STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 411 



first week in August it will go into winter quarters in good con- 

 dition. The effect of a good plowing lasts at least a week on a 

 tree. I don't think that the extreme cold had anything to do 

 with the injury of the trees. I think that all the trees that were 

 injured were injured before the first of October. 



Mr. Pearce. I am positive that if we can keep the trees from 

 being checked by drought and keep them growing until about 

 the first of August, they will commence the process of hardening 

 and rii3ening the wood, and there is no possibility after that of 

 a second growth. It is my opinion that the only reason of this 

 bad effect on the trees is the early hard cold weather coming on 

 while the moisture is in the trees and before they have been 

 cured. This second growth is almost certain to be fatal to trees. 



In planting fruit trees we have got to be governed by the soil. 

 If it is a clay soil I would say about two inches deeper than they 

 were in the nursery. If the soil is very light make it three. If 

 you are setting a large tree the trouble will be that you cannot 

 get it too deep; but if you have the roots sufficiently near to the 

 surface of the ground, they will knit together and the wind can 

 not weave the tree. If the roots are well established, I do not 

 think deep planting should be recommended. 



Mr. Smith had planted trees on black clay subsoil, just slightly 

 rolling. He back-furrowed the land into lines twenty feet wide, 

 then ran four furrows in the dead furrow, then three fur- 

 rows in the dead furrows. Then the men went in with their 

 shovels, and where each tree was to be set they threw the 

 dirt from the middle until they filled it pretty nearly level 

 with the raised ground. Then we set the trees so that when 

 the ground was level the crown of the tree where it was grafted 

 was below the ground. Then we cross-furrowed, and afterward 

 continued to throw the dirt towards the tree until the black loam 

 was at least three feet deep. In building a road there eight 

 years afterward it was necessary to move some of the trees, and 

 there was found to be an abundance of good roots at the bottom, 

 three feet below the surface. 



Mr. Smith said that the exposure best adapted to fruit grow- 

 ing in Minnesota is a slightly sloping northeastern exposure, 

 with a gravelly clay soil. The nearer we can get to that the 

 better. 



Mr. Busse. Trees from two to four years old are the best to 

 set out, but three years are the best. As for distance I should 

 set them fourteen or sixteen feet each way. I would set Tran- 



