Miscellaneous. 199 



there has been a great advance in the cultivation of orchards, there are 

 for too many that are left to struggle with other vegetation that is robbing 

 the trees of the water which they require. The higher standard of the 

 Pacific coast fruit, which is being met in all markets, is due largely to 

 irrigation and high culture. As artificial irrigation is impractical over 

 much of the east the higher quality of eastern fruit must be obtained 

 through a better system of tillage, utilizing clover crops in connection, 

 for the purpose of conserving the water supply that is generally sufficient, 

 in our eastern soil. 



The standard of quality in size and color of eastern fruit must be 

 raised, and the first requirement is a more thorough system of tillage. 

 The growth of weeds, and particularly of crops of grain and grass in 

 orchards, while the fruit is developing, is ruinous and is responsible for 

 so large a proportion of inferior fruit that is found upon our markets. 



A SIDE LIGHT ON COVER CROPS. 



Cover crops in an orchard serve three purposes. They protect the 

 soil, enrich it and hasten the seasonal maturity of the trees. We are 

 usually advised to grow a crop which serves the three uses, but there may 

 be objections to the triple purpose cover crop, as we hope to show. In 

 an experiment to determine the relationships, good or bad, between various 

 herbaceous plants and the peach, we grew a number of young trees in 

 16-inch pots in intimate contact with the other plants. The experiment 

 for this season is just concluded, and one of the most apparent relations 

 between the peach and the plants grOwn with it is that some of the 

 herbaceous species check the growth of the trees, causing them to ripen 

 their wood, and some do not; but, to the contrary, extend the growing 

 season of the young trees. Thus, long before there was sufficient frost 

 to injure peach foliage, the seedling peaches grown in pots with oats, 

 rye, blue grass, mustard, potatoes, or any one of the several other species, 

 had dropped their leaves, and the trees were ready for winter. Not 

 so with the young trees grown in pots with crimson clover, peas and 

 beans. Until a severe frost on the night of November i, the leaves re- 

 mained on these trees green and luxuriant. So far as ripening of wood 

 is concerned, they are totally unprepared for the winter. 



An examination of the root growth in the various pots was interest- 

 ing. The root systems of the trees and the plants in the first-named group 

 were not at all intimate. The roots of the two plants scarcely came in 



