FRUIT PRODUCTION 



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Culture. — The young orchard should be kept growing 

 rapidly. Considerable organic matter and nitrogen in the 

 soil will help produce this early growth. To obtain these 

 materials the best fruit growers sow cover crops in the orchard 

 each year, to be plowed under in the spring. If these crops 

 are composed partly of legumes, such as crimson clover and 



Fig. 112. — Young peach tree, stimmer pruned by pinching off small shoots. 



winter vetch, they will gather the nitrogen for the young 

 trees to use. After the cover crop or green manure is plowed 

 under in spring the ground is kept well harrowed until mid- 

 summer (Fig. 115); then the cover crop is again sown. One 

 influence of the fall cover crop is to check late fall growth, 

 especially in peach trees, and cause the season's growth to 

 harden up for winter. 

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