232 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



The greatest loss of this element occurs in 

 winter unless there is something to take it 

 up and then be turned under in the spring. 

 Cover Crop. — One of the dangers of win- 

 terkilling through the insufficient ripening 

 or hardening down of buds is overcome 

 through the use of a cover crop. Fruit buds 

 are tender when growth continues too late in 

 the fall. The whole of the fall ought to be 

 used in hardening down. One ot the best 

 ways to accomplish this is to put in a crop 

 on the ground that will grow and take up 

 the available plant food and thereby stop 

 down the fruit trees so they will harden 

 down. Another object of the cover crop is 

 to dry out the moisture in the spring. By 

 a cover crop you can plow from one to two 

 weeks earlier in the spring on this account. 

 It is a mistake to allow the cover crops to 

 go too long in the spring before plowing 

 under and to remove too much moisture 

 from soil. 



A cover crop adds vegetable matter to 

 the soil and replaces the matter burned out 

 year by year by culture. One of the advan- 

 tages of the cover crop is to make the soil 

 spongy so that it will hold moisture. The 

 ideal time of sowing cover crops depends on 

 the season, but should be about the time 

 the trees cease their growth. Some allow 

 the cover crop to grow in spring, and if it is 

 crimson clover, to do so till it comes into 

 bloom. I believe that this is wrong. The 

 best growth we can get on a orchard is in 

 the spring. Two weeks in early May are 

 worth more than six weeks later. The 

 cover crop should not be allowed to absorb 

 too much from the soil in the spring, and 

 early plowing is best for early growth of 

 the orchard. Crimson clover, cowpeas or 

 other crops that have the power ot gath- 

 ering nitrogen from the air make good cover 

 crops. Turnips, rye, oats and others do 

 not. 



NEW IDEAS IN STRAWBERRY GROWING. 



jUR friend, Mr. R. M. Kellogg, of Three 

 Rivers, Michigan, was to have given 

 us a full text copy of his address be- 

 fore the New York State Fruit Growers at 

 Rochester last January. His ideas were so 

 radical that we asked him to allow us to 

 publish them in full. Since, however, the 

 manuscript has not yet come to hand, we. 

 will substitute a report of his address which 

 appeared in the Michigan Farmer. 



Fifty years ago the stockmen stood just 

 where we horticulturists stand now. Indi- 

 viduality counted for nothing. All they 

 wanted to know was the pedigree. An ani- 

 mal might be ever so much deformed and a 

 perfect runt, but if it was of a pure breed, 

 they said they could feed and house it to de- 

 velop its good qualities. The case is differ- 

 ent now. They want to know the skill of 

 the breeder as well as the description of the 

 animal's ancestry, and above all they want 

 individual perfection. We talk continually 

 of varieties. Any old thing of a plant will 

 do if it is of the right variety. We have lost 



sight entirely of the individuals composing 

 the variety. It it not true that they are all 

 the same ? They are constantly changing. 

 The life of a strawberry plant is only for two 

 or three years. Its vascular system cannot 

 be changed and moulded into perfect develop- 

 ment in so short a time. It often requires 

 years of time to do it. 



We do want new seedlings with constitu- 

 tional vigor and a vascular system which 

 manufacture larger berries and impart to 

 them a blighter color and firmer texture, but 

 we want also to know how to maintain their 

 ability to continue this heavy fruitage. I 

 quite agree with Prof. Bailey when he says : 

 "We need not so much varieties with new 

 names as we do a general increase in pro- 

 ductiveness and efficiency of the types we 

 already possess." 



No one should question fora moment that 

 soil, location and treatment are potent fac- 

 tors in fruit growing. Varieties of plants 

 are like races of men. Change the Hotten- 

 tot to the land of the Eskimo and he is a 

 failure. A born merchant fails as a farmer. 

 One man is happy in a hovel, while another 



