APPLES. 271 



Mr. Smith : Isn't it a fact that there is a great difference in 

 the character of the soil? 



Mr. Somerville: Of course, there is some difference in that , 

 but any disadvantage in that line may be overcome by taking 

 proper care. 



Mr. Pearce: How thick do you put your mulch on? 



Mr. Somerville: Thick enough to keep off all the weeds and 

 grass around the trees. Then I turn my pigs in and let them 

 eat up all the grubs and worms. 



Mr. Cook: Would you recommend manure on young apple 

 trees that have not borne any yet? 



Mr. Somerville: I use it on my young trees, well rotted, and 

 as soon as they come into bearing I cease cultivation, and do 

 the balance of the cultivation with my pigs and the mulching. 



Secretary Latham : I have taken the ground that in our part 

 of the state, at least, an orchard was a temporary thing, and 

 was not going to live forever, and that whatever you get out of 

 it will be only for a limited number of years. It is not possible 

 for me to conceive of an orchard near Lake Minnetonka like 

 the one Mr. Somerville has spoken of. Of course, if you are 

 sure that you can raise trees that will live forty or fifty years, 

 it will do to plant them so as to shade the ground the way he 

 states, but at the lake we don't have any such longevity in our 

 apple trees and we find it -quite an advantage to plant the rows a 

 good ways apart so that we can cultivate the ground easily, and 

 plant them a little closer together in the rows. That gives an 

 opportunity to raise a crop of small fruits on the ground. If 

 the trees are planted too close together you cannot cultivate 

 the ground easily in raising this small fruit. There is no ques- 

 tion but what you raise a finer crop of fruit on cultivated 

 ground. The crop of small fruits that we get off that land 

 is practically what we should get if there had not been any 

 trees planted there. It makes a very profitable crop, I am sure 



President Underwood: I would like to hear Mr. Hawkinson 

 say something about his apples. 



Mr. Hawkinson: I plant my trees in rows about twelve feet 

 apart and I put them about sixteen feet apart in the row. When 

 they get thick enough I cut them out. 



Professor Green: I think it a point well worth remembering 

 in connection with topworking that the Virginia crab is one of 

 the best stocks we have. It is a very free grower and the 

 Wealthy does particularly well on it. 



