480 , ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



year, crimson clover is turned down when about six inches high, fol- 

 lowed by sweet potatoes with fertilization, or corn is again planted 

 and followed with crimson clover or cow-peas, after which the 

 series is repeated. This method of intercropping is adapted to 

 smaller acreages than the one above, and is suitable for localities 

 where trucking is profitable. 



But the most efficient trucking system of intercropping that has 

 come ;to our attention is one used to some extent in New Jersey. 

 It consists in planting early garden peas in rows five feet apart, 

 and using later vegetables, such as tomatoes, musk-melons, early 

 and late cabbage and occasionally sweet corn and sweet potatoes 

 between these rows. The crop of peas is harvested and the vines 

 turned under in the cultivation of the other vegetables^ to assist in 

 feeding them. If the vegetables can be harvested in time, they 

 are turned under and followed by crimson clover. If not, they are 

 followed by rye. The cover crop is turned under in the spring in 

 time to plant the peas. Before the peas, commercial fertilizer to the 

 extent of 100 pounds of muriate of potash, 500 pounds acid phos- 

 phate and 200 pounds of tankage or its equivalent in nitrate of soda 

 is applied and the same procedure is repeated, year after year. 

 This method has been very succcvssful in the trucking districts, en- 

 abling orchardists to buy farms, set them in trees and pay rapidly 

 on them from the very start. They frequently obtain |50 per acre 

 on an average from the peas alone, and where the necessary labor i» 

 obtainable near good truck markets, the system should prove very 

 valuable here in Pennsylvania. 



There are many other systems, but the main principle in inter- 

 cropping is to use an early season hoed crop that will more than pay 

 for its own and the orchard's tillage without injuring the latter. 

 This rules out the grasses and the cereals, except possibly corn, and 

 everything else that cannot be tilled to some extent in the spring. 



We also have some evidence that there are mutual likes and 

 dislikes in the growth together of certain plants. Some plants 

 seem not to be friends, neither when gi'own together nor when 

 one immediately follow's the other. This needs to be further studied, 

 both with reference to cover crops and intercrops, and we have plans 

 under way to accomplish something along this line. There is no 

 more interesting or fertile field for investigations in horticulture 

 than these relations between trees and crops, and the general ques- 

 tion of how best to make the young orchard pay without reducing 

 its final value. 



There are several other ])roblems in orcharding that we must 

 I)ass over at this time. Among these are management of bearing 

 orchards, fertilization, pruning, and the selection of varieties. 



In conclusion, we wish to consider a phase of orcharding that 

 is of the most immediate im})ortance to a great many people in 

 Pennsylvania, viz., the liaudling of the old or middle-aged unprof- 

 itable, home orchard. Of course, it is impossible to say just how 

 this should be done in any particular case without studying the 

 causes that have made the orchard UJ)])rofitab]e. In many cases 

 nothing can be done except plant a new orchard, taking advantage 

 of experience gained and that of others in the localitv. But there 



