213 FRUIT 



GROWING 



ough and frequent cultivation will give the quick- 

 est and largest returns. On such land hoed gar- 

 den or farm crops may be profitable while the 

 trees are small, but after five or six years it will 

 generally be found best to cultivate it entirely 

 for the trees. Organic matter in the form of 

 stable manure or clover-crops must be applied 

 in the Fall or very early in the Spring to keep 

 up the supply of humus in the soil. Good fruit 

 crops may be raised on land too stony for other 

 agricultural uses, if the soil about the young trees 

 be well worked and the moisture retained by 

 means of mulch. Grafting is so successfully 

 done now that fruit trees may be made profitable 

 early instead of waiting six or seven years for 

 maturity. Windfalls, no matter how hard, can 

 be made into sauce, jellies or pies, and thus fur- 

 nish a return even before the fruit is ripe. 



The new intensive methods are now applied 

 to fruit growing. One of the most satisfactory 

 of these methods is thinning. 



In the Massachusetts Hatch Station experi- 

 ment in thinning, Gravenstein and Tetofsky 

 apple trees were chosen, only one of each being 



