446 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
his orchard; I told him he would repent of that; the horses kick¬ 
ed around the trees, and the cows would go under the shade. I 
said, you are going to kill the trees; he said: u Oh, no,he wouldn’t. 1 ’ 
Last spring he said my trees are all dead. I said, put your hogs 
in your orchards; it is essential for them to be there; it lessens the 
worms in the apples. The trouble in our State is that the apples 
are not perfect. You take a barrel of apples to Milwaukee, and they 
ask, “what is the trouble with the Wisconsin apples, they are so 
wormy.” The hardiest kind of fruit I have is the Fameuse, or 
Snow apple, and the Golden Russet. I can sell my Golden Rus¬ 
set; they are the nicest apples I have; make the nicest sauce, and 
are good keepers. 
Mr. Daubner: I would like to inquire if you ever had any diffi¬ 
culty in making new trees stand where old trees had died out? 
Mr. Johnson: Those places where old trees have died, I clean 
everything out, then I bring fresh soil. The only difficulty is, I 
can’t get trees big enough to put in unless I take them out of my 
own garden where I have planted them. Give me a tree four or five 
or six years old, with a good root, and I take the top off of it. The 
great trouble in planting trees you get more top than root. 
Mr. Plumb: I .would like to answer the question in regard to re¬ 
filling. It is the standing complaint among farmers that they 
cannot make a tree grow where they fill in. I find, in a majority of 
such cases, that they undertake to refill in grass, or under some 
such adverse circumstances. They dig out a large hole. They 
plant and mulch. So far it is all right. They think they have 
done their work for the season if they mulch a space a few feet 
across. Such is not the case. Within three feet of the tree they 
mulched, the grass roots have sucked the nourishment and moist¬ 
ure. The grass is as much benefited by the mulching as the tree, 
and more. What is the remedy? You must cutoff that grass. 
Grass roots will run three or six feet without any trouble. So I tell 
the farmers, if you refill in grass, you must go around once in 
two or three weeks with a long spade, and cut off every root of grass 
that is running through under this mulched place, then you will 
see some benefit from mulching, otherwise, but very little. It has 
a temporary effect onty. 
Mr. Daubner: I would say right here that I have experienced 
considerable difficulty in filling in an orchard with new trees. Not 
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