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Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
will die. With all the theorizing on this point, I am satisfied 
drouth is at the bottom. 
A Voice: They die where they are not pastured. 
Mr. Plumb: It is a want of moisture. The grub-worm that you 
will always find there is a secondary cause. They are not the pri¬ 
mary cause. The primary cause is the want of moisture in the 
soil. 
Mr. Haight: I would like to ask Mr. Plumb whether he would 
consider it a good practice to seed clover, and allow the crop to die 
on the ground from year to year? 
Mr. Plumb: That would depend upon the nature of the soil. If 
it was soil like Mr. Anderson’s, it would be a very safe practice. It 
might rob your trees in the summer-time when they need moisture 
—mowing would be better. 
Mr. Haight: My experience is that it re-seeds itself; sufficient 
seed falls to continue the clover. I don’t cut it at all. 
Mr. Johnson : I had a small orchard I planted twenty-two years ago 
this spring, when I first came into the State. The location is on 
the north side of a hill, probably fifty or sixty feet high; it is white- 
oak openings. I grubbed it and planted the trees the first year I 
came in. I got my trees from Rochester, and then I undertook to 
grow an orchard without any fence around it. That I found to be 
a failure. If *T left home, when I came back the cows w^ere in the 
orchard and twisting the apple-trees all around. I got mad and 
probably swore. I went to work and filled up my orchard again, 
and kept a fence around it, and plowed it, and worked it, mulched 
my trees; had good success until 1856 and 1857, those hard winters. 
When I gave my orders for trees I got two or three of this kind, 
and two or three of that kind, a variety of trees, so I could make a 
good show at the count}^ fairs. The first thing 1 knew two-thirds 
of my orchard was gone up. I then examined my trees, and found 
out what kinds I had left in the orchard, and I made up my mind 
if I couldn’t raise tame ones I would raise wild ones; they were 
better than none at all. There came a man around, and I told him I 
wanted a few trees of one kind, and a few trees of another. I had 
planted mostly of the Golden Russet. 1 planted my trees thirty 
feet apart. I thought it was a good deal of land to waste for a few 
trees. I went to Mr. Peffer at one time to fill up my orchard, and 
I got trees of him. I got the Golden Russet and the Maiden’s 
