PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 123 



inirs ; our tares are sometimes horse-hoed, and our clovers are 

 invariably hoed in the spring, if there are an}^ weeds to remove. 

 A truss of clover will pay the cost of hoeing an acre. 



Growing Forest Trees. 

 Mr. Geo. W. Morgan, South English, Keokuk Co., Iowa, sends 

 us some very encouraging words for those who live on the prai- 

 ries, where there is a necessity for growing forest trees. Mr. Mor- 

 gan says :. "I have 350 maples, twenty to twenty-eight feet hio-h, 

 four to eight inches diameter, from seed planted in 1858. I have 

 locust, grown in the same time, equally large, or larger, without 

 any extra care. Plant the seed like peas, and but little space will 

 be needed for many thousand trees. At one year old plant them 

 out in rows and tend like corn. Maple seed falls in the latter 

 part of May, and then is the time to plant it. If you can induce 

 every owner of prairie land to plant a. few seeds every year, what 

 a change will be wrought in the looks and solid improvement of 

 this open country." 



How TO Plow Fruit Orchards. 

 Mr. S. Edwards Todd. — The usual manner of plowino- the 

 ground around fruit trees is most injurious and ruinous to their 

 growth and productiveness, as the plow cuts oJff nearly all the 

 most important roots. The roots that grow near the surface of 

 the ground are the great absorbents of nourishment, whether they 

 are roots of trees, shrubs or plants that yield fruit. l?his is a 

 habit common to plants and trees to throw out a system of roots 

 near the surface of the soil, where they will absorb and readily 

 appropriate the fertilizing matter with which they come in con- 

 tact, to the purpose of developing the stems, or fruit of the grow- 

 ing plant. If we examine fruit trees, around which the soil has 

 not been plowed, nor spaded for three or four years, it will be 

 seen that a system of roots has been formed near the surface of the 

 ground. Let these roots all be cut off and another set will be 

 formed in their place in a few years. Or, it a mound of earth be 

 raised one foot high around the body of the tree, a sj^stem of 

 roots will soon appear near the surface of the ground. Then if 

 the height of the mound be increased another foot, another system 

 of roots will be produced, except with very old trees. We once 

 raised a mound of earth two feet high, around a young apple tree, 

 and a set of roots more than one foot long was formed in one sea- 



