43 



Unless you can provide a large amount of mulch material 

 at a low price, it would be folly to try mulching young trees 

 from the beginning. It would be far better to cultivate 

 them or not plant them at all. 



** After trees get into bearing the ground can be well 

 seeded and if the grass is left around them, I am very sure 

 they will make a satisfactory growth and produce fair 

 •crops of medium sized, high-colored fruit. 



"I can use leaves from the woods. I think the mulched 

 trees will be -more permanent than the cultivated, being 

 grown in a natural way. 



"vVnother thing that claims our attention right away is 

 the effect upon fruit growing that the San Jose Scale is to 

 have. If you are not convinced that it is a terrible thing 

 coming into our part of the country, I can assure you that 

 it is. I would not attempt to go into an old-fashioned, high 

 orchard and try to keep the scale off. In the first place it 

 IS almost impossible to spray, and I consider it not worth 

 the while to try. The idea is that this attack of the scale 

 is going to force us to raise a new kind of tree, both apple 

 and peach. I believe that we must get our trees down 

 nearer to the ground. I am planting my peach trees four- 

 teen aiid fifteen feet apart because I believe that it pays 

 me to get the tree down close to the ground. They are 

 easier to spray and to handle. I am trying a similar experi- 

 ment with apple tree stock. Planting about 16 to 18 feet 

 apart in hope of getting low-down trees. I am planting ap- 

 ples sixteen feet apart each way. I think it will pay me to 

 raise these trees up to seven or eight years and at the end 

 of that time transplant them. I would not suggest this as a 

 plan for everybody but in many cases it is the best thing to 

 ■do. No man today can sit doAvn and say. 'I am going to do 

 just as grandfather did because grandfather did it. ' Things 

 are developing. A man can no longer be tied down by 

 ■cast-iron rules. Each man must find out for himself what is 

 "best for his own land. 



"The mulched trees seem to be at work all the time. 

 There is a slow growth of wood all through the season. 

 Then we do not have to prune the tree so often. You can 

 let the tree grow until it comes to development. I believe 

 that is the kind of tree that we are trying to grow. 



"I do not believe this system is so well adapted to the 

 peach or pear as to the apple ti^ee. There seems to be some- 



