Ill 



MANAGEMENT 



THE management of an orchard or a fruit garden 

 consists, of course, of all the processes necessary to 

 keep the trees and plants in health, to keep them 

 growing, and to make them fruitful. Certain of 

 these processes, as pruning and spraying, involve so 

 many unusual points that we have found it conveni- 

 ent to treat of them in separate chapters. In the 

 present chapter we will discuss only cultivation, 

 the use of cover crops, and fertilizers. 



Orchard management is also sometimes made to 

 include the harvesting, storing and marketing of 

 the fruit ; but these highly important operations 

 really belong together and should be separated from 

 the discussions of fruit growing. They may be 

 grouped together preferably under the term "com- 

 mercial pomology," which subject has already been 

 treated in a book by itself.* 



CULTIVATION 



There has been a good deal of controversy in 

 regard to the value of cultivation in orchards. It 

 may be said, however, without reservation, that the 

 great weight of authoritv and practice is on the side 

 of cultivation and against all methods of non-culti- 

 vation. The practice of growing fruit trees in sod 

 land without special care, a very common practice, 



*\Vangh's Fruit Harvesting, Storing, MarKcting. Orange 

 Judd Co., New York. 



