420 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



shipper. Moreover, any evidence of dis- 

 honesty immediately destroys the dealer's 

 confidence in that consignor, and selling- is 

 seriously interfered with. Thereafter pack- 

 *ages must be opened and examined before 

 they are sold, and they are not offered to 

 the best customers. 



Follow the advice of the commission man 



as far as possible when you have settled on 

 a good one. Ship fruit when he wants it. 

 Send the varieties and grades that he wants 

 and in every other feasable way conform to 

 the requirements of his business. His busi- 

 ness is the fruit grower's business. He is 

 the fruit grower's agent. He should be 

 treated as such. 



UNDER-PLANTING IN ORCHARDS. 



CHAS. i 



'HE fruit grower is often at a loss to 

 know how to treat the orchard until 

 the trees come into full bearing. 

 The most common practice is to grow corn 

 in the orchard a few years, and then, about 

 the time the first crop sets, to seed down. 



The grower should keep in mind all the 

 time that the fruit trees are to bear the crop 

 to which the land has been devoted, and al- 

 ways their welfare should be the first con- 

 sideration. While this is true, the land 

 should not be left idle until the trees come 

 into fruit, not only because the expense of 

 maintaining clean cultivation between the 

 widely spaced trees would be too great, but 

 because the soil, especially on sloping sites, 

 would actually deteriorate under clear 

 tillage. 



Low growing crops are better than high 

 growing crops for orchards, because they 

 shade the soil almost equally well, and do 

 not shade the trees. When corn is planted 

 among young orchard trees, the lower 

 branches of the trees are often so shaded as 

 to greatly interfere with the work of their 

 leaves. It must be remembered that leaves 

 are at once the lungs and the stomach of 

 trees, and that they can only do their work 

 of assimilation in full sunshine. In a densely 

 headed tree one may see that there are com- 

 paratively few leaves toward the center — 

 there the branches are bare, while the 

 outermost branches have the most vigorous 

 foliage. Nothing should be planted in a 



KEEPER. 



young orchard, then, that will shade the 

 limbs of the trees. 



The crop to be used in the orchard de- 

 pends principally upon the condition of the 

 land. If it is newly cleared land almost any 

 hoed crop may be used — -potatoes being one 

 of the best. If the land is old, and especially 

 if the soil is thin, an effort should be made 

 to enrich and deepen it by planting to cow- 

 peas which should be plowed under as they 

 approach maturity, and be followed by a 

 winter cover of rye. It is a too common 

 practice to sow cowpeas and cut the crop for 

 hay, the grower thinking that the roots of 

 the peas are sufficient to enrich the land. 

 While the roots of the pod-bearing plants 

 are the gatherers of nitrogen, by far the 

 greater part of the plant food gathered by 

 the roots is stored in the leaves and seeds. 

 The man who cuts the cowpea crop and in 

 turning under the aftermath imagines he is 

 doing the best for his land is like the man 

 who would sell his oats and feed the straw 

 to his stock, thinking this the best possible 

 treatment for the cattle. Not only will the 

 available nitrogen be greatly increased by 

 turning under the cowpeas, but the mass of 

 vegetable matter thus added to the soil will 

 improve its character, making it looser if too 

 compact and more firm if too sandy. Green 

 manures are peculiar in being a corrective 

 for both sandy and clayey soils. 



Cowpeas should not be used in land that 

 is very fertile, as the added nitrogen returned 



