SUGGESTIONS FOR CARE OF TREES AND PLANTS. 



E. F. Stephens, Crete. 

 The Orchards. 



The old orchard, that is trees 12 to 15 years old and older and already 

 In bearing, will be benefitted by heavy applications of stable litter or 

 other fertilizer. To the extent that stable litter can be procured, we have 

 been in the habit of using about five hundred pounds for each tree of the 

 age of fifteen years and upward. This litter distrubuted about the tree, 

 never in contact with the trunk, increases the stock of humus in the 

 soil, lessens the winter evaporation and injury from dry freezing. 



In the last two years, we have hauled in some three million pounds of 

 stable litter or manure from the town stables and stock yards. Careful 

 observation for thirty years indicates a benefit of $1.00 per load for each 

 of the first two years following the application and that the beneficial 

 effect is not wholly lost during a period of eight years. We prefer to use 

 stable litter rather than straw to the extent that we can secure the same. 

 An application of three inches of stable litter is better than ten or 

 twelve inches of straw. 



Where stable litter cannot be had in sufficient quantities to mulch the 

 row to a width of eight or ten feet, straw stacks may be used to excellent 

 advantage. The hauling of stable litter and straw is suitable work 

 for the months of December and January. Where the application of 

 litter and straw is confined to the width of eight or ten feet and the re- 

 maiug portion of the ground between the rows kept under annual 

 cultivation, the roots of the trees are not brought to the surface as would 

 be the case if the entire surface of the orchard were heavily mulched 

 and this mulch -allowed to remain on year after year. 



Riibbits. 



Rabbits usually do little harm to an orchard after it has attained the 

 age of eight or ten years ,but orchards recently planted and orchards up 

 to the age of perhaps eight years should receive protection. In our 

 branch orchards, we have used about twenty-five hundred wooden 

 veneers; these veneers costing $5.00 per thousand, can be tied about the 

 young trees and form a fair protection againt rabitts, during the first 

 three or four years after planting. If the veneers are of excellent 

 quality, they may perhaps last four years. 



Where it is not convenient to secure A^eneers, we have proteced thou- 

 sands of trees by the use of corn stalks. Cut a suitable number of corn 

 stalks of a length of 24 to 30 inches, tie top and bottom to the trunk of the 



