94 ANNUAL REPORT 



an old pioneer, but he is getting to be quite an aged man and has 

 always borue the reputation of being an honest and outspoken 

 man, and this is probably the last paper we will ever get from him. 

 He is now over his four-score years, and is in declining health. It 

 took considerable persuasion to get him to honor us with this pa- 

 per, and I hope that we will treasure this article which comes from 

 actual experience. 



He sets his trees and takes care of them. There are thousands 

 of trees set out in Minnesota which if instead of setting them in 

 the old hole where a tree had died, we would prepare our soil as we 

 did originally, and afterwards set trees and keep them cultivated, 

 we would succeed. I think three-quarters of the trees are lost by 

 those who are trying to keep up their old orchard by setting them 

 in grass and unprepared soil, and afterwards neglecting them. 



Mr. Gaylord. I think that is one of the best papers I ever heard 

 read on that tree question. 



I won't go over the ground, but I want to speak a word in refer- 

 ence to what our friend, Harris, said about setting new orchards 

 over our old orchards. I claim that you can set a tree in an old 

 orchard and make it grow, and make a success of it, but you can't 

 make a hole in the thick heavy grass and set your tree and not 

 mulch it; if you do, that tree will most surely fail. I want to say 

 this, that when you dig your hole, make it as big as a wagon wheel. 

 When you plow the ground all up thoroughly then you can dig 

 just as small a hole as you have a mind to, and so long as you get 

 the roots straight you are all right. If you dig a little hole and the 

 ground is not mulched, why, the loose dirt in that hole will soon 

 take the moisture right out of it and it will dry up like water out 

 of a basin; but if you dig your hole large and mulch very thor- 

 oughly, then it will not dry up. 



Mr. Dartt. My opinion agrees pretty well with Mr. Gaylord in 

 regard to digging the ground very well, making it good and mellow, 

 but I would say in addition to that make it rich. The drouth will 

 not affect it so much if the ground is rich, as it will if it is poor. 

 I have had a good deal of experience in manuring orchards — man- 

 uring apple trees, and I have yet to see the first bad effects from 

 piling on manure. I have seen one instance where a man piled on 

 a great deal more than I usually did. He had a few trees. He 

 had to dispose of the manure of a stable close by, in which he had 

 a cow, and he spread the manure all around those few trees for a 

 year or so, which made the ground very rich. He then built a hen 

 yard, and took those trees into it, and with all the manure those 

 trees got they have done better than any other trees in that neigh- 



