76 STATE I'OMOI-OGICAL SOCIETY. 



are in tlie pastures of some neighbor's lot that you cauuot atteud to. iu 

 which tlie borers seem to thrive well, thej' will come out and infest these 

 young trees. We go over the trees twice a year, tlie latter part of ^lay 

 or the first of June and the last of October, and take them out. They 

 are easily found and with a pen knife you can destroy them before they 

 get inside of the bark to do much damage. That is the only pest that 

 has ever troubled us, excepting that a very few trees that came out of 

 one nurser}' were troubled with bark lice. For them we have used ashes 

 iu a misty morning before the foliage starts, just throwing the ashes into 

 the tree. The bark being moist, the lice are destroyed. There maj- be 

 something better in the way of spraying, but this has always worked 

 well with us. 



I think one of the best things for the protection or growth of a young 

 tree the first year is to have it well mulched, using some coarse manure 

 if you have it. Horse manure and straw seem to be well adapted to 

 keeping the soil moist and keeping down the weeds. If j^ou haven't this 

 to spare use some coarse swale hay, or something that j'ou can find in the 

 pasture, brakes or the like. About the middle of August there is alwaj-s 

 spare time and plenty of such material can be cut and put into the barn 

 to be used the first thing in the spring. I have practiced that and like it 

 well, perhaps running it under tlie cows or horses. If j'Ou do not want 

 to do that you can simply take it from the barn and put it around the 

 trees. Some leave it in large heaps in the field, but we have generally 

 put it into the barn ; and running it under the cows or horses makes a 

 better mulch than just the bare grass or weeds. I do not believe 

 that just the bare wild grasses or the brakes that you get in the pasture 

 are worth much as a plant food, but they serve to keep the soil moist, 

 and the trees seem to thrive in a cool, moist soil ; and they also keep the 

 weeds down. 



In our fields where the trees are set we have spread it on in the fall 

 and plowed it under, putting it down where the youug roots can feed 

 upon it, and the trees show marked growth. They look as though they 

 enjoyed feeding upon that kind of food. In some of the sections w here 

 trees have come up, (volunteer trees as we call them) we fence oft" an acre 

 or two and put some hogs in. They will turn over the sod and break up 

 the soil, and as far as you can see that piece of orchard you will see the 

 rank green foliage, showing that something has been going on there. 

 I do not believe it is particularly the voidings of those animals that does 

 this, but the breaking up of the moss bound grass roots, the breaking up 

 of the different parts of the plant food in the soil so that the trees can 

 take hold of it. That has done the w'ork rather than the manures that 

 any creatures leave there. Good tillage is as good a thing in growing an 

 orchard as it is iu growing a corn crop. I have found that where I 

 worked around the trees, even if I did not put on any fertilizer of auj- 

 kind, those trees did far better than those which were just left alone with 

 the bare mulch of manure and wild grasses. So I believe that cultiva- 

 tion is as good in the orchard as it is among your potatoes or your corn 



