STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. • 37 



a rotation of crops practiced which will put this land in the 

 best possible shape, for after the trees are once set this cannot 

 be so thoroughly and cheaply done. But granting that you as 

 a Maine apple grower have given careful consideration to these 

 important fundamental principles, what shall your system of 

 cultivation and fertilization of that orchard be? These two 

 tTiings are all that I am to speak of today but I hope that every- 

 one of the others I have mentioned will receive due considera- 

 tion at this meeting. 



There are at least four systems recognized and practiced by 

 orchardists in orchard culture. 



1. Growing the trees in sod, and leaving them entirely neg- 

 lected. 



2. Growing in grass land, cutting the grass for hay and 

 removing it. 



3. Growing in grass, cutting this grass, and piling it under 

 the trees as a mulch. 



4. Growing cover crops, turning these under, and tilling the 

 orchard for a part of the year. 



It is necessary in Maine too, to recognize that orchards are 

 grown under two distinctly different conditions, namely : on 

 land comparatively free from rocks, and that can conveniently 

 be tilled; and secondly, on rocky, ledgy hillsides where cultiva- 

 tion is practically impossible. It is obvious that different sys- 

 tems must be adopted for these lands, and I shall try to keep 

 these two conditions in mind. 



It is needless to spend time to discuss the first system where 

 trees are set in some place not considered valuable enough for 

 other purposes and neglected. The sight of such trees is fami- 

 liar to all, but anyhow this is not orcharding. 



The second method, growing the orchard in grass, cutting 

 this, and removing it for hay is a questionable and dangerous 

 practice, and we see few orchards under these conditions which 

 would be pronounced first class. The exception to this is now 

 and then a case where large quantities of stable manure or 

 commercial fertilizers are applied to more than replace the plant 

 food taken out by the hay and the trees. The question for 

 every orchardist practicing this method to ask himself is this: 

 Am I in the hay business or am I in the orchard business? 



