. I found that 

 the ground being moist and in good condition they outgrew their 

 skins a good deal this year, so they did not keep so well as they have 

 kept in former years. I had some eleven inches in circumference. 

 I can recommend the Wealthy as a commercial apple that gives satis- 

 faction to all who purchase it. 



The President : How great was the diameter of the circle of 

 that lattice work you placed about your trees, the wire fence you 

 put around them ? 



Mr. Seth Kenney : The wire was put on lath with little gal- 

 vanized wire staples and then put around the tree. It was about 

 a foot in diameter. I never had a tree where a borer went below 

 this lattice work. 



The President : How far back from this circle did you apply 

 the mulch? 



Mr. Seth Kenney : I mulched three feet on each side. The 

 trees were set eighteen by thirty, the rows eighteen feet apart and 

 thirty feet between the trees, and the mulching was put in between, 

 and it worked grandly. When I took my apples to market I was not 

 sorry that I had mulched my trees. 



Prof. Robertson : When did you apply that mulch ? 



Mr. Kenney: I put it on about this season of the year (Dec.) 



Prof. Robertson : How thick did you put it on ? 



Mr. Kenney : We put it on about three or four inches deep. 



Prof. Robertson : What price did you obtain for your apples ? 



Mr. Kennev : First I began to sell them for fifty cents a bushel, 

 ^nd finally I got eighty cents for the Wealthy. 



