146 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



entirely destroy the young seedlings, so we have tried keeping 

 broods of chickens on the beds and this has worked with great 

 success. The chickens keep moving over the beds and eat all 

 the grubs as fast as they appear ; where it is impossible to keep 

 chickens, an application of Paris Green in land plaster is put 

 on when the plants are wet with dew. This is used at the rate 

 of 1 ounce of Paris Green to 10 pounds of land plaster. The 

 beds are covered with meadow hay as soon as the ground is 

 frozen to a depth of an inch or so, to prevent deep freezing, as 

 we cannot depend on the ground being covered with snow 

 during the winter. 



In spring this hay is removed and as soon as the ground 

 can be ploughed the roots are turned out. loaded on carts and 

 taken to a cool cellar, where they are sorted, counted and 

 packed in boxes with soil ready for the planting, which is done 

 about the middle of April. The ground which has grown 

 some cultivated crop the previous year is put in the best pos- 

 sible condition by deep ploughing and thorough working. 

 The rows are marked out four feet apart and furrowed deep 

 with a two-horse plow going both ways in the row. The 

 loose soil in the bottom is shovelled out and the finished trench 

 10 inches deep is ready to receive the roots, which are spread 

 both ways, placed by hand in the bottom of the trench 18 

 inches apart and covered by a horse hoe with wings which 

 follows the planters, covering two rows at once. A mixture 

 of 300 pounds of nitrate of soda, 300 pounds of muriate of 

 potash, 1,000 pounds of tankage and 1,000 pounds of wood 

 ashes per acre, is spread over the rows with the two-row drop- 

 ping attachment on the fertilizer spreader. 



As soon as the shoots appear some of the earth on the sides 

 of the trench is drawn in about them and this is kept up until 

 the soil has all been filled in the trenches, leaving the crown of 

 the root about 80 or 10 inches below the surface. 



We find that after a bed is well established the application 

 of chemical fertilizer is much better than stable manure, as 

 manure even though it is not very lumpy is sure to cause many 

 crooked stalks. The summer work and that of the next season 

 consists chiefly in keeping the ground cultivated and hoed and 

 in this connection we find a bent tooth weeder almost indis- 



