MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 405 



Oq a slight investment, by grafting on sprouts, a large profit can be 

 made. 



Fruit culture alone enables one to sell the public " watered stock " 

 without objection, for the more you adulterate the solids of fruit with 

 water, the better market it finds. There is also economy in this, for 

 the soil is lest' exhausted in growing fruit thus treated than in raising 

 other products. Long experience has taught that the longer we keep 

 a healthy foliage in the fall, the better fruit buds will appear in spring. 

 It is a mistake to leave land bare, as it thereby loses nitrogenous mat- 

 ter, the principal fruit food. A good plan is to have a cover crop of 

 one kind of clover oranother ; sow in October and plow down in early 

 spring. Phosphoric acid and potash are the chief fertilizers needed, 

 but in different proportions, according to the soil. 



It is most necessary to watch for the " San Jose scale," a disease 

 of the bark, and the "yellows," so dangerous to peach trees. The 

 business side of fruit culture also demands the thinning of all fruit 

 trees ; such treatment of apple trees will insure a crop every year, and 

 in the case with blackberries and similar fruits result in a fairer, and 

 so more salable, product. 



GROWING AND MARKETING FRUIT. 



The greatest obstacle to successful growing of fruit culture lies in 

 the imperfect preparation of the soil. Most of our soils are deficient 

 in humus or vegetable matter. They are also compact and hard, con- 

 sequently deficient in moisture. Therefore these two elements must 

 be secured before we can hope to succeed, particularly with small 

 fruits whose roots cannot extend deep down to draw up moisture from 

 below. I have found that in no way can I secure this needed mois- 

 ture so certainly as by incorporating humus into the soil, making it 

 porous and permeable to the air, which carries moisture that becomes 

 condensed and stored up for plant growth. 



This humus can be most cheaply and easily procured by growing 

 such crops as clover, oats and peas, rye and buckwheat, as time and 

 circumstances allow, and plowing them under in a green state. Be 

 careful to compress the soil by rolling after plowing. This green mat- 

 ter quickly decomposes, its moisture feeds the plants and dissolves 

 the mineral elements in the soil for plant growth. 



I have found it very necessary to deepen the soil in order to hold 

 sufficient moisture, and my land has all been plowed nearly 12 inches 

 deep. This has resulted in growing large crops on land where for- 



