330 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



culty to be overcome in growing orchards is hot, dry summers, and 

 hence the necessity for intelligent cultivation. To produce, healthy, 

 hardy trees, capable of enduring the low temperature of our conti- 

 nental Avinters, a healthy, regular growth must be maintained 

 throughout the entire season, which will enable the wood to ripen 

 up naturally, and the tree to go into winter quarters in such a con- 

 dition as to be able to endure the lowest temperature we ever expe- 

 rience. 



Every farmer knows that if his cornfield is well pulverized and 

 carefully cultivated, that he will have corn in spite of the drouth, 

 and so with the orchard. If the soil possesses the proper degree of 

 fertility, and is thoroughly pulverized by constant and careful culti- 

 vation, the moisture will be brought up from below by capillary at- 

 traction, and the fine particles of earth will also permit the air to 

 enter, which. coming in contact with the cooler soil, leaves a certain 

 portion of its moisture. 



Young orchards may be planted to any hoed crops the first five 

 or six years, but after it comes into bearing nothing but the fruit 

 should be removed from the ground. I find it an excellent plan to 

 sow to rye about the middle of August, and about the first of June, 

 just before it blooms, plow it under and cultivate well with the pul- 

 verizer or harrow until August, when the same process of sowing 

 rye may be repeated. After following this plan three or four years 

 the orchard may be sown to clover, which should be mown and left 

 on the ground. Tn a year or two it will begin to fail, when it should 

 be plowed up and the orchard again sown to rye. By these means 

 the necessary conditions of fertility and moisture will be maintained 

 to produce a normal growth which will ripen at the proper time. 



If we allow grass to grow in the orchard it will extract all the 

 moisture from the soil, leaving it so hard and dry that none can be 

 drawn up by capillary attraction from below or enter it from the ail, 

 and the tree is therefore compelled to stop growing and ripen up its 

 wood for winter. Our drouths are often followed by wet weather, 

 which again forces the sap into circulation, and a new growth is 

 started. The trees are caught in this condition by a severe cold snap 

 freezing the crude sap, which ruptures the cells and loosens the bark 

 on the trunk, often fatally injuring the tree. 



TO RECAPITULATE. 



First — The primary cause of the destruction of fruit trees in 

 Central Illinois is not cold, as the lowest temperature we have ever 

 known, 32'^ below zero, will not kill any of our ordinary varieties if 

 the trees are in the proper condition in the fall. 



Second — To insure this condition we must keep the soil in a 

 high state of fertility by plowing under green crops, or the ap))lica- 

 tion of barn-yard manure or other fertilizers, and cultivate carefully 

 during the hot, dry weather of June, July and August. 



