Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1869 [PAGE 268]

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254 will hardly be able to make water too hot for the grub ; the only way to get him out of the tree is to bore him out. Some mound up trees six or eight inches. That practice is quite extensive in Southern Illinois. But the remedy is as we have stated. H e who would grow peaches must go for the borer with a sharp stick. I have an orchard of eight thousand trees, and depend on nothing else. I know that Dr. Hull advises planting the peach tree deep in the ground—from four to six inches. I do not know whether this answers the purpose or not. Dr. HULL—It does. Mr. COLMAN—Upon the subject of high or low trimming I will say I do not expect to see our prairie farmers adopt the high trimming system. I have seen a great many orchards in Missouri, and the best orchards I have seen are those with low tops. It is true you cannot get under them to cultivate, and it is not desirable to do so. I am inclined to think low heads the best, say three or four feet. That would be my plan, and the further north I went I would go correspondingly lower. Dr. HULL—When I said that low heads were a failure I made the statement from careful observation. What are the facts in the case? Take the fruit district from Centralia to Cobden. These orchards are all failures! Their failure amounts to millions of dollars for that one district alone. Twenty-three years ago I planted trees with low heads, and I raised good fruit. By-and-by others began to plant orchards and to grow fruit and curadios. I discovered the danger just in time to save myself. I had constructed a curculio catcher, and I must from necessity get it under the trees, and for this purpose, among others, I began to change from low heads to high heads, and I think the result has justified my conclusions in recommending high heads. We should remember that the conditions of fruit growing are changed from what they were years ago, when some of us commenced in this business. We should look this fact in the face and shape our practice to meet the necessities of the time. It is a hopeless task for me to plant an orchard with low heads and expect to gather fruit from it. Mr. M. L. DUNLAP—About this peach grub. I find that he will not pay any attention to your patent remedies. He must be dug out. Smiley Shepherd told me that.he tried planting tansy, which was recommended to keep out the borer, but he found the tansy