SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 151 



Prof. Hedrick : So far as cold storage is concerned there 

 is no difference ; in common storage we have kept the differ- 

 ent kinds of fruit and found but little difference ; the mulched 

 fruit ripened a week or two earlier than the tilled fruit and 

 must be pickcxl earlier ; the tilled fruits are the juiciest ; the 

 sod mulch fruits are more firm. 



A Member: Don't they decay fast if grown on tilled soil? 



Prof. Hedrick : 1 haven't observed it so. 



A Member: What is }our idea about the "Stringfellow 

 method" of planting? 



Prof. Hedrick : The "Stringfellow method" may work 

 all right in Georgia, but not in New York or Connecticut ; the 

 farther south you go the more easy it is to make the trees 

 grow. I doubt, though, whether the Georgia peach growers 

 follow the "Stringfellow method'' to the letter. 



Prof. C. S. Phelps: I am much interested in some of 

 the reports Professor Hedrick made of experiments at Geneva. 

 It seems to me the Professor is a little unfair in that, all the 

 way through, his leanings crop out toward cultivation. And 

 I hope he will excuse me for calling his attention to it. I wish 

 to call his attention to a few instances in Connecticut where 

 fruit is being grown under sod conditions with a great degree 

 of success. We have on the hills in Litchfield County an old 

 farm where apples have been grown successfully under sod 

 conditions for many years, and where in the last ten or fifteen 

 years probably as much money has been made on apples as on 

 any farm in the State of Connecticut, and yet they have been 

 grown almost exclusively under sod conditions. The conck'- 

 tions there are peculiar. The soil is a heavy, tenacious soil, 

 with a somewhat clayey subsoil, filled with moisture and from 

 early spring until about the first of June one could not suc- 

 cessfully cultivate 'it if he wanted to. The orchards are kept 

 in grass and a crop of hay is harvested every year, and in place 

 of that is put on stable manure as a mulch — the owner feels 

 that the grass is more valuable to him for feeding purposes 

 than to use it as a mulch, and that the manure is more suitable 

 for the purpose. He is very successful in his orchard manage- 

 ment and is reaping valuable returns. I doubt ver\- much if 



