Page i8 



BETTER FRUIT 



Fchniarv 



What will it costYou 

 Not to sprai] 

 For Aphis? 



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APHIS INJURED 



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PERFECT 



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laCCniNE SULPHATE 



^k THIS IS THE TIME TO SPRAY 



fur Apple Aphis— just as the leal 

 Itiuis show green. Don't dehiy 

 till the foliage gives the Aphis 

 proti-t-tion. Use "BLACK LEAF 

 40" when buds are like the one 

 shown in this pieiure. Write us 

 for Apple Aphis Bulletin. 



2PouiiDsPritt$Z4^ 



^\ The U. S. Dep't of Agric. Says $30,000,000 



isthe annual damage done to the American fruit crop by insects. 

 Aphis causes a considerable part of this loss and the standard in- 

 secticide recommended by experiment stations and spraying ex- 

 perts ior this and many other orchard pests is 



"BLACK LEAF 40'' 



Guaranteed to contain 40^ Nicotine 



*'BLACK LEAF 40" is not recom- 

 mended for all insects; but for 

 Aphis, Pear Psyla, Hop Louse, 

 and many othersoft-bodied suck- 

 ing insects it has proven to be a 

 highly effective and a very eco- 

 nomical insecticide. V-, -^ -, ■ — ^^ 



LET US HELP YOU PROTECT YOUR ORCHARD 



If your dealer will not supply you with "IJlack Leaf 40", send us P. O. Money Order for 

 $2.iy0and we will send you, express prepaid, a 2 pound can that will make 200 gallons of 

 effective sprayint; solution. If you are in doubt ahout the insecticide you need, write us, 

 send specimens, or give descriptions of your insect enemies and we will help you to find 

 the proper insecticide. 



KENTUCKY TOBACCO PRODUCT CO. Dept. B Louisville, Ky. 



INCORPORATED 



MAKES 200 &flLS. 

 EFFECTIVE SPBAV.] 



alfalfa keep the soil open and porous 

 for the penetration of air and water. 

 Alfalfa is a legume and therefore a 

 nitrogen gatherer. It is probably not 

 excelled as a nitrogen gatherer. But 

 is docs more than gather nitrogen from 

 the air — it penetrates the soil far below 

 the reach of ordinary plants and brings 

 up other elements of ])lant food and 

 makes them available at the surface. 

 It has been estimated at the New Jersey 

 Experiment Station that the amounts 

 of plant food gathered by a test acre 

 of alfalfa in two years were, nitrogen 

 equivalent to that contained in 3,500 

 pounds of nitrate of soda, phosphoric 

 acid equivalent to that contained in 

 600 pounds of bone, black super- 

 phosphate and potash equivalent to 

 that contained in 1,200 pounds of 

 muriate of potash. This amount of 

 fertilizer purchased at the ordinary 

 cost of commercial fertilizer would 

 cost about $124, the nitrogen alone 

 being worth about $10.5. and this was 

 taken almost entirely from the air. 

 Alfalfa permits of cultivation in the 

 spring when the surface soil should be 

 stirred and allowed to warm up. The 

 soil may thus be put in better shape to 

 conserve the winter moisture. Culti- 

 vation does not injure but heljjs the 

 alfalfa itself. I have no accurate data 

 on the amount of water refpiired for 

 alfalfa in the orchard, although I have 

 made a good deal of oljservation and 

 inquiry along this line. I am satisfied 

 that if three crops of alfalfa are cut 

 and taken olf the land that it will 



require more water than clean culti- 

 vated land, although I believe that land 

 that is clean cultivated year after year 

 will eventually get in such physical 

 condtion that it will be necessary to 

 run more water over the surface of the 

 soil to get it properly soaked in than 

 it requires to produce the alfalfa. I 

 am very thoroughly convinced that 

 alfalfa requires considerably less water 

 than red clover. 



