No 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 255 



in a general way, use manure on your peach orchard and you don't 

 use judgment it Avould do you greater harm than good. Jt would be 

 like the gentlemen who imagined he had many physical ailments and 

 he read all the circulars of patent medicines and all medical reports 

 and prescribed for himself, and a medical friend said: "I am afraid 

 if you are not careful some of these times you will die of a misprint." 

 Some of those who are accepting all reports with an occasional mis- 

 print in them can realize what that means, and if we are going to take 

 these statements without anahzing them ourselves and (piestioning 

 whether they apply to our own needs, some of the trees and orchards 

 will die of a misprint. 



We want to realize that there are certain requirements that all 

 trees have in order to succeed. One of the first of these is moisture. 

 Now to secure that moisture we must store up and utilize as much as 

 possible the natural rainfall, for I take it that irrigation is not to be 

 considered in this climate; in fact, I do not consider it necessary in 

 orchard culture; but if the soil is not naturally well drained it should 

 be underdrained thoroughly. This will not apply to all Pennsylvania 

 conditions, but it does Avith us because my orchard ground is thor- 

 oughly underdrained with tile three feet deep. We not only remove 

 the surplus water objectionable to the tree but build up an aerated 

 soil and reservoir to save and take up the moisture that falls during 

 the winter and spring and then by cultivation or mulching, for I use 

 both methods, we i)reserve that moisture for the use of the fruit, for 

 you realize that fruit is largely composed of moisture and we know 

 that the more water we can get into the peaches and pears the larger 

 the price we receive. There is another aid to storing moisture and 

 that is filling the soil with humus. We cannot get the best results in 

 fruit culture unl&ss ye have a soil full of vegetable matter. This not 

 only adds a food value to the soil by adding that which is positively 

 plant food but it makes available the plant food already in the soil, 

 the manural elements of the soil and also fits it for storing a largely 

 increased amount of moisture for the needs of the tree and fruit dur- 

 ing its development. 



There are various ways of securing this humus in the soil. No one 

 way is best fitted to all conditions and cases. Orchardists will follow 

 different methods. Now possibly to give you the greatest information 

 in the limited time I will occupy I might just briefly speak of my own 

 methods in this connection. Sometimes it may seem egotistical, but 

 after all we like to hear a man tell Avhat he knows about rather than 

 theorize on what may be done or should be done. The life history of 

 my orchards may be divided into three classes or ages. First, the 

 young orchard for several years after planting. I mean apples, pears, 

 ipeaches, plums and cherries. We plant the young orchard and grow 

 other vegetables, potatoes usually or small fruits in it, and in the 

 small fruits we grow mostly strawberries and currants. I formerly 

 grew raspberries and blackberries in the orchard but don't think they 

 they are quite as well adapted, and for the last few years am not grow- 

 ing' blackberries or raspberries for the reason that the marketing of 

 them interferes with the harvest of our currants and cherries which 

 we find more satisfactory and more profitable. In the peach orchard 

 we grow nothing but potatoes. I have grown strawberries in the peach 

 orchard once or twice. The first year after strawberries are planted 

 it is a good crop for the peach although the strawberry wants to be 

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