New Yoke Agricultural Experiment Station. 481 



Apply the manure before plowing, and the fertilizers immediately- 

 after it, harrowing them in. The experiment, to be conclusive, 

 should run for several years and the crops should be carefully weighed 

 or measured, giving due consideration to culls and windfalls. 



INTER-CROPS AND COVER-CROPS. 



The best modern practice permits the growing of hoed crops in 

 an orchard until the trees come into bearing. If profitable dis- 

 position can be made of the product, truck crops are ideal for a 

 young orchard. Of these peas and beans take less from the soil 

 than other crops and may add a little nitrogen to it. But beside 

 these, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers or similar crops may 

 be grown advantageously. Corn is the only farm crop permissible 

 and is not as desirable as any of the truck crops named. 



As regards cover-crops, the best modern practice insists that one 

 be sowed at the close of the season's cultivation, about August 

 first, to be plowed under the next spring. Various crops may be 

 sown alone or in combination. The several purposes of a cover- 

 crop — to cover the ground, and add humus and nitrogen — are 

 usually best served by a combination crop. Of several that may 

 be recommended, this Station prefers the following: On each acre 

 sow one bushel of oats or barley and fifteen pounds of mammoth 

 red clover or twenty pounds of winter vetch. 



PESTS. 



In the present-day fruit-growing the horticulturist is not permitted 

 to say much about insects, fungi and spraying. The botanist and 

 the entomologist are indispensable here, yet the fruit-grower can 

 so plant as to avoid some of the warfare with pests. Thus King, 

 Roxbury and Northern Spy among apples are nearly free from scale 

 as are the Kieffer, LeConte and Winter Nelis pears, Bradshaw and 

 Field plums and all sour cherries. There are about thirty varieties 

 of apples on the grounds of the New York Agricultural Experiment 

 Station never injured by scab, as many more scarcely injured, and of 

 course a large number that are badly injured. The Seckel, Kieffer, Le 

 Conte and Winter Nelis pears do not blight badly. A few plums 

 are never attacked by black-knot and some peaches are almost 

 immune to leaf curl. Now with these, and nearly all other pests, 

 men who can not or will not spray, the general farmer and the city 

 suburbanite, for example, should plant varieties measurably immune 

 to the most troublesome pests. Commercial fruit-growers must 

 spray. 



MICE AND RABBITS. 



It is necessary to protect young trees from mice and rabbits. 

 The best protection against mice is a mound of earth about the tree 



31 



