THE DUST MULCH IN MINNESOTA. 469 



To reduce the amount exhaled b}^ vegetation, in the somewhat 

 arid regions of the Big Bend, to which reference has been made, less 

 than half the seed is sown which we think necessary, thirty pounds 

 of seed to the acre being the maximum in wheat culture. All weeds 

 must be destroyed. Shoal cultivation of all plants grown in rows 

 must be thorough and frequent. I say shoal because if the powdered 

 soil extends too far down, capillarity will be arrested below a large 

 portion of the roots and the crop will languish. Lastly, a loose, 

 friable surface should be given to the fields of cereals sown broad 

 cast or in close drills by running a light, broad harrow over them 

 when the grain gives promise that it will be able to choke down the 

 weeds and take care of itself till harvest time. It is not claimed 

 that any method known to the best farmers and gardeners will al- 

 ways insure a heavy crop on all land in the dryest seasons, but it 

 is not too much to hope that, on most soils, the yield may be ma- 

 terially increased when the rainfall is scant, by utilizing the dust 

 mulch to retain a portion of the water actually held by the soil at 

 the outset. 



Mr. Jno. Freeman : A neighbor of mine has been setting out 

 for several successive years a young orchard, and I observed that he 

 paid very strict attention to cultivation, extremely so, more than I 

 had ever done or noticed any one else do. He continued this ex- 

 haustive cultivation for two or three successive years. I am not 

 advised in regard to the kind of trees he set out or the different 

 nurserymen that he dealt with, but the result is that his trees are 

 nearly all dead, trees ranging from three to seven years old. They 

 have been replaced several times, but he carried out this plan of 

 cultivation, and the result is that his trees are nearly all gone. 



Prof. N. E. Hansen (S. D.) : That brings out the point Mr. 

 Wedge referred to, which I believe to be at the foundation of all our 

 orcharding. Five years ago I came out to South Dakota with the 

 idea that top-grafting on hardy stock would produce us all sorts of 

 hardy apples. It took three years to get that idea out of my head. 

 We have to begin below the surface. The fact is that everything 

 below the surface for a large part of Minnesota must be Siberian, 

 and that is my idea now. I tried the wild crab apple, and they only 

 lasted one winter; they were all gone the next spring. If every 

 farmer has to mulch his orchard in order to save it, he is not going 

 to mulch it, and his orchard will die. If you put in an orchard on 

 true Siberian crab stock your orchard will stand. My own ex- 

 perience with the seedlings I got from Washington was that they 

 were hardly alive when they reached me, and I had to pot them. 

 These seedlings came through the w^inter before last with the ther- 



