WINTER MEETING. 193 



emulsion. This and other washes are generally condemed by nursery- 

 men and horticulturists, but after a trial of three years I can recom- 

 mend it for both apple and pear trees. It will keep oflF rabbits, mice 

 and even sheep, if washed high enough. If dirt is removed so as to 

 apply an inch under ground it is an effective preventive to borers. 



The orchard is now ready for cultivation, which should be thor- 

 ough. Presuming your land was thoroughly plowed prior to planting, 

 which should always be done if possible. Shallow cultivation should 

 follow at least once a month from planting time until July : would then 

 sow land in cow peas, using one bushel to the acre broadcast, and hog 

 down when ripe, being careful to clear away all vines and rubbish 

 around the trees to prevent harbors for mice ; I lost several hundred 

 trees in one winter by this neglect. Further north where peas require 

 longer season to manure, I would recommend planting them earlier, 

 and in drill rows, one-horse corn drill being best adapted for this pur- 

 pose, and cultivate peas same as corn, cultivation benefiting both trees 

 and peas. 



I know of no crop so beneficial to the orchard as cow peas, and 

 they can be grown successfully all over Missouri. The Whippoorwill 

 variety will mature in one hundred days and produce about twenty 

 bushels to the acre, worth more for hog feed than same amount of corn, 

 to say nothing of the fertilizing properties. Peas are without a ques- 

 tion the greatest nitrogen trap known; they will gather more nitrogen 

 from the air and store it up in the soil, where needed, than any other 

 plant grown. 



This last summer I have grown several acres of Soja beans, another 

 leguminous plant. They are even more productive than the peas, do 

 not vine, and on laud not subject to washing from rains, is a very 

 valuable plant. Next year I will plant one row of beans on each side 

 of the apple trees and fill out the middle with peas. I can cultivate 

 the plant longer, as it does not vine, and the peas in the middle, with 

 the long heavy vines, will prevent washing from heavy rains. The 

 Soja beans will also mature in all parts of Missouri, requiiing about 

 one hundred days to mature. 



Afrer having tried all the different systems of pruning I have 

 adopted the following system : I usually plant two-year-old trees, trim 

 off all side lirabs, and cut back head to four feet. The next fall, after 

 one summer's growth, I cut back to five limbs, equally divided around 

 the tree to form the future head, and cut these limbs back to one foot 

 iu length. The next summer two sprouts should be permitted to grow 

 from each of these limbs. Triis will give the tree an open, uniform 

 H— 13 



