242 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



DOUBLE CROPPING IN THE ORCHARD. 



3y. Prof. C. G. Woodbury, Purdue University Experiment Station, La- 

 fayette, Indiana. 



A question of orchard management which is frequently of much con- 

 cern to the fruit grower is the question of double cropping, or the growing 

 of other crops between the fruit trees, especially while they are small and 

 are not using all the ground. This matter, like the question of fillers, is 

 one which depends very largely on the local conditions and on the in- 

 dividuality of the fruit grower. On land which is rough, so that the clean 

 cultivation which would be necessary for the companion crop would be 

 dangerous, double cropping is of course out of the question. On cheap 

 land, some distance from market, double cropping is seldom advisable. 

 This condition is typical of much of the southern Indiana hilly orchard 

 land where a haul of from one to five miles is necessary to the loading 

 station and then a trip by rail. Where the owner is not giving the orchard 

 his close personal attention, but is relying more or less on tenants or em- 

 ployes, it seldom pays to complicate the orchard problem by the introduc- 

 tion of a plan of companion cropping. Any kind of double cropping which 

 involves the use of grain in the orchard is liable to be especially danger- 

 ous to the young trees. There are circumstances, however, where double 

 cropping may not only be not injurious, but where it may be profitable 

 and desirable. Where the ground is rich and nearly level, and where the 

 owner himself is looking after the proposition, farm crops may profitably 

 be grown under certain circumstances for a few years after the trees are 

 set, and if properly regulated, the trees may not be noticeably injured by 

 the intercropping. The main thing for the owner to remember is that 

 the orchard is the main and the important thing, and that the value of a 

 single crop from a single twenty-five-year-old tree which has been thor- 

 oughly well grown may be worth as much as a thirty-bushel yield of wheat 

 from an acre of ground. Companion or double croppings again, may often 

 be successfully practiced near cities, where the land is too valuable to 

 lie unproductive until the trees produce an income, and where there is a 

 good local demand for the small fruits or market garden produce that 

 may be grown between the young trees, and a good supply of the tran- 

 sient labor needed in harvesting. 



Grain crops should be grown very sparingly in the young orchard. 

 The small grains, such as wheat and oats, are especially bad for the trees, 

 and remove from the soil the very elements that the trees will later need 

 to produce good crops of fruit. If such crops are grown, the plant food 

 they remove should be refunded to the orchard soil in the form of commer- 

 cial fertilizers, manure, and nitrogenous and humus-supplying cover crops. 

 In no case should grain be allowed to grow within six feet of the newly set 

 tree. After a year, the space should be enlarged to eight feet, and for the 

 tree set two years, a free, cultivated or mulched space of ten feet in diame- 

 ter should be left. With these precautions, small grains may be grown 

 without serious injury to the young trees, for two or three years. Corn is 



