91 



can't bring them up. They are stunted. That is one trou- 

 ble in asking trees to bear too young. You can get a tree 

 to bear here as young as we can in the west, but you would- 

 n't want to have them bear too young. We have had them 

 come into bearing at five or six years, and they are eighteen 

 or twenty now and still producing good crops of fruit, and 

 there is no telling when they will quit. 



The President. Question No. 12 is asked for: ''Would 

 you dynamite holes for setting young apple trees in ordin- 

 ary apple soil?" 



Mr. Frost. I used djTiamite last year and I certainly 

 still should use it if I had a heavy sub-soil. 



President. Can you tell the cost per hole of the dyna- 

 mite? 



Mr. Frost. The dynamite costs from fourteen to twenty 

 cents a stick, and it takes but half a stick. The operation is 

 to punch a hole about thirty inches deep, with a crow bar, 

 and if there is a very heavy sub-soil use half a stick. If it 

 is not very heavy a quarter stick will do, and that would 

 make the price from seven to ten cents each, besides the 

 labor. 



A Member, I would like to ask, where there is loose 

 soil going down twenty inches or so and then beyond that 

 you know the soil is so that you can shovel for twenty inches 

 and beyond that it is so hard you can't drive a pick in. How 

 deep would you go? 



Mr. Frost. I should like to get six or seven inches into 

 the sub-soil. The dynamite to be used is not over forty per 

 cent, gelatin. 



President. Question No. 9, is called for: "Is it advis- 

 able to set more apple orchards in view of the fact that im- 

 mense numbers of young trees are just coming into bearing 

 all through the fruit sections of the United States and Can- 

 ada?" 



Mr. Wheeler. It seems to me that this question would 

 take the whole day to discuss thoroughly ; but just to give an 

 idea what market there is in the world for apples, I think 

 that if we go to South America in the future and Europe and 

 other places where apples are going to be in demand, at the 

 present rate of starting crops it will take a great many 

 years yet before we are overplanted. I was recently in 



