CARE OF TREES AND PLANTS. 237 



one of the best cut flowers. It is yet rare and the demand 

 can not be fully supplied. 



Japanese Mixed. — Gives you a splendor of bloom and car- 

 ries the flowering time nearly to August. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CARE OF TREES AND 



PLANTS. 



BY E. F. STEPHENS^ CRETE. 

 THE ORCHARDS. 



The old orchard, that is, trees twelve to fifteen years old 

 and older and already in bearing, will be benefited by heavy 

 applications of stable litter or other fertilizer. To the extent 

 that stable litter can be procured, we have been in the habit 

 of using about 500 pounds for each tree of the age of fifteen 

 years and upward. This litter distributed about the tree, 

 never in contact with the trunk, increases the stock of humus 

 in the soil, lessens the winter evaporation and injury from 

 dry freezing. 



In the last tAvo years we have hauled in some three million 

 pounds of stable litter or manure from the town stables and 

 stock-yards. Careful observation for thirty years indicates 

 a benefit of |1 per load for each of the first two years follow- 

 ing the application, and that the beneficial effect is not Avholly 

 lost during a period of eight years. We prefer to use stable 

 litter rather than straw to the extent that we can secure the 

 same. An application of three inches of stable litter is better 

 than ten or twelve inches of straw. 



Where stable litter can not be had in sufficient quantities 

 to mulch the row to a width of eight or ten feet, straw stacks 

 may be used to excellent advantage. The hauling of stable 

 litter and straw is suitable work for the months of December 

 and January. Where the application of litter and straw is 

 confined to the width of eight or ten feet, and the remaining 

 portion of the ground between the rows kept under annual 



