826 THE FRUIT INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK STATE 



machine, uniting the crude materials water from the soil and 

 carbonic acid gas from the air into the great plant builder, 

 starch. The wall of every plant cell is made of starch supplied 

 by the leaf cells. 



Hence, for best results in apple production we must assist 

 Nature. Nature, when left to herself, may bring forth small, 

 inferior, and undesirable fruit. Man's part is to see that the essen- 

 tials so necessary for best production are all supplied. To pre- 

 serve the proper conditions in soil and tree-top, four things are 

 usually indispensable cultivation, fertilization, pruning and 

 spraying. 



CULTIVATION 



Except under some unusual conditions of sidehill location, 

 where moisture comes freely from above, or where the trees are 

 kept heavily mulched, cultivation is absolutely necessary. The 

 orchard should be plowed in the early spring, when the soil is 

 filled with moisture, and cultivated or thoroughly stirred, enough 

 to keep a dust mulch on the surface. The dust mulch checks 

 evaporation by breaking up capillarity and conserving the mois- 

 ture, which is used by the tree roots. Cultivation should cease 

 not later than the latter part of July. 



FERTILIZATION 



We think first of fertilization as the use of chemical fertilizers. 

 Not so with the apple orchard. When the crop is harvested, 

 only a very small amount of potash, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen 

 is removed. Experiments by the State Experiment Station at 

 Geneva, and elsewhere, show conclusively that the use of commer- 

 cial fertilizers on well cultivated orchards does not pay. Best 

 results are obtained by the use of barnyard manure or cover crops. 

 Cover crops are sown when cultivation ceases, and are plowed 

 under the following spring. For this crop, red clover, hairy vetch, 

 or some other leguminous plant is used. By plowing under the 

 manure or cover crop, vegetable matter an element which nearly 

 all soils lack is incorporated into the soil. Vegetable matter 

 increases the water-holding capacity of the soil; and, when it 

 decays, it not only adds nitrogen, but strengthens the soil waters, 

 giving them power to dissolve some of the potash and phosphoric 

 acid already present. 



