sixriiiixrii .ixxr.ii. Miinrixc. it 



market. That is the wdv 1 happened to be in the Irnil hnsi- 

 iiess and I don't know what else 1 conkl get into to make a 

 better h\in^-. When m\- father first commeneed setting these 

 orchards, he i)li>wed the ground and tlien sowed it to wheat 

 and grass and cloxer and tlie trees went on l)earing e\er}- 

 otlier xQ-dv. l)earing themsehes to death. 'Jdie}- are all gone now 

 except a few trees. We can't make the Rome Beauty trees 

 live as von can make your Baldwins live here in Connecticut, 

 but the\- do the work while they do li\'e. In a few _\ears the 

 soil in some of the.se orchards began to wash considerably and 

 we began to learn tliat it would not pay to cultivate the land. 

 The onlv thing 1 could .see to do was to mow the grass and 

 leave it on the ground. I consider it wortli more to feed to 

 the trees than to feed stock. 



I came here to talk about the mulch system: s(^me may l)e 

 opposed to it under certain conditions, but it I had not used 

 it I would have made a failure of my business. 



In IS^X) tlie Ohio experiment station decided to make some 

 tests in spraying to keep oiT the apple scab. Prof, (jreen 

 came down to our place, and we liad crude instruments to be 

 sure, but lie made some tests and it proxed conclnsix'ely tliat 

 we could keep off the scab and codling moth also. W'e 

 spraved with a mixture as follows: 4 pounds of blue vitriol: 

 4 pounds of lime: 4 ounces of Paris Green to 50 gallons of 

 water. It didn't hurt the foliage and we went on for a few 

 vears with it: then we tried arsenite of soda and later arsenate 

 of lead, but there was too much cost in the latter: then I con- 

 ceived the idea we would put half strength of arsenate of lead 

 and ar.senite of .soda and we had better success than ever before. 

 And I have been using that mixture that strength ever since 

 with \er\- good success, and the 1)est success this year we CN'er 

 had. 



I have cut the amount of arsenate of lead from three 

 pounds down to one and a half pounds to 50 gallons of water 

 and to one pound in some cases : T never recommended over 

 four pounds of blue vitriol: I used three pounds last year and 

 five pounds of lime. The New ^'ork fellows used to recom- 

 mend six pounds of blue ^•^triol and six i)onnds of lime but 

 lately they have decided to cut down tlie blue vitriol to three 



