HORTICULTURE ON NEW PRAIRIE FARMS. 183 



the attention to home grown foods and shelter, that would pay them to 

 do. Work devoted to producing food for the family in the garden is re- 

 warded without any regard to high or low prices. 



Every farmer should raise not only the most important classes of vege- 

 tables and small fruits, but plenty of nearly all that can be successfully 

 grown. Canning and other ways of preserving makes possible having a 

 supply of fruits and vegetables all winter as well as 'all summer. Variety 

 of food is not too expensive for our trotting horses or our thoroughbred 

 cattle, and to keep our boys and girls and wives as well as ourselves 

 in the flower of condition, physically, mentally and morally, we need this 

 variety. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Barrett: I understood Professor Hays to say that the 

 best way to plant trees is to have them about six feet apart. 

 I prefer to have them much thicker in the outset, so they 

 will protect each other, cutting them out subsequently as 

 they develop. I think we should have windbreaks very 

 thick on account of the great winds we have in this part of the 

 country. I differ from Prof. Hays in regard to cultivating 

 until after the harvest. My reasons are based upon my own ex- 

 perience as well as the testimony of others who have experi- 

 mented in this line, and my opinion is that we had better stop 

 cultivating our trees about the middle of July, certainly not 

 extending it beyond the end of that month, and for this reason 

 — the trees must have time to ripen up. They are in the full 

 tide of their development about the middle of July, and I 

 think it is better to stop then. Let the weeds grow, even if 

 they go to seed. The weeds are a protection to a great extent 

 both in the summer and winter seasons for these trees. If we 

 cultivate in that way from season to season, stopping about the 

 middle of July, we will have our trees in better shape for the 

 winter campaign than otherwise; whereas, if we extend it up 

 to harvest time we are quickening the leaf properties of the 

 tree and it will not recuperate, but will be tender and not 

 prepared for the winter season. 



Prof. Hays: I have learned since coming to the Northwest 

 how rapidly the weeds grow. In our country the quack grass 

 will constantly get in and destroy our trees, if it is not con- 

 stantly cultivated out. I have seen a great many tree-claims 

 and plantations in our state of North Dakota this last summer 

 that have been very seriously injured by not receiving careful 

 cultivation until they were four or five years old. I believe in 

 a good deal of cultivation, but I would not go very deep in this 

 late cultivation or in any cultivation. 