I have mentioned all of these as 

 reasons why alfalfa should give good 

 results as a cover crop. Now let us see 

 what it actually does. Some of the 

 most vigorous as well as some of the 

 most productive orchards in the We- 

 natchee district today are those that 

 have had alfalfa in the longest. I could 

 point out a number of such instances. 

 But for the sake of conqiarison I have 

 gotten the bearing record of the oldest 

 alfalfa orchard that I know of in the 

 Wenatchee district. This bearing rec- 

 ord covers a period of six years. I 

 have also gotten the bearing record of 

 another orchard of the same age and 

 largely the same varieties. The Barney 

 iS: Williams archard is now about 18 

 years old. It was originally an alfalfa 

 field plowed up and set to orchard. So 

 far as I can learn an effort was made 

 for the first few years to keep it clean 

 cultivated, but the alfalfa was eventu- 

 ally allowed to take it, so that this 

 orchard has probably now been in solid 

 alfalfa for 14 or 15 years. This orchard 

 consists of about an acre and a half 

 and contains about 150 trees, most of 



which arc Ben Davis. The Z. A. Lan- 

 ham orchard is, as near as I can learn, 

 the same age. And as near as I can 

 learn, it had been continuously clean 

 cultivated uj) until the summer of 1909, 

 when it was sowed down to red clover, 

 and remained in red clover for three 

 years. This orchard contains 833 trees, 

 about two-thirds of which are Ben 

 Davis. This orchard has had good care 

 and apparently better natural soil con- 

 tlitions and location than the Barney 

 & Williams orchard. Below is a com- 

 parison of the two bearing records, 

 both of which are exceptional records: 



BARNEY Jt WILLIAMS (ALFALFA) 



Year Boxes 



1907 2,300 



1908 2,500 



1909 3,031 



1910 3,300 



1911 2,894 



1912 3,036 



Total for six years 17.061 



Annual average (150 trees) . . . 2,343 

 Xo. boxes per tree per year. . 19 



Z. A. LANHAM (CLEAN) 

 Year finri^i 



1907 5,500 



1908 10,000 



1909 5,500 



1910 11,500 



1911 5,500 



1912 13,000 



Total for six years 51,000 



.\nnual average (833 trees).. 8,500 

 Xo. boxes per tree per year. . 10.2 



While these two bearing records may 

 not be conclusive evidence of the effect 

 of alfalfa upon production, they would 

 seem to indicate that at least alfalfa is 

 not harmful to production. I could cite 

 the case of the Bailey orchard just 

 across the road from the Barney & 

 Williams orchard. This orchard pro- 

 duced two or three good big crops, 

 then began to fail. The foliage became 

 pale and sickly looking and small and 

 s]5arse. For two or three years follov^-- 

 ing this orchard produced small crops 

 of small apples. It was then sown 

 down to alfalfa. The second year after 

 the alfalfa was sowed this orchard pro- 

 duced broad dark-green foliage and a 

 good crop of large apples, and con- 

 tinues to produce good crops. From 

 such observations as these and many 

 others I am forced to believe that 

 alfalfa is beneficial in the orchard. 

 But alfalfa has another advantage. It 

 ranks high in feeding value. In fact 

 we are told that a ton of alfalfa hay 

 has almost as much feeding value as 

 a ton of wheat bran. Where if is pos- 

 sible we might just as well get the 

 feeding value out of it as well as the 

 fertilizing value. Now does all of this 

 mean anything? Yes, this is what it 

 means: Every orchard farm should 

 have at least one family cow, a hog or 

 two, some chickens, etc. We would 

 then have our own milk and cream, 

 butter and e.ggs and meat, which with 

 what vegetables we can raise in a small 

 corner would constitute a large por- 

 tion of our living. We would live much 

 better and a good deal cheaper and 

 would at the same time be building up 

 our orchard soils. This is what I call 

 building up a better and more perma- 

 ent agriculture on our small orchanl 

 farms. 



