84 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Fifth — It acts as a wind-break, and so protects the trees and the 

 land from the parching sonthwest wind which occasionally visits us in 

 August and September. The corn should be left standing until the 

 middle of September or later; in fact, in several years' experience in 

 growing fruit-trees, which have been put in various crops, I believe 

 that it is advantageous to keep one or two rows of corn, at least one 

 way, planted in the trees until they are 10 or 12 years old, on account 

 of the protection it gives the trees by attracting insects, and warding 

 off the evil effects of the sun and wind. After trees are .S or 4 years 

 old, I am aware that different theories are advanced as to the proper 

 treatment. One party advocates clean cultivation ; another alternate 

 crops of clover, and occasional plowing; a third, putting in clover and 

 pasturing to hogs. 



A recent bulletin, No. 19, of the West Virginia Experiment sta- 

 tion, Morgantown, West Virginia, is devoted to the subject of weeds 

 as fertilizers, and gives the analysis of about 50 common weeds, begin- 

 ning with the poke-weed and including the common thistle, bitter dock,, 

 fox-tail ^rass, burdock, ox-eye daisy, rag-weed, red-top, sheep-sorrel, 

 Canada thistle, golden-rod, elders and many others. The manurial 

 value per ton of poke-weed, when dry, is estimated at $21.00 ; of thistle* 

 $11.00, timothy, $9.00, of rag-weed, $7.00. This is at eastern prices. 

 It was also stated that if these weeds were turned under at regular 

 intervals, their value would be as great or greater still. It is a well- 

 known fact in the West that the growth of weeds is larger and much 

 more general than in the East, on account of the great strength of the 

 land; and after reading this report on the value of weeds as fertilizers, 

 the conclusion was irresistible that it would pay much better to plow 

 under crops of weeds as soon as they reached the height of six or 

 eight inches, and repeat the process until the middle of August, than 

 it would be to sow clover, and after one or two years plow under for 

 the sake of enriching the land ; in other words, the cost of the clover 

 seed and the seeding it down would probably be much in excess of 

 the difference in the value between clover and weeds as a fertilizer. 



There is no doubt that an orchard should be plowed and harrowed 

 once or twice every year, and bearing in mind the manurial value of 

 weeds, it would seem that it is better to plow and harrow your orchard 

 in the spring, and then as soon as the weeds have reached the height 

 of six or eight inches, turn them under, and then repeat the process 

 until the middle of August, and after that time allow the weeds to go 

 to seed for the purpose of seeding the land again with weeds, to be 

 again plowed under in the same manner the following year, than it 

 would be to put it in clover. As this is theory and not practice, it 



