APPLES. 97 
little growth can be expected for years. To make a long story 
short, our method of setting fruit trees is to have all the roots in the 
ground just as they were in the nursery before the trees were dug. 
Our hands do the work of arranging and packing the soil about the 
roots. When a tree is planted out, press the top soil moderately with 
the foot. As a finishing stroke apply a wheelbarrow load of well 
rotted compost around each tree, extending out three or four feet, 
and give it a good raking with a coarse iron toothed rake. 
Good cultivation must commence the first season the trees are set 
out and continue as long as you desire good trees and good fruit, 
Potatoes or any other crop of low growth may be grown between the 
rows of trees for the first two or three years; corn should never be 
grown in the orchard. Every fall treat your orchard to a light dress- 
ing of well rotted manure, followed by a shallow plowing in the 
spring, and then go over it two or three times during the summer 
with the harrow and cultivator. Keep the surface soil loose and 
mellow—it is the best of all protections against drought. AII fruit 
trees should be allowed to branch out not over two or three feet 
above the ground. As a general rule, the bulk of plant food is found 
in the soil within twelve inches of the surface and below that depth 
it diminishes rapfdly. Nitrogen is seldom found more than twenty- 
inches below the surface unless the top soil has been heavily 
manured. Trees never make a good growth unless the roots are in 
the midst of plant food. 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 
Q. Why are you so particular to use apple roots on which to graft 
the apple? A. I find the pure apple root to be perfectly hardy and 
it will not kill unless the trees are set in soil naturally wet, in which 
event they will winter-kill. 
Q. Why do you use only the first cut of the root? A. Because it 
eontains the principal portion of the starch in the root, produces 
heavy roots and a good growth of wood. 
Q. Why do you trim three times in place of once? A. It does not 
check the growth of the trees, renders them more stocky and creates 
a better root system. 
DISCUSSION, 
Pres. Underwood: If you have any questions to ask Mr. 
Pearce now is the time to do it. 
Mr. Clark: In setting trees, would you lean them to the 
south? | 
Mr. Pearce: That is advocated a good deal. 
A voice: What do you think of applying wood ashes to the 
trees? 
Mr. Pearce: That is good. 
A voice: Do you manure or cultivate your orchard? 
Mr. Pearce: I do not want anything of the manure. I give 
them good cultivation, and after two years I can grow nothing 
there; the roots of the trees will take up all the surface of the 
