No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 351 



Let's have the pictures. I am not going to take up that side of 

 It, but just bring out a few slides about the culture of the apples and 

 we will skip along rai)idly. The first slide shows the first operation 

 in the digging of nursery stock. You have four mules fastened to a 

 long knife like arrangement that goes underneath the ground and 

 cuts off the roots of the tree. This shows the tying of the trees into 

 bunches. Two straps go over the tops and are drawn tightly to- 

 gether. This shows several troubles of nursery stock. The upper 

 one is the wooly aphis which Mr. Fassett explained to you. Down 

 here we have crown gall and down here we have two demonstrations 

 of hairy root. Whenever you find either of these conditions on your 

 trees, 1 would burn them or destroy them. Mr. Fassett explained 

 the wooly aphis to you. Here we have a slide showing a cover crop 

 of hairy vetch and rye. You will notice two small boys in here and 

 it will give you some idea of the height of the cover crop. In my es- 

 timation, it is the coming cover crop for the State of Pennsylvania. 

 I don't believe that anything will give as good results as hairy vetch 

 and rye. 



A Member: I'ou stated when you were down at our place that 

 a good thing for us to plant as a cover crop was buckwheat; if we 

 sow that buckwheat early, won't it be self-seeding and won't we have 

 trouble with mice? 



MR. FUNK: I made the statement in this way. That on your 

 Lancaster county soils, where you have limestone and are trying to 

 grow peaches on the limestone, you usually have a good bit of trouble 

 in the ripening up; your wood — the trees grows a little too long in 

 the season, makes too much wood growth. 



A Member: But this is in the apple orchards that we are speak- 

 ing of. 



MR. FUNK: I recommended the buckwheat on the peaches more 

 than anything else to help ripen the fruit; at the same time you 

 could harvest the buckwheat and secure a partial crop, but when it 

 comes to the apple orchard I would rather have the hairy vetch and 

 rye and I recommended sowing another cover crop like crimson clover 

 which you can use with the buckwheat and when the buckwheat 

 was harvested, the other would come on. 



Here we have a slide showing the starting of the apple orchard 

 with the sod mulch system. The orchard is sown with rye; the rye, 

 about the time it comes to head, is cut and placed around the tree as 

 mulch. It is one of the best ways I have ever found of getting a 

 large amount of mulch. To begin the sod mulch plan in the young 

 apple orchard, here we have the spring tooth harrow, with steel 

 frame in it, which is used in cultivating low headed apple or peach 

 trees. This frame can be removed. One section of the tooth goes 

 underneath the trees and elevates the soil underneath, and then after 

 we have cultivated the entire orchard in that way, we take out the 

 frame, put the harrow together and cultivate the remaining portion. 



This frame should be of the same width as the spring tooth when 

 the two sections are together. Here we have a one year old apple 

 tree, that is planted one year before pruning. Here we have the 



