ELEVENTH AXNUAL MEETING. 53 



Now I want to say, in order to have it successful it is neces- 

 sary to have a soil filled with humus or decaying vegetable 

 matter. So I say when you first set an orchard, try to get 

 ground that is as full of humus as you can. It is just the same 

 as though you were trying to grow a good crop of corn. You 

 have got to work at it and put it where it will do the best. 

 There is the soil, and you want to get as much humus into it 

 as you can. You want land that has got as much of it as you 

 can have, because that is what makes the trees grow. 



When you set your trees, you want to mulch them with straw 

 or something like that so that the ground around those trees 

 will not dry up ; this helps to keep the supply of humus and 

 moisture in the soil. You don't want to cultivate around it. 

 Cultivation exhausts the humus. Cultivation causes the humus 

 in the soil to be burnt up much faster' than it otherwise would 

 be and it destroys the sponge-like condition of the soil which 

 is so much desired, and that is one thing that makes it neces- 

 sary, as some think, to grow cover crops to restore the humus. 

 There is no need of my repeating that. So I say, when you 

 put out these young trees, mulch them first so that the roots 

 can get hold of the soil, and so that the soil will not dry up. 

 And then in July cut the grass in the orchard and place that 

 around the trees. Continue this for about six years. Do not 

 pasture that land or remove that grass in any other way. Just 

 cut the grass and put it around the trees, because by doing that 

 you are accumulating humus, and that is what Prof. Powell 

 says we need in our soil. By doing that it gets the soil into 

 a condition which is just right for perfect fruit. I found that 

 out. I found out the advantage of that when the trees com- 

 menced to bear. I have had several years' experience, and these 

 trees when they get up to be five or six years old commence to 

 bear, and in the six years' experience I have had, I know that they 

 have each year been doing better than they did the year before. 

 That is the result. It is an easy way. It's cheap. In the 

 spring, when you want to be about other work, you haven't got 

 to stop and attend to your orchard as I said before. You are 

 free to attend to other crops. All you have got to do is to 

 wait until the grass gets up and then mow the grass and put it 

 around the trees. 



