312 Bulletin 72. 



Moisture is retained in the upper soil by very frequent but 

 shallow tillage, by means of which the surface of the land becomes 

 a mulch for the soil beneath. 



Tillage should be begun just as soon as the ground is dry 

 enough in spring. 



This tillage should be repeated as often as once in ten days 

 throughout the growing season, which extends from spring until 

 July or August. 



Tillage should not exist for the purpose of killing weeds. 

 Weeds have taught the most important lesson in agriculture, to 

 be sure, bvtt the schoolmaster should now be able to retire. 



L,ate cultivation may be injurious by inducing a late growth. 

 At all events it can be of small utility when the tree begins to 

 mature and rains become frequent. This season of respite gives 

 the grower the opportunity of raising a green manure, and of 

 adding fertility to his land at trifling expense and with no harm 

 to his trees. 



Fall plowing may be advisable for farm crops, but it should 

 generally be discouraged in orchards. The land in orchards 

 should be left compact in the fall, and it is advisable to cover it 

 with some close herbage. 



Only cultivated crops should be allowed in orchards early in the 

 season. Grain and ha)^ should never be grown. 



Nursery stock should not be grown in orchards. 



Even hoed or cultivated crops may rob the trees of moisture and 

 fertility if they are allowed to stand above the tree roots. 



Cultivators is the best crop to raise in an orchard. 



Sod is sometimes allowable in apple and standard pear orchards, 

 but never in other fruit plantations ; but even then it should be 

 pastured closely with sheep or hogs. If the stock is fed at the 

 same time, the land will fare better. 



Watch a sod orchard. It will begin to fail before you know it. 



Probably nine-tenths of the apple orchards of New York state 

 are in sod, and many of them are meadows. Of course they are 

 failing. 



The remedy for these apple failures is to cut down many of the 

 orchards. For the remainder, the treatment is cultivation, ferti- 

 lizing, spraying, — the trinity of orthodox apple-growing. 



