No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICtfLTUHE. 217 



be. The orcbardist, on the other hand, may so deplete his soil 

 by a few seasons of injudicious cropping that a decade may be re- 

 quired to repair the damage. One cannot afford to take chances 

 in doing anything in the early years of the orchard which may les- 

 sen its productiveness in the future. 



There is only one safe course in starting an orchard, and that is 

 to take nothing from it at any period of its existence but fruit. 

 Do not pasture the orchard, nor make a meadow of it, nor a corn- 

 field, nor wheat field ; in fact make nothing but an orchard of it 

 from first to last. This is the safe course, even though intercrop- 

 ping may some time be allov\'able. One must furnish his own 

 insurance in growing an orchard and he cannot afford to take large 

 risks for the sake of small gains. 



An interesting discussion might be started at this point as to 

 what crops may injure and what ones may benefit a growing 

 orchard; but there are some fundamental matters which need first 

 consideration. A young orchard does not make heavy draughts 

 upon the soil, but the demands increase from year to year until, at 

 maturity, the trees consume annually approximately as much of 

 the plant food elements as does a crop of wheat. It would thus 

 seem easy to determine how much of nitrogen, potassium and phos- 

 phorus to apply each year. The problem cannot be stated in such 

 simple terms, however. A complete chemicnl analysis of the soil, 

 the trees and their yearly products would not reveal all that would 

 need to be known. The physical as well as the chemical properties 

 of the soil need to be considered. The water holding capacity of the 

 soil ; the temperature of the soil ; the soil organisms, are some of the 

 factors depending upon the supply of vegetable fibre or humus. 



It does not seem necessary to discuss the offices of humus nor its 

 importance, for every experienced tiller of the soil knows what its 

 j>resence or absence means to the soil. Every good soil culturist 

 seeks by crop rotation or manuring of some kind to keep up and add 

 to the supply of vegetable fibre. 



Is this the practice of orchardists? The best teachers of orchard 

 culture have always insisted that cover crops should go along with 

 cultivation, but it is an undeniable fact that there has been much 

 more of burning up of vegetable fibre by intense cultivation than 

 restoration of it by the plowing under of green crops "Dutch 

 mulch;" "horse leg irrigation;" "grass mulch," are terms expressive 

 of half truths which have been accepted by thousands of orchard- 

 ists as the complete law and gospel. 



Ask a culture crank if he believes in cover crops as well as in 

 cultivation. He may say yes, and then proceed to show why, in 

 his case, the former is less important than the latter. Believers 

 in cultivation of orchards may not argue against cover crops but 

 the fact remains that the majority do not make use of them. There 

 are a great many cultivated orchards which are in precisely the 

 same condition as are run down farms where the same crop is grown 

 year after year and rotation wholly neglected. 



My topic does not, however, relate to the management of old 

 orchards but to those which are still young. Tlie practice of con- 

 tinuous clean culture is even more prevalent with these than with 

 middle aged and old orchards. A practice which is so prevalent 

 must show somewhat of the opinion of those who follow it. If 



