58 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



rye and vetch made a splendid growth early in the season. This is 

 the second year I have done this with good results. 



There are 3 reasons for this; 1st, Sand being very warm soil matures 

 all vegetation early. 2nd, The new growth of the seed plowed under 

 tends to check all new growth of the trees. 3rd, The straw and roots of 

 the rye and vetch being mature decompose very slowly. 



I believe there would be much more danger of there being overgrowth 

 of immature wood if the rye and vetch had been plowed in the green 

 state, say in June. 



I think strongly of harvesting all my rye and vetch next year when 

 fully ripe, threshing it, which would give plenty of straw to use in the 

 stable, thus Increasing the amount of stable manure returned to the 

 orchard, also quite an amount of seed to sell, after sowing the usual 

 bushel per acre, and the roots of the old crop are left in the ground. 



The best way to harvest a crop of vetch alone, for seed, is to allow 

 it to become dead ripe and then the vine will break loose from the ground 

 when gathered by a horse rake, leaving the roots in the ground; the 

 roots being the most valuable part of the plant as a soil renewer. By 

 thus taking off alternate whole crops of rye and vetch, and plowing 

 under the whole of the other alternate crop, I believe the orchard can be 

 sufficiently supplied with humus and partly, at least, supplied with ferti- 

 lizer, especially after so many years of plowing under matured crops 

 every year. 



This, however, could not have been done at the beginning of such soil 

 building without detriment. The clover part of the orchard I shall 

 cut for hay next June and leave the second growth on the ground. I 

 have done this already in a block of cherries and crab apples situated 

 on a big hill. It is very important to keep such sleep hillsides seeded 

 as much as possible on account of the heavy rains making gullies and 

 spoiling the entire surface of the hill for future use, both in difficulty in 

 plowing and in taking all the fertility and humus out of the soil. There- 

 fore, to give the trees some cultivation and prevent erosion I have spaded 

 and hoed a wide circle around the trees and fertilized with commercial 

 fertilizer, sometimes muriate of potash, sometimes with phosphate. In 

 this way I get crops of fruit and one crop of hay each year and keep the 

 hill in good condition for future use. Having some degree of success 

 with this hill has caused me to commence clearing several adjoining 

 hills for the same purpose, especially as the hills have better soil than 

 the orchard already in bearing, and are nearly imanune from spring 

 frosts which have taken most of my profits the past four years by de- 

 stroying the bloom. Most of the spraying will have to be done with a 

 Knapsack sprayer, but this work can be done effectually by planting 

 Morello cherries and which need no ladder in picking. 



After setting out Morello cherries on these hills, first pulling out the 

 stumps and plowing the ground, the trees should be cultivated with a 

 hoed crop one or two years and then I intend to seed to alfalfa and hoe 

 a circle around each tree, etc., as before mentioned. This means a lot 

 of extra hard work but I believe it will pay in the long run. 



The varieties of fruit that proved most valuable in my experience have 

 been in the following order: 1st, sour cherries; 2nd, Hyslop crab apples; 

 3rd, Duchess apples. The Wealthy is as valuable as the Duchess but 

 I did not say much about them as a class, having only about a dozen 

 trees of that variety, but the past few years they have brought higher 



