STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 159 
Planting. 
Another error we have discovered. The first three or four years we set: 
trees according to directions,—two inches deeper than they grew in the 
nursery. This, we concluded, was wrong, as many trees each winter were 
root-killed; but since we set ten to twelve inches deep, and set in clay, we 
have no root-killing. 
We will now give a few hints in planting, cultivation, and care of the 
orchard, from our own experience. 
Spring zs the proper time to set trees. The ground should be plowed as. 
deep as possible, and marked off in rows, both ways. The rows should be: 
sixteen or twenty feet apart. The holes should be dug large and deep, four 
feet in diameter, and two or two and a half feet deep; then fill in the top. 
soil to within one foot of top. Trees should be set in water a few hours 
previous to setting ; cut smooth from the under side all broken or bruised 
roots, then place the tree in the hole and straighten all the roots, and work 
among the roots fine soil with a portion of the clay that came from the 
bottom,—mixing the clay and top-soil together. If the ground is dry, put 
in a pail full of water, and move the tree carefully, so that the water will 
soak in around the roots; then fill in more soil, and press with the foot, and 
put a part of the clay near the surface, as this helps hold the tree firm, 
Tramp the top firm, and put on about two or three inches of mellow soil on 
top, or enough to have it a few inches higher than the natural level. The 
tree should be leaned a little to the southwest. Plant the ground to some 
hoed crop. I prefer corn, as the corn gets up four or five feet high by the 
middle of July and shades the ground; this checks the growth, and the 
trees mature their wood earlier. 
Cultivation 
should be commenced as soon as the weeds start, and the ground kept clean 
of weeds until July Ist. In the fall, before the Sta freezes, mulch well 
with old, half-rotted straw. 
After the first year I commence cultivating as soon as the frost is 
out of the ground, by plowing light and harrowing down smooth; this. 
gives the tree an early start, and my experience is that when a tree makes 
its growth early it will ripen its wood early, and to do this they must be 
forced in the spring with clean cnltivation until the last of June, when all 
cultivation should cease, weeds or no weeds. If the weeds get too thick and 
large mow them off with a scythe and leave them around the trees. 
Salt 
may be profitably used around fruit trees of all kinds. Our experience in 
the use of salt has been very satisfactory. It makes trees bear better, as it 
checks the growth and the fruit buds form more readily. It is also a good 
preventative of blight, as has been proven in my own orchard and in the 
neighborhood. A man come to me last summer and said his trees were all 
dying. On questioning him, found it was blight. Itold him to go home 
and put a quart of salt around each tree. He did so, and the blight ceased. 
The cause, I think, is this: Trees blight when they are growing the 
