STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 2< >3 



Mr. Sias. Fine spun theory is one thing, and practice another. T 

 live at Rochester, about fifty miles from any large body of water, 

 and I am satisfied that if I had set my orchard in the start that way, I 

 should never have succeeded in keeping my trees alive. I am on a 

 high, northern slope, which is naturally, I think, too dry for an orchard, 

 and if I had set root grafts in there, (unless I had cultivated it right 

 along every week as they do the root grafts), I am sure that I would 

 have lost every tree in my orchard. Perhaps these root grafts may be 

 set on the shore of some lake, and with half the cultivation that would 

 be necessary in my locality, they might succeed, but to recommend the 

 practice generally ^"'' farmers, to plant out trees in that way, would be 

 decidedly wrong; why, I think I would insure more than two-thirds of 

 them to die. It has been tried; it is no new thing, and has proven a 

 perfect failure, as a general thing. 



Mr. Busse. I don't think farmers should buy trees less than two 

 years old at least. I have been out west and seen a good many orchards, 

 of trees four or five feet in height. In times of haying and harvest- 

 ing the grass was about as high as the trees. A great many plant 

 them all right and say "I am going to have an orchard and take care 

 of it," but the time comes when their work presses and they neglect 

 the trees; the consequence is that if the trees live through the first 

 year, they are sure to die the next. These root grafts will not grow if 

 you don't take care of them; the farmer don't do it, and it is better 

 not to recommend them. The3^ should not have the trees before they 

 are two years old, because if you give them grafts, they never will get 

 an orchard at all; that is the opinion I have of it. 



Mr. Cutler. I would like to ask Mr. Tuttle how long he would leave 

 the trees in the nursery before transplanting? 



Mr. Tuttle. That depends a good deal on the variety. Some trees 

 will do first rate transplanted when they are five, six, or seven years 

 old. I set out in roAvs three hundred Duchess trees, five or six years 

 old and never lost a tree; there were three of them killed last 

 winter. But there are other trees that it is better to set when 

 they are two years old. We don't calculate to sell a great many 

 two year olds, but in setting them we do it without trimming; we find 

 that trimming is not good for them. It was practiced generally thirty 

 years ago, but I don't know of a practical pomologist in Wisconsin 

 that would recommend it to-dav. I set out fourteen or fifteen Seek-no- 

 furthers; four of them did not survive the first winter. They came 

 from Rochester, N. Y., and according to the ideas I have always had> 



