414 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



the general farm crop and the fruit. Another plan ^Yhich is also 

 common is to cultivate hoed crops between the trees while the 

 orchard is young. This plan may be recommended while the trees 

 are young, providing tillage is thorough, plants are not grown within 

 the feeding area of the trees and that the fertility of the soil is main- 

 tained so that the trees do not suffer from the want of nutrition. As 

 the orchardist is working for economical production, this method 

 meets with his favor, especially on land that is comparatively level 

 and well adapted to vegetables or other low crops that need cultiva- 

 tion. 



A plan which is gaining in popularity is to begin tillage early in the 

 season, cultivating over the entire surface and continuing until the 

 cessation of active growth. The land is then sown in cow peas, crim- 

 son clover or other cover crop which will protect the soil during the 

 fall and winter, and lessen root injury from hard winter freezing. 

 This plan meets the approval of the most up-to-date and progressive 

 men. It secures all the advantages of tillage and if legumes are 

 used for cover crops the supply of nitrogen will be maintained in an 

 economical way. 



A more feasible method for lands which are very steep and in 

 danger of washing, or too rough, stony or stumpy to cultivate readily 

 is to grow grass, mowing once, or better twice a year, and using the 

 hay as a mulch about the trees. If this plan is adopted special care 

 should be exercised in preparing the soil. The holes should be large 

 and the soil well pulverized and enriched before setting the trees. 

 Mulching has much the same effect as tillage and the cost is less. 

 With proper pruning, spraying and fertilizing this method would 

 I)rove successful on many lands in Pennsylvania which are now yield- 

 ing the owners practically no returns. 



THE FARMER AS A MANUFACTURER OF MILK. 



BY DR. LEONARD PEARSON, State Veterinarian. 



The farmer is bv far the largest manufacturer. Here in Pennsvl- 



to 



vania we feel that w-e are in the heart of the greatest manufacturing 

 district in the world. The State is studded by sets of equipments 

 commonly known as "plants" — dull, sombre, dirty "plants" many of 

 them are — the food of which is iron ore, limestone and coal, all dug 

 from the ground, and the fruit of which is iron and steel. The opera- 



