170 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



July, 1914 



Intercropping with Tomatoes in Orchard of Frank Shearer, Vllloria, Ont. 



time give protection by holding the snow 

 in the winter. Where mature trees are 

 clean and vigorous the use of too much 

 of the legumes in the cover crop tends to 

 give an over-production of wood growth. 

 Old trees that have been heavily pruned 

 will invariably throw a great number of 

 suckers the same season. The use of a 

 heavy cover crop will go a long way in 

 checking the growth of these after the 

 summer pruning is done at the end of 

 June or in July. 



USE OF OLOVEB 



In the younger orchards clovers are 

 used to a great extent in shoving for- 

 ward the young trees. By the use of a 

 clean cultivation followed by an enrich- 

 ing cover crop, together with proper 

 pruning at the right season, many fruit 

 growers tell us they bring their trees 

 into bearing several years earlier than 

 otherwise. Jas. E. Johnson, manager of 

 the Norfolk Fruit Growers' Association, 

 has demonstrated that by skilful orchard- 

 ing he can bring spy trees into bearing 

 at ten or twelve years of age. 



Of course many fruit growers are not 

 satisfied to use cover crops in the young 

 growing orchard. By liberal manuring 

 and judicious inter-cropping many of the 

 best fruit growers are securing large re- 

 turns per acre, even while the young 

 orchard was coming into maturity. Mr. 

 Samuel Soudan, of Simcoe (a cut of 

 whose young orchard appears herewith), 

 secured a net return of sixty-six dollars 

 per acre by intercropping with canning 

 beans. Similar good results can be se- 

 cured with strawberries, potatoes, toma- 

 toes, or in fact any crop which will allow 

 of much cultivation, and which does not 

 pull heavily upon the soil moisture in the 

 early part of the season. Many instances 

 are known of where wideawake young 

 fruit growers have paid for their land 

 while the fruit trees were coming into 

 bearing. 



IJuring the past few years the follow 

 ing cover crops or combination of cover 

 crops were tried out in Norfolk county, 

 and found to give good results : 



First — Peas, one and one-half bushels 

 per acre. This should be sown from 

 the first to the twentieth of June to se- 

 cure a good growth, as they freeze down 

 with the first frost. They cannot be 

 recommended for the northern part of 

 the province. 



Second — Buckwheat two pecks, and 

 hairy vetch twenty-five to thirty pounds. 

 This makes a good combination of a 

 legume and a cereal. The buckwheat 

 makes the rapid growth the first season, 

 while the hairy vetch will make consid- 

 erable growth in the spring, before be- 

 ing turned under. Some orchard grow- 

 ers object to the use of buckwheat, as 

 the heavy growth in the fall is rather 

 objectionable in harvesting the apple 

 crop. 



Third — Rye one-half bushel, and red 

 clover twelve pounds. 



Fourth — Rye one-half bushel, and 

 hairy vetch twenty-five to thirty pounds. 



Numbers three and four are probably 

 the most popular cover crops in the pro- 

 vince to-day, and form one of the best 

 mats for the winter season, while at the 

 same time combining both the legume 

 and the cereal. 



Fifth — Rye, one and one quarter 

 bushels. As a single, separate cover 

 crop it is used largely where the soil is 

 not at all rich. 



Sixth — Rape, three to five pounds. 

 It is not considered a good cover crop, 

 but many farmers sow it in the older 

 orchards and hog it down later in the 

 fall . 



Seventh — Red clover, eighteen pounds. 



Eiohthi — Peas and oats mixed, two 

 bushels. This latter is not used to any 

 extent as a cover crop, but should be 

 a good one in that it gives a rapid growth 



right after planting, and forms a good 

 mat to hold the snow. One objection to 

 it is that there is little or no growth 

 from it in the spring. Many orchard 

 growers like a cover crop that will start 

 up again in the spring, and give con- 

 siderable growth before being plowed 

 down . 



Cover crops for southern Ontario as 

 a rule should Ix; sown between July firs 

 and August first. For central Ontario 

 the date of sowing should be a couple of 

 weeks earlier. Later sowings give only 

 short growth before winter. 



Orchard growers in general should 

 make it a point to have their orchard 

 ground in the very best of condition pre- 

 vious to sowing the cover crop, in order 

 that a good stand may be secured and 

 a heavy growth made as early as pos- 

 sible. In a few orchards of which I 

 know, mouse-eared chickweed grows so 

 rapidly that it is only necessary to stop 

 cultivation in order to have a good cover 

 crop of this weed come on. In another 

 orchard in Norfolk county the soil is so 

 moist that it is kept in sod the whole 

 year round, yet the fruit shows plenty 

 of size, and takes on an excellent color. 

 A few orchard growers in Ontario never 

 make use of a cover crop at all, using 

 clean cultivation the whole season 

 through. .4bout the end of June they 

 heavily roll the land, which causes it to 

 dry out in much the same way as a cover 

 crop would suck away the moisture. 



Of course the greatest good cannot be 

 secured from any cover crop, unless the 

 other care of the orchard, such as prun- 

 ing and spraying receives every at- 

 tention. 



Marketing the Cherry Crop* 



IT is when the cherries are ripe for pick- 

 ing that the cherry grower's wor- 

 ries often begin. Poor marketing 

 methods may result in the wiping out of 

 the profits that should result from the 

 work of a year or perhaps several years. 

 Care should be exercised in picking. 

 The stem must be left on each cherry in- 

 tended for shipment otherwise the juice 

 would spoil the whole package. If pick- 

 ed for the canning factory or for immed- 

 iate use, this precaution is not necessary. 



PREiPAMNG TO ATTRACT THE TRADE 



Shipments are made in eleven quart 

 and in six quart baskets, principally the 

 former. The purchase of the baskets is 

 a serious item of expense. We fill each 

 basket full of carefully selected cherries, 

 then the stems of the top layer are turned 

 under — making a great improvement in 

 the appearance of the package. .\ sprig 

 of green leaves is also placed on the 



♦An article prepared eom«> months aso tor The 

 Canadian Horticulturist by the late W B. 

 I#avens Prince Edward Co.. who had one of th? 

 largest cherry orchards in this province. 



