GENERAL FRUITS. 37 
deep, because I count on getting the moisture from below. If the 
moisture did not come from below in our locality we would lose all 
our crops; we must depend on getting our moisture from below. So 
in our part of the country we find a dust blanket with deep planting 
gives us the best results. 
Mr. Brackett: Is it not pretty hard to get young roots to penetrate 
your soil? 
Mr. Richardson: <A year ago last fall I dug up some Wealthy 
trees that had been set out three years, planted five or six inches 
deep. I dug an underdrain where they had been planted and down 
at a depth of four or five feet I found roots as large as wheat straws 
growing down into the gound. 
Mr. Brackett: What subsoil? 
Mr. Richardson: Clay. Our subsoilis porous. Our soil some- 
times freezes four and five feet deep. The frost does not go out 
early, but when it does the soil crumbles to dust. 
Mr. Wedge: It seems to me there isa great difference in trees. 
Ithink it is not a matter of very great importance with ordinary 
trees, forest trees, shade trees, etc., at what depth they are planted, 
but with our grafted trees it is a matter of considerable importance 
that we get the tender roots down toa considerable depth so that 
they will not be affected by severe freezes and thaws. When we 
come to dig our nursery trees we find that the roots have pene- 
trated right straight down in that stiff yellow clay for a depth of 
several feet,and I believe Mr. Richardson says those he had set 
three years had grown down to a depth of five or six feet. So there 
must bea great advantage in getting those tender roots which are 
feeding our fruit trees down a sufficient depth. For myself Iam in 
favor digging the holes from two to two and one-half feet deep. I 
set out one thousand trees; I plowed a deep dead furrow and then 
replowed the bottom, then I dug pretty deep holes. Our soil is very 
stiff, heavy clay, and yet those trees have made a good growth. I 
do not think they have made as good a growth thus far as they 
would have made by Mr. Harris’ method, but I think the next ten 
or twenty years they will make a better growth than if planted shal- 
low. 
Mr. Harris: In adry winter the roots will kill wherever the soil is 
-dry, unless it isan uncommonly hardy variety. Isaw trees in the 
nursery of Wilcox &Son;I saw them dig them up and pile them in 
stacks larger than hay stacks, and all the roots that were alive were 
the little roots,and those little roots were alive just as far as the 
little moisture from the rain or snow had penetrated the soil. Just 
as far as that penetrated the frost had no effect on the roots, but be- 
low that they were black. The same thing occurred in Wisconsin 
another winter that I know of. Mr. Wedge had admitted that they 
do not grow as fast as under the plan I use, and if he should be 
overtaken by one of those calamity winters before those trees have 
formed sufficient roots he will loose his trees. They have not 
strength enough until they form good roots to withstand those 
hard winters. But if I lived where Mr. Wedge and Mr. Richardson 
live I would perhaps set my trees deeper than I do where [ live. 
When you set a tree four inches below the surface, you want a good 
