122 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



of blister mites. This orchard has fruited fairly well every 

 other year and one year it bore so heavily it hurt itself, many 

 of the trees being broken badly. It did not bear very much this 

 year so I sowed clover in July and have a fine stand. 



The other part of the orchard, the former owner said, did not 

 produce enough to pay, so he cut every other row out length- 

 ways to get land to raise crops on, leaving the trees 30 feet 

 apart in the rows and the rows 60 feet apart north and south. 

 If he had cut the trees cornerwise every 1 other row the orchard 

 would have been much more valuable. 



That orchard I sowed to mammoth clover under the trees and 

 alfalfa between the rows and raised heavy crops of clover and 

 alfalfa which were all put under the trees with a side delivery 

 rake. The clover and alfalfa died out and a rank growth of 

 blue grass and June grass came in. It was all plowed and 

 reseeded to clover under the trees and alfalfa between the rows 

 but I will plow under the trees again next summer. Some of 

 the years when hay has been ver\' high in price it has taken a 

 good deal of nerve to keep on mulching with the hay which was 

 very heavy and made a heavy covering under all the trees, but 

 I knew if it was once drawn away it might get lost and never 

 find its way back again. 



It has paid me to leave the hay under the trees for the 

 orchard is in fine conrlition and bears every year; not all the 

 trees bear every year but many of them do, not the entire tree 

 but one side of the tree or limbs in different places on the tree. 



Another orchard I have owned but a few years was in sod 

 when I bought it. This was manured with sheep manure and 

 tilled. The trees were too close together so every other row 

 comer ways was pruned very severely, cutting oflF every limb 

 that touched the row left on either side. The orchard did not 

 blossom heavily last spring but every blossom must have set 

 for the trees were overloaded and broken, but we kept it tilled 

 until very late in the summer to keep the apples growing and it 

 was well we did for we had a very dry summer. We found 

 two baldwins in that orchard over 14 inches in circumference, 

 one 14 1-2 inches. 



I feared a dry summer and fall so worked the orchards later 

 than I liked to and this year I helped the apple crop but in the 

 orchards I worked the latest the clover crop is about minus. 



