ORCHARD TILLAGE. 



231 



in": the inspectors to keep a record of every 

 orchard inspected, showing the number of 

 trees of each fruit, the number treated, the 

 results, etc., so that we may work the more 

 intelligently in future. 



Crude Petroleum will kill not only cherry 

 aphis but also the larvae from all overwin- 

 tered eggs as well as insects that have 

 wintered alive on the tree. I am now using 

 a crude petroleum emulsion which is good, 

 and it may be applied with an ordinary 

 pump, although a good agitator is desir- 

 able. I have used such an emulsion, made 

 mechanically with the pump, with good 

 results on peaches. 



This crude oil emulsion is prepared as 

 follows : Crude petroleum 2 gallons, whale 

 oil soap (dissolved) 5 pounds, boiling water 

 i^ gallons. Churn violently 5 minutes, 

 then more slowly, adding water to make 10 

 gallons. 



This will contain Yi pound soap to the 

 gallon of mixture and 20 per cent, crude oil ; 

 it costs about two-thirds the cost of fish oil 

 emulsion, or 4 cents per gallon. This quant- 

 ity of soap seems necessary to emulsify the 

 crude oil and hold it, and also to lessen the 

 severity of the oil treatment. The emulsion 

 may be diluted more or less and thus vary 

 the strength. 



ORCHARD TILLAGE. 



jT nearly every Farmers' Institute and 

 Fruit Growers' Meeting held this 

 season the most prominent topic 

 seems to be Tillage of the Soil. 



Some years ago it was Commercial Fer- 

 tilizers. A year or two ago it was Cover 

 Crops, and then when these questions were 

 well understood by the cultivators of the 

 soil, the itinerant professor turns the atten- 

 tion of his farmer students to the importance 

 of physical conditions, and the conserva- 

 tion of soil moisture by tillage. When 

 such valuable instruction is being given free 

 of charge in such a popular and interesting 

 fashion, surely no farmer can afford to miss 

 a single visit of these instructors. Certainly 

 the man who does not attend will soon find 

 himself far behind in the intelligent cultiva- 

 tion of his farm or orchard crops. 



An excellent resume of the subjects re- 

 ferred to was given lately by Mr. G. H. 

 Powell in a recent number of the American 

 Agriculturist as follows : 



High intensive tillage has the result ot 

 making plants grow better. The first object 

 of Tillage is to make soil fine, so that plants 



can grow into it. The next object I wish to 

 lay down, that we till primarily to make 

 land rich. The principal elements of food 

 that plants use are potash and phosphoric 

 acid. Every acre of soil, I judge, in New 

 England, has from 5,000, to 40,000 pounds 

 of this in the first foot of soil over an acre 

 of ground. This store is wisely locked up 

 so that it is not easily extracted, and if it 

 wasn't some enterprising Yankee would be 

 getting it to sell. It is not how to buy 

 commercial fertilizers, but first how to 

 utilize the stores of plant food already in 

 the soil. Talk about the New England soil, 

 all it wants is stirring up. I judge if most 

 of the abandoned farms were properly stirred 

 up they would show an astonishiagly large 

 amount of plant food. Our fruit crops 

 suffer more from lack of moisture than lack 

 of good plant food. 



Advantage of Weeds. — If it had not been 

 for weeds we would not have learned about 

 tillage. Soil is made up of mineral matter 

 and of vegetable matter. A piece of new 

 land is rich in vegetable matter. 'A cover 

 crop for an orchard is simply a plant that 

 stays upon the ground until you plow the 

 ground, the following spring. First I want 

 to define the fundamental object. The 

 most extensive element of plant food is 

 nitrogen. It is soluble and dissolves quickly. 



