302 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



light and air penetrate the soil. \Yith the foliage fully exposed 

 to the sun and a free circulation of air through its branches, with 

 plenty of food to draw upon, I feel safe to show you a healthy 

 growing tree. In mj red raspberry patch I have about two hundred 

 peach trees, and I question if finer and healthier trees are in my 

 county. In the spring I run through them with a one-horse plow, 

 afterwards with the cultivator, let them stand until fruit is gathered, 

 when they are again worked with the cultivator, enough for both 

 peach and raspberries. When trees are getting to have a top ten 

 feet and over in diameter, then they will shade the ground some on 

 the north side. When the branches are kept low, it certainly will 

 show its effects on small fruit, yet in my pear orchard fifteen years 

 old, with branches leading upwards, I can scarcely see any difference 

 in the stra^^beITy yield. In my quince orchard, ten years old, and 

 low, I see it more plainly; but what hoed crop would not be simi- 

 larly affected, and so long as it continues to pay better than a hoed 

 crop, I expect to continue it; and so long as I find it beneficial to 

 work my orchards, I will try to raise something to pay for the labor, 

 which is a net gain. However, I have the very best reason to be- 

 lieve that neither young nor old orchards should be two or more 

 years in sod, for the roots are sure to strike upwards; then, it mat- 

 ters not how shallow you plow, you cut the feeders of the fruit, and 

 as these roots are cut, in just this proportion your fruit will either 

 drop in dry weather or be undersize. Again, those feeders lying on 

 or near the surface, whether in sod or not, will suffer from an ordi- 

 nary drought more than if these feeders are kept lower down with 

 a blanket of fine earth on top, when the warmth of the sun and effects 

 of the air penetrating such soil. 



I suppose you have all noticed the dropping of fruit in a dry spell 

 iu July and August is much more in an uncared orchard than in a 

 well cared for orchard. Did you ever stop to think why? I saw 

 it time and again in an uncultivated orchard. You nearly always 

 find dead limbs, and the living branches and smaller twigs looking 

 black in the m-orning while the tree is damp. Draw those black, 

 sooty looking twigs through your hand and you will find it black. 

 This covers the pores of the bark and closes them so the tree has to 

 struggle for life. With a poor growth, such trees can at best bring 

 only scabby, imperfect fruit. So long as the fungus is left to cover 

 the vital point of evaporation of the sap part, forming wood, para- 

 sites of all sorts are almost sure to follow the weak or sickly, un- 

 cared for tree, while the stronger resists the attack. As my time is 

 already overdrawn, I will conclude by saying that so long as my 

 orchards hold the same reputation outside the county as they do 

 now, and my small fruit bringing the best prices in the mai'ket. with 

 quick sales, while others have trouble. I see no reason why I should 



