INDIANA HOETICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 4:1^ 



poorwill or New Era will manure in this latitude if planted in June and 

 will malve green pods by frost, if planted in July. 



BuckM'heat is not a nitrogen gatliering plant, but will add a good 

 deal of humus to the soil. It should be sown late after cultivation has 

 ceased. It makes available a lot of plant food already in the soil. Turnips 

 are another good crop to add humus to the soil and will thrive where it 

 is not too shady. Tlie soy bean takes about as much time to mature as an 

 ordinary corn crop and is somewhat later than cowpeas. If sown early 

 in June, they will mature a good crop of seed. The pods all mature at 

 the same time, but when the plant is ripe the stalks are as hard as hick- 

 ory brush. It will not do as well in the shade as cowpeas.— H. E. Van 

 Deman. 



HEADING YOUNG APPLE TREES. 



There seems to be an increasing desire for information as to the better 

 ways of heading young apple trees. So says the Avriter, in Rural New 

 Yorker. The practice of some has been to head them from four to five 

 feet high in the eastern States, that it may be possible to drive teams under 

 the trees in cultivating the land about them. But there seems to be a 

 change gradually coming over the orchardists of that region in some de- 

 gree, and the tendency is for lower heads. In the central and western 

 States there ii much less of this practice, and, perhaps, because of the 

 more intense and longer continued sunshine and the moi-e advanced ideas 

 that prevail. The reasons for low-headed apple trees are properly stated 

 about as follows: The lower the heads the less purchase the winds have 

 upon the roots, and the less liability to leaning and blowing over. The 

 lower they are the more easily and cheaply they can be sprayed. The 

 same is true regarding pruning. The fruit on low-headed trees is easier 

 to gather than on those with hi^h heads. On the otlier hand, the lower 

 the branches the greater difficulty there is in tilling the soil under them, 

 ))ut there are tools made with extension frames that largely obviate this. 

 Another very important matter is the form of the head. Some have held 

 to the theory, and practiced it as well, of training the tops into vase form, 

 or at least with very open heads. It is often that the main branches all 

 diverge from one point, and sometimes the entire weight of the top comes 

 upon one or two forks. This occasionally causes splitting and consequent 

 loss or very serious injury to the trees when loaded with fruit or sleet. 

 These open heads are likely to induce the flat-headed borer to work upon 

 the large branches, where that insect abounds, and sometimes sunscald 

 is also invited. The more approved form is that which approaches the 

 pyramid style. This requires tlie main branches to come out on all sides 

 and continually, from a central stem. This divides the strain on the 

 branches and forks and gives better opportunity for the air and light 

 to reach all parts of the tree than where the branches come from one 



27— Agriculture. 



