310 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
tense heat of the July and August sun. The early and continued 
cultivation before planting will destroy nearly all weed seeds in the 
soil, so that further cultivation or hoeing will hardly be necessary 
after the beans are harvested, which should be done as soon as the 
pods color. The trees may be mulched with barnyard manure, 
allowing it to remain until spring, when it should be spread on the 
cultivated space. 
This is an ideal way of growing appletrees and beans. Try it and 
be convinced. The beans grown this year, after this manner of 
planting, more than paid the entire expense for labor in my young 
orchard of about 2,000 trees, and I have the beans in addition toa 
clean, thrifty orchard. 
After my orchard comes into bearing I shall use it as a hog pas- 
ture, allowing grass, which should be clover, to take full possession 
of the ground; mulching the trees instead of cultivating, which 
should be done in July, to protect the roots from the extreme heat 
and drouth of summerand autumn. It is understood that hogs 
(with bristles) are not allowed in the orchard while fruit is matur- 
ing and not until gathered. When they return in their search for 
apples and exercise on the mulch, they will become self operating 
cultivators, working the mulch into the soil, destroying the grass 
and sod near the trees, eating wormy apples and otherwise benefit 
ing the trees. I have an orchard of about 280 apple trees on my 
stock farm, mostly crabs, which were bought of our mutual and 
honored friend, Wm. Somerville, twenty years ago, and planied 
especially for a hog pasture. It was an experiment with me but 
proved to bea grand success and a profitable investment of time 
and money. I would recommend such plantings. 
Clover is the grass foran orchard and makes anideal mulch when 
used green. Like beans,it absorbs nitrogen in large quantities 
leaving much of it stored in the soil, which is an element needed as 
a plant food, but found only in limited quantities in most soils. 
In conclusion, I understand this to be no time or place to present 
theories or work personal interests. Neither are we expected to 
supply entertainment with literary productions only, with our 
best thought engaged in preparing papers which shall sound well ° 
and possibly furnish little instruction and no practical, tested 
methods or experience. This society is the horticultural school- 
master of our commonwealth, and we its recognized instructors, 
Practical teaching by men of experience, expressed in plain lan- 
guage, which shall carry with it a store of valuable instruction 
all over this Northwest country in our magazine and annual re- 
ports—I believe this to be the thought of our program committee 
and the demand of our state, made famous by producing the best 
of its kind. Let that continue to be our product! 
Mr. Dartt: I think in drouthy countries clean cultivation is the 
rule. Seeding down to clover would, perhaps, be bad policy in such 
places, and I doubt whether it is a good policy for orchardists any- 
where to follow that. The clover must necessarily draw a good deal 
of moisture from the ground in its growth, and it would rob the or- 
chard of the very moisture it needs. I believe it is the custom in 
