FORTIETH ANNUAL REPORT. 53 



little moisture out of the ground as any other kind of cover-crop, and 

 it retains a great deal of that niosture, so that the ground that is 

 groAving sand vetch may contain just as much moisture in June and 

 July, as the ground that is bare, that does mot grow the humus crop. 

 We sometimes sow clover. I have one young orchard of four or five 

 hundred Jonathans eight years old that has been manured, and we plow- 

 ed it early in JNIay, in June sowed red clover, clipped it once or twice, it 

 grew a good croj), the trees are young, not all the ground being occupied, 

 so the roots had plenty of room, and an excellent crop of apples was 

 harvested. Next year Ave Avill let the clover grow and lay on the ground. 

 In other words, my rule is this: that you can grow a crop of fertility 

 on the soil, under most conditions better and cheaper than you can draw 

 it in. I will mulch the trees with that cloA^er next year. 



Now we come to the third stage, Avhen the trees have thoroughly occu- 

 pied the gTound, and the limbs begin to spread; then I have found it 

 better to abandon cultivation and use a mowing machine and scythe and 

 haul in Avhatever Ave have manure, potato tops, etc., and by so doing- 

 add to the humus and yet not cultiA'ate the ground. Perhaps I might 

 explain that my land is not a lieaA^y soil or a light sand. On some other 

 soil you Avould haA^e to modify this treatment. 



Another thing I want to sj>cak of in this connection, is the fact that 

 I believe we haA^e been planting our trees too closely together. It is 

 partl}^ the result of greed on the part of the nurserymen, and the inex- 

 perience of the grower. We have all made that mistake. Recently I 

 Avent through a cherry orchard and cut out every other tree because I 

 saAV that if they remained in there, the orchard Avould soon be ruined. 

 Of course Avhen we plant, AAe usually do so Avith the idea and intention 

 of taking them out Avhen the time came in order to give room, but there 

 are too many orchards that are altogether too closely planted for their 

 good. I knoAv that a good many haA^e an idea that an apple orchard does 

 not bear every year, and therefore does not need a great deal of feeding; 

 and there are some pretty good so-called authorities of high standing 

 in horticultural lines that advocate this idea, but I Avill haA^e to differ 

 from them. The men Avho are growing the best cro])S for eight or ten 

 years and for forty years are feeding their orchards. I had a block 

 of Greening on ground that had not been fed. The foliage was light, the 

 growth small. Then the men began putting on some manure from the 

 henhouse, also some ashes, and in a short time there Avas a marked 

 change in the ap])earance, the foliage Avas ranker, and the yield of fruit 

 was better, showing unmistakably the effects of the feeding.' 



Another thing that I learned right there was the danger of using an 

 unbalanced fertilizer. These poultry droppings contain an excess of ni- 

 trogen.' While the trees bore heavily, where this manure Avas used too 

 freely the fruit did not color up. We made note of this, and the first 

 time we picked a block of liakhvins Ave took particular note, and then 

 a week later Ave ijicked some more and still they AA^ere not colored as they 

 should be, and to test the matter out, AA^e left a fcAV on as late as AA^e 

 possibly could but they did not color up ve.i*y well. It is barely possible 

 that some ingredient such as phosphoric acid or potash could be used to 

 neutralize or balance up the excess of nitrogenous element, but I think 

 hardly possible to do it entirely, for the excessiA^e growth of foliage 

 caused by the heavy feeding, Avould interfere Avith the coloring. With 



