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WISCONSIN STATE HoRTIcuLUREA SocmK.
very good profit; but, on the other hand, on the larger farms,
Michigan has learned another lesson, and that is, too much clean
culture and not turning back any humus robs our soils. At
the present time there are a great many farms that are depleted
of humus, and the method now is, in some of the younger or-
chards especially, they cultivate down the tree rows a strip
about three furrows wide, the rest seeded to clover. This is
left about two years, the first and second crop of clover is usu-
ally taken off and what ever grows up the following spring is
turned under and in that way we have got the humus back into
the soil to quite an extent, but on the smaller farms where we
raise the vegetables, we sow a cover crop in the fall, which
grows very rapidly, and such a winter as this it will grow under
the snow nearly all winter, and in the spring we will have a
fine growth to turn under, which helps turn back this humus
in the soil, and this method is followed out until our trees come
into bearing.
Mr. President: We will now hear from Mr. Bryant of Illinois
Mr. Bryant: I want to say that while I am from Illinois I
am not going to speak of Illinois practice entirely, I am going to
speak from my own practice and experience, and would say that
Prof. Moore 's remarks at the start were very much in line with my
ideas. We plant our trees thirty feet apart, and use corn for
the first few years without any rotation. I would say with us
that in our ordinary soil the trees do not need any stimulation
the first few years, we get growth enough, we do not care to en-
courage more until they begin to bear, then we practice the
clean cultivation the earlier part of the summer and where trees
are bearing heavily we put on manure. I said we planted the
trees thirty feet apart each way and in that way we can plant
seven rows of corn, putting it two feet and a half apart each
way, rowing both ways, and that will leave a wide space next
the tree, perhaps about four feet and a half, and of course that
space right next to the trees you have to cultivate with a single
horse, it gives a little more air and room n~ext the trees and a
better chance to cultivate. I do not know that this question
extends any further than the first few years, it does not refer to
the later practice. I was going to say that we practice clean
cultivation after the tree comes into bearing for the earlier
part of the season and then we apply a cover crop. We think
that is very essential. Our conditions of course may be differ-
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