192 State Horticultural Society. 



member the more you prune umieeessarily the more you will have to 

 prune. 



CULTIVATION^ CHOPS, TOOLS AND PKUXIXG. 



By Arthur Patterson, Kirksville, Mo. 



In the cultivation of a commercial orchard for the first three years 

 we have the most essential work in producing the trees which will 

 hear the crops of apples later on. It is almost absolutely necessary that 

 we. cultivate during this time in order to produce a thrifty growth of 

 wood and to give the trees a good start. The reason why we should 

 cultivate at this time is for the same reason we cultivate any other 

 field or garden crop. Years ago it was thought that keeping down weeds 

 constituted the wdiole of cultivation ; such is not the case now ; cultiva- 

 tion now means conserving moisture, liberating plant food and keeping 

 do^^^l weeds. The easiest manner of conserving moisture is in culti- 

 vating by breaking up into as fine particles as possible, which is best 

 done by a small and many-toothed harrow^ of any size or shape, one or 

 two horses, any old thing — just so it does this work. This is not accom- 

 plished by a few w'orkings of the soil but by many. 



While I have never used the plan, I suppose the best possible way 

 of cultivating a young orchard for the good of the trees is to cultivate 

 it without any growing crop between, but I have always used corn 

 which I thing has its advantages also, by shading the trees more or less 

 during the hot, dry months of August and September, while abstracting 

 perhaps not very much nutriment from the trees. 



Now, the distance the trees are planted apart has something to do 

 with the cultivation of a young orchard. I say plant them either 10 or 

 30 feet square. Each has its adA^antages. The closer planted, in that 

 the same amount of labor expended for cultivation, answers for four 

 times the number of trees as there are four times the nunilier of trees to 

 the acre. True such an orchard does not last long, but it is the fruit 

 from the young trees that the buyers want, as it is generally larger 



