148 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Mr. Wheeler. I will ask Mr. Frost to answer that. 



Mr. Frost. Mr. Chairman, I cut the grass before I spray in 

 every case. I don't think it is safe to use the grass after spraying 

 with arsenate of lead, especially under the trees, because the rain 

 does not reach the grass to any great extent, and the arsenate of 

 lead adheres to the grass for a long time. I have found that a 

 horse can eat poisoned hay without any injury, whereas a cow 

 would be killed, and I cannot account for it. But the last few 

 years in spraying, we invariably killed a cow, so we stopped using 

 the grass, or cut it before we did any spraying. 



Question. I would like to ask if you would prefer the fertilizer 

 which Prof. Sears has mentioned to well-rotted barn manure. 



Prof. Sears. Mr. Chairman, I think it is an entirely different 

 fertilizer, which I should prefer for a bearing orchard, although I 

 thmk a bearing orchard that can occasionally have a light applica- 

 tion of barn manure will make the best orchard. I think a light 

 application every two or three years of barn manure is perhaps a 

 good thing, but barn manure contains a great deal of nitrogen, 

 and if I was using barn manure I should want to use it with caution. 

 I should say if you could put on, as I have suggested, barn manure 

 every three years, a light application, and in between use cover 

 crops, and then perhaps using the quantities I have suggested of 

 the other two fertilizers, you would have very nearly ideal condi- 

 tions for running an orchard. 



Question. I would like to ask Prof. Sears what his opinion is of 

 mineral fertilizer which we hear so much about these days. 



Prof. Sears. I think I better perhaps say that I know nothing 

 about it and sit down. All I know about it is what I have read 

 in the circular put out by the company that sells this material. 

 It is not fair to criticise the concern, but it did seem to me if their 

 fertilizer would do what they claim for it that there was n't any 

 use of anybody else staying in the business. 



Question. I want to ask a question, Mr. Chairman, whether you 

 prefer the unground lime, which I suppose is carbonate of lime, 

 to gypsum, which is sulphate of lime. 



Mr. Wheeler. I have never used any gypsum; I prefer the 

 other, so far as I know it. 



Question. I want to ask another question: Whether anybody 



