HOGS IN THE ORCHARD.
Question: Does swine grazing injure orchards?
J. W. Robison: Not if the hogs are kept out of it. It is death to an orchard to let hogs in. To let them rub against the trees closes the pores, and growth ceases. We notice in the newspapers that fish oil, axle grease, etc., keep off rabbits. I tried using axle grease two years. You could see the mark around where the oil had been, and note where growth had stopped below this mark. By washing this with soap, we were enabled to get the trees to grow again. Hogs, as I stated before, will, by rubbing, close the pores. The tramping hardens the soil and shuts out any percolation of water into it. As well plant a tree in the middle of the road as where hogs have been. They, of all animals, tramp the ground the hardest.
Samuel Reynolds: Would pigs injure the soil?
T. A. Stanley: I have had experience in this, yet, while I do not know anything about the gentleman's land packing, I believe it benefits some orchards to run hogs in them. I tried it on an orchard that had ceased bearing. I inclosed the orchard and put hogs in for a year or more. New growth started on the trees, and they at once began to bear, and bore for several years after I took the hogs out. I could see no injury caused by their rubbing the trees. I do not think they will rub the trees if the orchard is large. I do not see what injury they do. After the apples grew large enough, if wormy they fell, and the hogs ate the apples and the worms also.
Edwin Taylor: I have had a little experience in that line. I fenced around a twenty-acre orchard, expecting to combine horticulture and agriculture right there. My hogs were lousy, and they did rub the trees, and whenever they rub they destroy. Anybody who tries it will find they will absolutely squeal for something to eat when there are bushels of apples on the ground. I was at large expense to fence, but was so disappointed with the hog business that I took the fence down.
COLD STORAGE.
By Geo. Richardson, of Leavenworth, Kan.