STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 4I 



cultivating. After plowing, cultivate lightly ; put in a cultivator 

 tliat will not work very deep, and just keep that surface stirred 

 and keep a light dry mulch. You can go to my orchard ,now, 

 you will find an experiment we are carrying on at the station, 

 where four rows of trees are plowed and cultivated and four 

 rows of trees are mulched. These trees are large enough to bear 

 a barrel of apples, — four or five inches in diameter, — one to two 

 barrels of apples possibly, and without any doubt those roots now 

 extend fifteen feet from the tree or more, and in mulching of 

 course it is impossible to think of mulching more than five or six 

 feet from the tree. It is plainly visible that the trees that are 

 cultivated and the entire surface kept mulched with the loose 

 soil are doing much better than those that are mulched with a 

 good depth of mulching five or six feet from the tree. 



Q. You would call the mulch the cheaper method ? 



A. I call the plowing and cultivating much cheaper unless 

 you have a large amount of waste hay. With us, meadow hay 

 and such mulching as we can get, straw and fine shavings, will 

 cost more, much more than the cultivating, for after once plow- 

 ing it is but little work to run the harrow through every few 

 weeks. 



Q. Then are we to infer that you consider the chief advantage 

 of mulching is keeping down vegetable growth? 



A. Keeping the soil loose and light so that you can save the 

 moisture, which is done by a mulch of dry earth as well as by a 

 mulch of meadow hay. 



RESULTS OP CULTURE. 



John W. True — In early times when our country was first 

 settled, all that was necessary to raise all the apples required for 

 family use, was simply to set the trees and they would take care 

 of themselves, eventually becoming, in many cases, very large 

 trees. They were seldom grafted, and if grafted, usually to 

 some fairly good cooking apple but the situation of the trees 

 plainly shows that they received no culture. 



To-day it is very different; if an orchard is set, at least in the 

 older parts of the State, it must be cultivated if we expect to 

 obtain good results. 



And what are these results ? 



