Sketch of Fruit-Grovving in Pacific Northwest. IS 



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itable than sod orchards, especially when the latter are pastured. In some sec- 

 tions of the Coast Region, however, there is a growing tendency to adopt xhe 

 mulching system, especially for apples. I believe that this will become a standard 

 system of orchard management on the lowlands of the Coast Region. Some ad- 

 vocate seeding the orchard to clover, which is cut two or three years before the sod 

 is plowed under, and the orchard is then tilled one or two seasons before being 

 thorough tillage is as necessary as in any parts of the East, particularly on the 

 lighter prune soils, but I am sure that some modification of the mulching system 

 will often be found satisfactory with apples, pears and sweet cherries. 



Almost all of the irrigated orchards in the Inland Valleys have clean tilla.ue. 

 In the early days it was thought that tillage could be neglected if the trees were 

 only irrigated often enough. This was soon found to be a great mistake. There 

 is a growing tendency to reduce the number of irrigations, and to increase the 

 number of cultivations. Over-irrigation gives soft, watery, poorly-flavored and 

 poorly-colored fruit, which does not keep or carry well. Some of the best orchard- 

 ists in the Inland Valleys, who used to irrigate four or five times a year, now 

 irrigate but once or twice, and keep up horse-leg irrigation the rest of the sum- 

 mer. I have seen a profitable orchard where there was but eight inches of rain- 

 fall and no irrigation ; but the ground was covered five inches deep with a dust 

 mulch. With the possible exception of California, there are no better tilled or- 

 chards on the Pacific Coast than in these Inland Valleys. 



In both the Inland Uplands and the Inland Valleys, the question of cover 

 crops for orchards is now attracting attention. Almost all of the orchard soils 

 in both of these regions are deficient in humus, and constant, clean tillage dur- 

 ing the hot. dry summers tends to burn out of the orchard soils what little humus 

 they have naturally. In the Inland Valley orchards the cover crop problem 

 is not so difficult as in the upland orchards, because moisture for the germina- 

 tion of cover crop seeds can be supplied at any time by irrigation. On the up- 

 lands, however, practically no rain falls between the first of .Inly and October. It 

 is absolutely essential that the orchard be tilled early in the season ; so that 

 no cover crop can be sown all over the ground in spring. When tillage has ceased 

 in late July or August, the soil is so dry that even field peas will not germinate 

 unless drilled in deeply. Other seeds simply lie in the soil without germinatin.i;- 

 until the fall rains come in October. There are two ways of getting a cover 

 crop in the orchard on the Inland ITplands. Some crop must be found which 

 can be sown in early fall, and will make growth enough before winter to protect 

 the ground. No more satisfactory crop for this purpose than field peas has yet 

 been found. Or the orchard may be divided into alternate strips of cultivated 

 and seeded land about 20 feet wide. A cover crop is sown on every other strip 

 in the spring, and grown throughout the season ; the other strip is tilled through- 

 out the season. The next spring the cover crop strip is turned under and is tilled 

 that season, while the strip cultivated the previous year is seeded. Some such 

 method as this must be adopted where it is not possible to give up all the orchard 

 to the growth of a cover crop even for one season. 



Northwestern orchards are, as a whole, better tilled than the orchards of the 

 Atlantic States. We must admit that many of our eastern orchards are shamefully 

 neglected in this respect. I believe that the neglect of proper tillage causes more 

 loss to our fruit-growers than all the bugs and all the diseases put together. We 

 may well learn a lesson from the Northwest on this point. 



(2.) PruniiKj. The methods of pruning orchards in the Coast Region are 

 very different from the methods prevailing in the Inland Regions. In fact, they 

 are exactly opposite. The climatic and soil conditions of the Coast Region tend 

 to produce a very rapid growth of wood. Fruit trees come into bearing several 

 years later than in the interior. They are often made unfruitful by this luxuriant 

 growth, and have to be checked in order to throw them into bearing. It is advisa- 

 ble to winter-prune some orchards on the heavier soils, but a large proportion of 

 Coast Region orchards, especially apple orchards on the lowlands, should be 

 pruned in summer or spring. Many orchards are pruned when in full blossom. 



