two they bore very well. Since that, I have never been able to get grapes enough to pay for bothering with them.

When I commenced planting a vineyard I planted it on a south hill side, sheltered from the north, and sheltered from the west, and quite steep. I thought I had got as good a place for grapes as there was in the state, and I planted all varieties, particularly a good many of the Rogers, and for a year or two I got some Rogers grapes in good condition; but it has been many years since I had any Rogers grapes that amounted to anything on that side. hill. I have abandoned it as a place for a vineyard. We had a regular southern Illinois climate. The grapes mildewed.

Mr. Jordan - Can they beat us in Illinois raising grapes?

Mr. Tuttle No, sir. The rot and mildew are a great deal more common south than here. In regard to the Rogers grapes, different kinds require different treatment. The tendency of the No. 15 is an excessive amount of wood, while in No. 4 you have to encourage the growth of wood. I think No. 4 is one of the very best of the Rogers grapes, and the fruit is less likely to rot and mildew than the 15.

A voice-How do you manage the 15?

Mr. Tuttle-It depends entirely upon the soil. On heavy clay soil you can use the renewal system. I do not believe, with the renewal, you can do anything with a No. 15 grape, unless on the north side of a hill, and on very heavy clay land. I believe if I was growing No. 15 grapes in a village, I would try and put them on the east side of a board fence or building. I would train them thirty feet long; have something that I could lay it up onto in the summer and drop it down in the winter. I believe you could grow more grapes on one vine in that way than on twenty in the ordinary way.

QUESTION.

What is essential in planting a young apple tree where an old one has died, and large trees stand adjacent, to insure growth of the young tree? Is it necessary to draw in fresh soil, or to plow the land, using plaster or some other fertilizer, and if so, what is best?

Mr. Greenman-I don't know as I can answer the question, but I will make a statement. Mr. Rudolph Brown, of Wauwatosa, has an old orchard of forty trees, more or less, and Mr. Stickney took the job of filling that orchard in, and warranted the trees to grow. He took a great deal of pains in setting the young trees, and Mr. Stickney's firm have filled that orchard twice thoroughly, and Mr. Brown said that he was satisfied, and has given it up. These young trees cannot be made to thrive scattered about among these old trees.

Mr. Hatch-I apprehend that the circumstances would be something like this: A tender variety had killed out, or a variety that was not sufficiently hardy to endure the climate even under fair chances, had killed out. Now, if so, of course it would be folly to plant the same variety over again in the same place. Mr. Greenman-We planted hardy varieties.

Mr. Hatch-Then probably the practical question would be: Can we, where a Tallman Sweet has failed, succeed with the Duchess of Oldenburg? If I had a poor site, and a good variety had failed, I think I never would try again.

Mr. Olds- I remember hearing that question come up at a horticultural meeting that I attended a few years ago. And Mr. McWhorter, I think his name is, one of the pioneers of the fruit business, said that he had tried to fill up places where old trees had grown, and had always found them a failure that there was something gone from the soil that the tree needed; and it was folly to attempt to fill up with new trees.

Mr. Greenman-Mr. Brown has selected a new site just adjacent to the old, and the trees are in splendid condition. They have been set two years.

Mr. Jordan In nine cases out of ten, I believe if young trees are planted in old orchards, they starve to death. That is the main trouble. If you clear up your land in an old orchard, plow it up, and cultivate it, you can plant a new orchard on it, especially if you don't plant in the old hills where the roots are.

Mr. Hurd (Walworth county)-I have had a little experience in that matter. I set out fifty trees, and they commenced dying out. A good share of the orchard died out, and after that I kept

filling in, and I had no success until two years ago. I had a German at work for me, who had been drilled in that business for five years an orchardist and a gardener. I set him to filling in my orchard, and he filled it, and the trees are doing finely. I found I didn't know how to set out trees. In the first place, he digs a hole about three or four feet across and three or four feet deep. Then he fills in with the same soil to within a foot or so of the depth that he wants his tree. He sets his trees in there, and fills in around them a top soil, works it up a little, and throws in a little water. He leaves it until the water absorbs, then fills the place and tramps it down. He hasn't failed in a tree that he has set out.

