No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 629 



perfect fruit. You are 3,000 miles nearer the market than they 

 are, and I think that going to the West is a step backwards. With- 

 in the last few weeks I have had three inquiries from Western men 

 who want to sell out their fruit land and come East to raise fruit. 

 They ask me where they can find a good location. There are still 

 large sections here in the East, particularly in Virginia and West 

 Mrginia, that can be profitably used for fruit growing, and I sup- 

 pose it will be so for some time. 



OTJCIIARl) MANAGEMENT 



By W. W. FARNSWORTH, Waterville, Ohio. 



When I first began thinking of horticulture, and began io plan 

 changing over from general farming to fruit growing, I was doing 

 considerable work in the woods. I have always been a lover of 

 treas, and a lover of the soil, and I realized that this new ground 

 when the plow first went into it, was rich in humus, and when I 

 compared it with the richest land I had for fruit growing, I saw the 

 difference; I realized the dift'erence, and I realized that it was due 

 to the difference in humus. Then I read a pamphlet by Dr. Harlan 

 on "Farming with Green Manures," and 1 began to look around me, 

 and saw the farmers growing clover, without putting manure on the 

 soil, and I soon found that soil to be more productive than other 

 soils. Then I learned that the clover made the soil rich, made it 

 darker and raised the temperature of the soil, putting in it the mois- 

 ture and the humus, and the plant food that is so deficient in the old 

 soils of our country. There is no pleasure in farming a poor soil. 

 I have always been a humus crank, and am growing worse and 

 worse from year to year. It seems to be a hopeless case. Probably 

 the best I can do in my limited time, is to tell you of some of my 

 work. I feel there that I am standing on solid ground. 



I grow a general line of orchard crops — strawberries, cherries, 

 currants, apples, pears, peaches, and plums, and I grow some of the 

 ordinary farm crops, mostly as a feeder to my orchard. I also grow 

 a great many small fruits and vegetables. We have been growing 

 berries quite extensively. We find that we can keep a clean and 

 healthy tree by cultivating the small fruits under it until the tree 

 gets nearly to the bearing age. I have thousands of strawberries 

 and currants growing in my orchards, and I find this a very satis- 

 factory and profitable method. 



The first thing is to get an orchard site that is free from frost 

 damage. We want frost drainage. I am about twenty miles south 

 of Lake Erie; then we have, again, the Valley of the Maumee River, 

 which is thirty or forty feet lower than my farm, and these things 

 seem to give us protection to a large extent, against the frost; in 

 fact, we have been very free from frost, having but one severe loss 

 from frost in the last twenty-three years. 



