State Convention—Success vs. Failure. 447 
from the process that the gentleman just spoke of, for I never leave 
my orchard seeded down for any length ol time. In planting new 
trees where old trees died out, I have even drawn in fresh dirt, and 
I have been unsuccessful in raising trees, and I have mulched a good 
deal of it. 
Mr. Johnson: You must mulch all the time, and if the ground 
is considerable dry, draw water. 
Mr. Daubner: My orchard is an old orchard. If I don’t plant 
some trees by and by, and they keep on dying out, I shall lose my 
orchard. 
Mr. Plumb: If one will dig up an oak grub and plant an apple- 
tree there it will thrive. The old apple-tree has exausted just what 
that young tree needs. I make this point, that I would rather 
plant a tree on a piece of new ground, that never had an apple- 
tree on it, dig up the grubs and cut off the bushes, and plant a 
tree there, than plant one on the grass sod if it is old land. Farm¬ 
ers say they cannot do that because they must have two years to 
get the rawness out of their land. My experience shows me that 
to go right into the woods where you get the original virgin soil, 
and give the trees the benefit of it, is better than old, exhausted 
soil. This is one reason why farmers have such poor success in 
filling up old orchards. There are materials that they don’t sup¬ 
ply. I recommend making a large hole, taking off the turf from 
a considerable surface, and chopping it up fine. The tree may 
start, and yet fail within sixty days, but you have the elements to 
keep you going the first year. 
Mr. Daubner: I have had no trouble in getting a tree to start, 
and have it grow the first year, and the second, but after that they 
die out. I have come to the conclusion to plant the one hundred 
or two hundred trees that I have to set out in the spring, in an en¬ 
tirely new place. 
Mr. Clark: It is the general opinion among farmers that it is 
useless to plant our corn over, if some of it is dug up or fails. In 
our natural forests where we have the first growth of trees for in¬ 
stance, with large tops, and long roots, and the small trees that 
come up, the second growth are not thrifty. You go and cut down 
that first growth of large trees, and these little ones grow thrifty. 
My idea is the larger trees as well as the grass keep the little ones 