Mr. Tuttle - I have good trees growing where I have taken old trees out, and some varieties have done remarkably well; but it is necessary to prepare the ground somewhat, where trees have been grown and stood for a number of years. I have practiced sometimes taking the brush, and portions of the tree, and burning it on the ground, digging and cutting out the old roots; you don't want to leave any of those in there. I have an orchard growing near my house, and I should hate to move it off anywhere else, and neglect to plant trees where old ones had died out. I have trees all the way from two to ten and twelve inches in diameter, growing where trees have been taken out.

If you take the stem of the old tree out, and stick another in the place, it will be pretty sure to die, especially if it is a dry season. It is better to give the ground time to become fitted for the new tree. I planted a tree four years ago in a place where I had taken out an old tree. It was about the size of my cane; now it is four inches in diameter.

Mr. Phillips-Does he put anything in except the same dirt that he took out?

Mr. Hurd-Nothing but the same dirt.

Mr. Kellogg It would seem that the German's method was all right if he had only gone and got soil that had not been tainted and filled the hole. I think the effect of taking the same soil will be felt by the tree after two or three years. If McWhorter of Illinois, as Mr. Olds states, has failed, and gives it up as a bad job, I don't know what we had better do.

Mr. Phillips-The finest Pewaukee trees that I have, and the finest I have seen anywhere for their age, are set in an old orchard. I am rather of the opinion that they are not in the places where the old trees stood. The ground is worked up good. They are fifty per cent. better than where I set them out on cultivated ground.

Mr. Palmer - I live in the openings, and sell trees to men in the openings where it was timber land once. Occasionally I hear a man say, there is one spot where I cannot make a tree grow. I tell them I believe there was a tree growing right in that spot sometime, and it has taken out the natural food for the tree. In planting old orchards, I find when there is a complaint that the tree dies, they set them right in the same place. I believe if they take soil enough from another place to start the tree they will get it to grow. They won't until they do. The trouble is the tree that stood there has taken all the natural food that the tree wants out of the soil for a certain distance around. I do not believe it is a disease in the old wood that prevents the trees growing, so much as it is the food of the tree has been taken out.

The President-I would like to say one word upon this ques. tion, because it is a very practical question, and one that has arisen and will arise more and more. And it rests upon two points: Is there anything in the place of the tree which died out which is poisonous to the new tree? That is the first question. I answer, no. It is as natural for one tree to follow another as anything in nature. It is a question of nourishment. The old tree is supposed to have exhausted the elements that the new tree needs, which you must supply by other soil. If the old orchard is in grass, you need to cultivate it.

QUESTION.

How should strawberry plants be mulched during the summer, if at all?

Mr. Greenman-They should be mulched very lightly in the winter, and leave it during the summer.

Mr. Adams- I have an idea that any man here who has grown strawberries knows enough to mulch them thoroughly with some

thing. What that shall be is a question of circumstances. If the man happens to have leaves, he can mulch them with leaves. If he happens to have straw, he can use that. If he has saw dust, he can use that. If he has marsh hay, be can use that. If he has coarse marsh grass, he should use that by all means, for it stands clear above any article that I know of for that purpose.

I read an article a few weeks ago, written by some gentleman in Michigan, a professor, I believe, in the University, upon this subject, and he stated that it was his custom to chop up his straw into very fine particles and distribute it over his strawberries. I do not know what his object was. I have had probably fifteen years' experience in mulching strawberries, and I find the best results are obtained by mulching heavily with any coarse material finer than corn stalks, and let that mulching remain during the season; allow the strawberries to come through, and only remove the heavier portions of it. I apply it in the fall, just as soon as the ground freezes or just after. The only advantage of putting it on after, is that you can drive upon the ground. Watch the weather closely, and put it on just at the time it freezes. The advantage is in keeping the ground moist, and keeping the fruit

clean.

Mr. Hatch After the crop is off would you cultivate again? Mr. Adams- After the crop is off, if the season is an ordinary one, not specially dry, it is well, immediately after picking the fruit, to mow the vines, rake them up and burn them, and clean the ground up thoroughly. Plow up at least half of them, and perhaps three-fourths, and then drag it crosswise and leave it.

Mr. Hatch That would look like murder to me.

Mr. Adams - It certainly is death to all insects on the plantation, and it is also death very nearly to all the weeds.

Mr. Hatch Nearly all the plants?

Mr. Adams- No, sir. I believe we treated two acres that way, and the neighbors went along with their hair standing on end. In less than two weeks the plants came up fresh and green and vig

orous.

Mr. Hatch You speak of it as an experiment.