150 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



use the sled or wagon sprayer. It also affords a better chance for 

 g-athering- and hauling- the fruit. 



There is still another reason why this system is superior to the 

 old one. Many times the renjark is made when the subject of plant- 

 ing a new orchard is being considered, " I have no other good place 

 for an orchard," and this is often true. In some places there is no 

 other good site on the farm, or if there is another good location it is 

 so far away from the buildings, or it is so situated in other respects, 

 that it cannot be used. But you will readily see in the "improved 

 plan" that this difficulty is entirely obviated, for the wide spaces 

 that have been cultivated to hoed crops or sown to clover furnish 

 an excellent place for planting the new orchard, and the old one will 

 give protection to the new while it is getting started and also fur- 

 nish fruit for the family or market while the new orchard is coming 

 into bearing; then the old one can be removed, and the land renov- 

 ated and renewed by the rotation of crops, and in due time become 

 again the site for a new orchard. 



Considered from any point of view, it is so superior to the old 

 method of planting orchards that it should be immediately adopted ; 

 as it will without doubt add from twenty-five to forty per cent over 

 the old way to all of the new orchards so planted throughout the 

 entire portion of the north and west wherever clover can be grown. 



Mr. E. H. S. Dartt: I can tell my friend Philips and the 

 nurserymen over in Wisconsin something that I think will 

 change their minds in regard to this matter of girdling. This 

 contemplates the planting of trees very closely in the orchard, 

 and instead of selling one hundred trees to set out an acre of 

 orchard, he will sell perhaps five hundred, so you see it will be 

 money in his pocket. (Laughter). 



Mr. J. S. Harris: They will die olf so quick he can replace 

 them every year. (Laughter). 



Mr. H. M. Dunlap. (Illinois): What is the average life of 

 an orchard such as this where he recommends close planting, 

 and I would also like to know if this society recommends close 

 planting? 



Mr. C. G. Patten: I would say about twenty-five years would 

 be the limit of an orchard under cultivation with the varieties 

 we have here to plant. The Duchess would probably live for 

 thirty or forty years, and trees of like hardihood, I think, 

 would do as well. 



Mr. Wm. Somerville: I have trees of Duchess that were set 

 out in 1862, and they were set out in the form described. The 

 limbs are getting so interwoven that the sun can hardly get 

 through. 



Mr. Dunlap: How far apart are they? 



