Winter Meeting. 363 



and looking after them. This is a good method of cultivating an 

 orchard on a cheap scale. 



We plant all of the various farm crops in our orchards, and then 

 do not have time to put it all in the same year, so we cultivate around 

 the trees of that part that is not planted to growing crops and the next 

 year we plant it to some of the farm crops and let some of the land 

 lie idle that was worked the previous year. 



But we find it pays to have it in some kind of crop, or better still, 

 give it clean culture, but one is more likely to practice clean culture when 

 the trees are too large to plant farm crops between tree rows. 



We have one neighbor that planted wheat in his young orchard this 

 year to check the growth next year. It is generally the other way 

 with the most of us, we want more growth. So whatever you plant, be 

 sure vou look after the welfare of the trees. 



SQ^IE MISTAKES IX ORCHARDING. 



(T. C. Love, Love Ridge Fruit Farm, Seymour, Rio.) 



]\Ir. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, ^Missouri Horticultural Society: 



In response to Secretary Goodman's request, I have agreed to sub- 

 mit a paper on this subject. I assume in the outset that I am expected 

 to deal not in theoretical mistakes, or such as have been treated liberally 

 by our horticidtural journals, but such as have come under my personal 

 observation as a practical orohardist. 



The first mistake I think all new beginners make is in assuming that 

 it is only necessary to secure a piece of ground, and without any knowl- 

 edge of soil adaptability, plant it in nearly all Ben Davis trees, and 

 then expect, without much expense or labor, to in a few years reap a 

 golden harvest. Apples can no more be raised successfully without 

 expensive and intensive cultivation than corn, tobacco or potatoes. Im- 

 plements for cultivation should invariably be one or two horse corn culti- 

 ators, or a disc or spring tooth harrow ; turning plow never unless the 

 cultivation has been neglected until the turning plow is absolutely neces- 

 sary to kill out briers and sassafras sprouts. 



I prefer to set one-year-old trees. They are cheaper to start with, 

 less expensive to plant and cultivate the first two years, and will come 

 into bearing as early as two-year-olds planted at the same time. 



Another mistake is in neglecting to carefully prune each and every 

 year until bearing. If pruning is neglected for three, four or five years 



