STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. II9 



The last point which I wish to discuss, and one which is also 

 largely a personal question, though there are some general prin- 

 ciples involved, is the matter of what crops to grow in the or- 

 cliard for the profit to be gotten out of the crop and not, as with 

 the cover crops, solely to benefit the orchard. For while the 

 bearing orchard of course uses all the land and pays a profit 

 on it, or ought to, the young orchard is, for several years, a 

 source of out-go and the land ought to be planted to some crop 

 which will yield a profit and at the same time either directly 

 benefit the orchard or at least not injure it. 



A crop to be satisfactory in an orchard must first of all be a 

 cultivated crop. 1 do not believe in either a hay-crop or a grain- 

 crop for an orchard, whether young or old. And if the crop is 

 to be cultivated, the more thorough cultivation it requires and 

 the more nearly its season for cultivating corresponds to that of 

 the orchard, the better. I am sure that a cultivated crop is usu- 

 ally far better for the orchard than if no crop is grown, for un- 

 fortunately the average man will cultivate his annual crops 

 when he might neglect his orchard. 



Secondly a crop, to be entirely satisfactory, ought not to dis- 

 turl) the soil late in the season, as, for example, in digging a 

 crop of early potatoes. If the crop grows late in the season, 

 wdiich is in itself no objection but rather the reverse, it ought 

 to be something like cabbage or sc^uash which does not disturb 

 the soil when gathered. Of course this objection can be over- 

 come by planting the crop far enough from the trees, but this 

 solution has its own weak points as we lose the use of a lot of 

 land which might just as well be giving us a profit. 



Furthermore, the crop must also be something which the 

 owner of the orchard can either use on the farm (as a crop of 

 turnips or mangels for stock feed), or else must be a profitable 

 crop to sell. 



The crops wliicli we selected, having regard as far as possible 

 to the above general principles, were beans, cabbage, and squash. 

 They are all of them good crops and I think have, in general, 

 proved satisfactory, and we shall use all of them another sea- 

 son. 



We have found the work at all times of absorbing interest and 

 for the most ]Kirt our plantings have come along satisfactorily. 



