102 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



development of a fruit tree, or still more necessary to bring the fruit to its 

 highest perfection. 



I believe it is often tbe case that more damage is done by a single plowing of 

 an orchard than can be restored in ten years. I am aware that fruit men, as 

 well as farmers, differ on this subject of cultivation. 



One holding that the plowing of all orchards to the depth of one foot or 

 more is the right thing to be done, and that an orchard will grow all the better 

 for it. Another taking the opposite theory that fruit trees as a rule do better 

 in grass, and bear with more regularity, provided the ground is enriched by 

 applications of compost on the surface. Neither of these theories arc safe 

 guides that can be followed by the successful or perfect fruit grower. They 

 are exceptions to the general rule and cannot be adopted. Deep plowing and 

 cropping may be practiced on a very strong gravelly loam which may be said to 

 have a perfect drainage and no hard subsoil. The trees may make a fair 

 growth if the fcrtilily is kept up, but I think it will be found that the fruit will 

 be deficient in flavor and size. 



I once knew an apple orchard of forty or fifty trees scattered over about four 

 acres of ground that had been plowed very deep for twenty-three years in suc- 

 cession and cropped with wheat, corn, and oats in rotation. The trees pro- 

 duced fair crops of apples nearly every year, but the fruit was deficient in fla- 

 vor. The varieties were Greenings and Boxbury Eussets. What was the secret 

 of the trees bearing full and regular crops of fruit? It was this. The roots 

 went down into a strong deep gravelly loam which had no subsoil to the depth 

 of eight or ten feet. This soil had perfect drainage, and consequently was 

 warm and moist, but never wet summer nor winter. The roots of these trees 

 gathered so much moisture and nourishment from the deep porous soil filled 

 with limestone and gravel, that they were not dependent upon the surface roots 

 for support, so that cropping and plowing was not so injurious as would have 

 been the case on a light soil, or a very heavy, hard clay subsoil. It is plain to 

 be seen that if these trees had been planted in a poor sandy soil where the chief 

 support must be supplied through the surface roots fertilized by applications on 

 the surface, or had they been set on a hard clay subsoil retentive of water in 

 the winter, and little or no moisture for the lower roots to feed upon during 

 the severe drouths of summer, they would have died outright before they had 

 been planted ten years, or cumbered the ground with a miserable existence. 



THE GRASS TIIEORY. 



Strange as it may seem there are many who are considered intelligent fruit 

 growers who are advocating this theory, and cite some very strong cases of suc- 

 cess under this mode of treatment. But I am inclined to the opinion that 

 upon further investigation these cases of successful fruit raising in grass are 

 exceptional, and never can be adopted as a rule. I will admit that standard 

 Pears and Heart and Biggarreau Cherries may often succeed with the land laid 

 down to grass on good strong loamy soil, moist but not wet, plowing very shal- 

 low once in four or five years to keep the ground from becoming sod bound, 

 and to]) dressing occasionally after they begin to bear heavy crops of fruit. 



Apples, Peaches, or Plums will never be a perfect success under such a course 

 of hvatnimt. They may bear well for a time, but they soon fail in vigor of 

 tree, and consequently in the perfection of their fruit, for they are much more 

 dependent on their surface roots than Pears and Cherries. 



Let me say to the fruit growers of South Haven and elsewhere, beware of 



