STATE P03IOLOGICAL SOCIETY. «- <^ T'T 



crops. You sometimes hear that it is uuwise to plow an or^Kard, bu€ 

 how old must an orchard be when it is unwise to plow itV I hkve trees 

 that have been set live or six years and we are plowing that orchard, 

 turning all one way, and turning every foot of that land up snug to the 

 trees. We think we can do this better with a pair of cattle than with 

 horses, and with a good side-hill plow or swivel plow we turn every foot 

 of the ground. Those trees showed marked growth last year and with a 

 very light manuring. We planted it with corn, and I think that a crop 

 like corn is far better adapted to an orchaixl than some of the grain 

 crops. It leaves the soil in rather a better condition than simply sowing 

 on some grain. 



Protection with us means something — protection of the trees in the 

 winter fi-om mice. There are vai-ious ways in which we protect them. 

 One that is practiced a great deal is heeling down the snow around the 

 tree. As the snows come on we tread that snow down compactly and 

 the mice hardly ever trouble the trees. Others put laths around the 

 tree, cutting them four feet long, and making a box right around the 

 tree, tying it with small wire, the thirty-two steel wire that comes with 

 small bobbins. That protects the tree from the mice and we have never 

 lost any trees with that method. Some use tarred paper, but it is more 

 of a job to get it on and it is more difficult to keep it over for the second 

 year. Putting it on the second time is quite a job. The laths can be 

 easily taken off and put away and put on the second or third time. In 

 fact I do not know whj- they will not last a lifetime, almost, if you keep 

 them properly housed. I do not know as there is auy particular need of 

 tjnng those laths on with more than one strand of wire. The first j-ear 

 we used wire at the bottom and a string at the top, but later on we have 

 put the laths on earlier in the season and pounded the bottom of the laths 

 down into the soil and simply tied the top. AVe used the wire because 

 someone had used wool twine, or lighter twine, and the mice had gnawed 

 it off so that it had broken and the sticks tumbled down. And as this 

 farm that we were cultivating was a back farm where we do not go verj- 

 often in the winter or late fall, we used this small steel wire. It is cheap 

 and we feel as if it were surer than a string. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Hale. I think this whole subject of apple culture is one of very 

 great importance. These questions as to the plowing and methods of 

 culture of course might be local questions very largely, but on general 

 principles where culture can take place I certainly agree that level cul- 

 ture is the best. If our friend here has a field which needs dead furrows 

 between the trees at certain distances each way, that land is too wet to 

 plant an apple orchard on anyway. In regard to backing the furrows up 

 to the tree to give the tree nutrition. I would just as soon think of 

 standing in a plate of soup and hoping to absorb food that way, as to 

 think of getting nutrition into an apple tree right at the base of the tree. 

 I put my plant food out in the middle of the row, where this dead furrow 



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