Summer Meeting. 137 



and make it easier to harvest the hay. Apple trees are quite in- 

 jurious to hay. 



Col. Evans — It is no longer a question, shall we put hogs in the 

 orchard? Now the question is, what shall we put there for them 

 to eat? We tried clover, rape and many things, but cow-peas are 

 best of all. Let the hogs run on the clover early in the season, then 

 to the cow-peas. I feed corn 10 days when the peas are gone, and 

 they are in prime condition for market. Put three or four hundred 

 hogs on a hundred acres of cow-peas. Plant either broadcast or 

 with a drill. Sheep can be allowed in the orchard at certain times. 

 Hornless sheep won't bother trees unless apples are holding 

 branches down in reach of sheep. 



BEST CROP TO GROW IN ORCHARD. 



(By Jacob Faith, Montevallo, Mo.) 



My experience says the best crop to grow in orchard is cow- 

 peas; next best is tobacco; third choice, clover, but clover only 

 where trees are not less than six years old ; for younger trees, po- 

 tatoes and other whole crops. Cow-peas supply the needed nitro- 

 gen and potash draws moisture to the tree roots in dry weather, 

 and will keep insects from trees better than clover. The cow-peas 

 grow and endure more shade than anything else I know of; their 

 culture will cause the tree roots to run deeper than in clover sod. 

 Another advantage is that cow-peas, as soon as harvested, leave the 

 ground in the best condition to sow in rye, and all that is needed 

 is for it to be harrowed in, and it will make a pasture in late fall, 

 during winter and early spring, for poultry, pigs and sheep. In 

 May the rye should be plowed under, let lay a few weeks, harrowed 

 and planted in cow-peas, and cultivated as deemed necessary. Poul- 

 try, pigs and sheep should be allowed to run in the orchard to eat 

 windfalls and wormy fruit. All are benefitted. The insects are de- 

 stroyed to a great extent for the coming season. Poutry seem to 

 be healthy that run in the orchard. I never had a pig to die with 

 the cholera that was raised in the orchard. I never had sheep to 

 break fruit trees when they had apples to eat. I have heard it 

 said that they pick all the wind-fallen apples. This is all right, and 

 could be done while the trees are young or the orchard small, but 

 it is nearly impossible in a large orchard. I claim that a clover 

 sod makes more of a hiding place or winter protection for insects 



