96 ANNUAL REPORT 



President Elliot. From all the information I can get, and all 

 the reading I have indulged in, from all the reports and everything, 

 the advice is to put no manure at the roots. If you will take a 

 common sense view of this you will see that if you put your ma- 

 nure on top it will reach down. Never put manure on roots of any 

 kind; keep it away entirely, and after you have got your tree 

 planted then you may mulch it. It will go down. Brother Pearce 

 is right when he says nitrogen goes down. 



Mr. Gaylord. I have had some little experience in that line. 

 When I go out into my barn and find my calves are not doing well, 

 I know there is something the matter, and so I give them plenty 

 of nice hay. It is the same with an apple tree; if you have an apple 

 tree and it is not making a good growth you should pnt manure on 

 it. I never put raw manure on the roots of any plant; it is not 

 necessary; but when you find trees in your orchard not making 

 proper growth you want to put manure on them. 



Prof. Green. Mr. Gaylord, would you put manure on top of the 

 ground, exposed to the sun ? 

 Mr. Gaylord. Yes sir. 

 Prof. Green. I wouldn't. 

 Mr. Gaylord. I would for a sort of mulch. 

 Prof. Green. You would lose much of the value of your manure 

 by so doing. It woulnd't do to leave well rotted manure on top of 

 the ground. 



Mr. Pearce. The true principle, I think, is to apply manure at 

 the surface, will say not to exceed two or three inches. There are 

 properties in manure that will pass away if exposed on the top; 

 that is the ammonia. That is the only thing that will pass off. But 

 the secret is here in raising trees. It is not the quantity that you 

 put on, because it only takes a short time for manure to pass 

 beyond the roots of trees. Roots of plants do not go very deep; 

 they are all near the surface. 



Dr. Frisselle. I think my friend, Mr. Pearce, has rather limited 

 ideas as to the ability of the roots of plants to penetrate the earth 

 to find food and nourishment. I think apple trees send their roots 

 pretty deep, and Prof. Green tells us corn goes six feet; and at five 

 and a half feet clover finds nourishment, or else it would not be 

 found there. I want to say a word about planting trees. 



A friend of mine living in Maine undertook to plant an orchard 

 and his neighbors told him he ought to plant his trees as they did; 

 but instead of doing so he dug an immense hole into which he put 

 a full load of manure and covered it with earth and planted his 





