THE SUCCESSFUL ORCHARD. 201 



location be sure to incorporate an abundance of vegetable matter 

 in the soil so that it can better hold moisture. If necessary give 

 it as thorough cultivation as you would corn. Don't be afraid to 

 manure it ; that is one of the best things to do, not simply for its 

 fertilizing value but also for the good it does in increasing the 

 capacity of the soil to hold moisture by increasing the humus ill 

 the soil. The roots should have a steady supply of moisture and 

 not be smothered at one time with stagnant soil water and dry 

 at another. If needed, tile the land. 



I know nurserymen who will rent, say, eighty acres to plant 

 to nursery trees. They are located on a stiff clay loam. The 

 very first thing they do on this soil is to put through it tile drains 

 two rods apart. These nurserymen cannot afford to grow trees 

 on soil where part of the time the roots would have too much 

 moisture and part of the time not enough. They rent it for five 

 years at an annual cash rent of $12 to $18 an acre. They must 

 make their location the very best possible by attending to the 

 condition of the soil as well as to the condition of surface drain- 

 age and air drainage. Orchardists should do likewise. 



Then it is desirable if you are laying out a new orchard to 

 have it located accessible to the market. Statistics show that 

 the man who is located a mile from market can haul six loads of 

 fruit to market a day with one team, whereas the man who is 

 located seven miles from market will haul less than two loads, 

 about one and nine-tenths on the average. That makes a lot of 

 difference. The questions of labor and of supplies and all such 

 things enter into the problem ; so the accessibility to market and 

 the haul that you are obliged to make are things worthy of con- 

 sideration if you are planting a commercial orchard. 



In regard to varieties, if you have not the right kinds you 

 may be able to remedy that by top- working to desirable kinds. I 

 was on Mr. Wedge's place a few years ago, at Albert Lea, and 

 saw Hibernal and a lot of other trees top-worked to Windsor. 

 The trees were so loaded that some of the branches touched the 

 ground. The Windsor is a red winter apple of good quality. The 

 grafts were none of them more than five years old. They ran 

 somewhere from three to five years old. If you have varieties 

 in your orchard that you don't like you can often change them to 

 advantage by top-working to some better kind. 



Last of all, I should say that whether or not we have a suc- 

 cessful orchard will depend not upon its location, not upon its 

 purpose, not upon its accessibility to market, but upon the study 

 and the intelligent care which the man behind the orchard gives 

 it. It depends in the final analysis upon the man. 



