APPLES. 101 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. Harris: That was an excellent paper, and I see 
but just one thing or one recommendation that I would not 
recommend to a farmer, and that is the setting of raspberries 
and blackberries between young trees, calculating to take them 
out after they had done their service. The trees will do all 
right and the raspberries will do all right, but every farmer in 
Minnesota has a good deal to look after besides his trees, and 
he does not get time to put down those raspberries, and they 
make such a nice place for the rabbits to sit under and gnaw 
the bark off his trees. Another thing, they do not allow a free 
circulation of air. The balance of the paper is excellent from 
the farmer’s standpoint, and if every one of our farmers could 
study it, it would do them good. 
Mr. Phillips (Wisconsin): He spokeof the sun scald. Here 
is a tree protector (showing a protector made of lath cut in 
lengths of about three feet, and fastened at regular distances 
apart with wire and staples) I have used for years, and they 
cost about 33 cents each. If aman is going to plant trees, a 
farmer or anybody else, he ought to protect them. I keep 
them on all the year round. They are better than anything 
else I have ever tried. I do not like to use straw or hay, be- 
cause it makes a great harboring place forinsects. This is the 
best thing I ever tried. You can make them as long as you 
like; I make mine about three feet long. 
Mr. Brackett: They would not cost three and a half cents. 
Mr. Phillips: That is a good estimate. 
Mr. Sampson: Do you ever fill with dirt during the winter? 
Mr. Phillips: I do not like that idea. I find by following 
that up that the tendency is to keep the air away from the tree 
and make the bark is more tender. 
Mr. Brackett: I would like to heara word from Prof. Green 
on that point. 
Prof. Green: I think very highly of the plan of boxing up 
the trunk of the tree and leaving it there the year round. I 
believe the trunk will develop in better shape than it would 
otherwise. Ido not believe it makes much difference about the 
trunk of the tree whether the protection is removed in the 
spring of the year or not. It has made no difference at all 
with some experiments I have tried. The trees did not seem 
to be any less hardy for it. We only commenced it in 1889. I 
like this lath protection very much indeed. [ like the thin 
