214 State Horticultural Society. 



inches of the top soil, thus making a dust mulch to retain the moisture ; 

 this cultivation should continue during the summer sufficient to keep 

 the dust mulch and keep down the weeds. The number of times it will 

 need this cultivation will depend somewhat on the season and the perse- 

 verance of the weeds. The cultivation the second and following sea- 

 sons should be the same as the first, except that the first cultivation 

 should be with a tool going deeper than a smoothing harrow, such as a 

 cultivator or spring tooth harrow ; about the fourth year the orchard 

 should be so\^^l to clover and left to grow during the fifth year, mowing 

 it two or three times and leaving the clover on the ground to keep up 

 the humus; and this will also have a tendency to check growth and 

 bring the trees into bearing. About the last of May or perhaps earlier 

 of the sixth year the clover should be turned under by a shallow plowing 

 after which the cultivation should be kept up with the harrow. 



Included with the cultivation and j^runing of the cherry orchard 

 should also be considered its care, and whether vou class it with the 

 cultivation or with the care, makes little difference ; but the careful 

 spraying of the cherry is one of the requisites that can not and must 

 not be overlooked to secure success and keep healthy trees. The leaf 

 spot and powdery mildew are the great enemies of the cherry in this 

 country, and without being in some way prevented are likely to wake 

 up the orchardist some fine spring morning to a knowledge that his 

 cherry trees are all dead. The great loss of cherry trees throughout the 

 northwest last winter, I am satisfied, was more from these diseases 

 than from the extreme cold of Februarv, 1899. Bv the middle of 

 August, 1898, many of the bearing cherry trees had lost all their leaves 

 from these diseases. The warm damp weather of September started 

 a new growth, many trees put out new leaves and some were in bloom, 

 the sap was up, they were in full growth when the snow and hard freeze 

 came on October 17 and 18, and were killed then. If these trees had 

 been thoroughly spraved with the 50 gallon formula Bordeaux mixture 

 when the blossoms fell oif and a2:ain as soon as the fruit was gathered, 

 the leaves would have held on until killed by frost, the trees would not 

 have been grooving in October and would not have been injured by the 

 cold. I did not lose a sinale sour cherrv tree last winter. 



