HOW TO GROW AND MARKET FRUIT 



may be treated in the same way, simplifying the work. Gen- 

 erally it is best to apply each food separately. Mixing is not 

 needed; unless you can buy complete fertilizer that is made 

 exactly as you want, mixing will not pay. 



When the sod-mulch system is in use, careful watching of 

 trees and fruit to see what food is needed is doubly necessary. 

 Potash generally has to be supplied most liberally in chemical 

 (or commercial) form. The source of food on which the main 

 dependence is placed, with this system, is the dead grass that 

 is mowed and left on the land. How much of each food this 

 contains it is impossible to tell except from the behavior 

 of trees. What this grass does not supply must be given in 

 another form. 



Whatever plan is followed regularly, it sometimes pays to 

 change for a year or two. A cultivated crop such as potatoes 

 or tomatoes is good, and besides, will pay well. Then a sod- 

 mulched orchard may need a stimulant. Plow it up and cul- 

 tivate for a season. Turn down a good heavy crop of a legume. 

 This, together with the regular sod turned under, will change 

 the soil conditions and generally will arouse the trees. 



Double crops are those grown between trees for a harvest. 

 They may or may not add fertility to the soil usually they 

 consume great quantities of plant food which must be replaced 

 from outside sources. Yet they pay well when handled right. 

 Tomatoes, strawberries, potatoes, asparagus, beans and melons 

 are the ones usually the best to grow. 



From the fertilizing point of view, which is half of all that 

 is to be considered in the use of double crops and orchard 

 filler, the thing hinges on just this: Don't try to take more 

 out of your soil than you put in, and put back into the soil as 

 much as or more than you take out. Outside of these limits, 

 the more crops the better. In growing crops between trees, 

 watch the trees. Remember you are growing the trees, not 

 the secondary crop. Keep the trees growing fast, and healthy 

 in every way. Supply food and moisture for everything that 

 grows on the land. 



Double crops undoubtedly complicate the situation a great 

 deal, as the orchardist must study the needs of his other crops 

 in the same way as he studies the needs of his trees. Bear in 

 mind that the profit is the amount between the value of the 

 crop and the cost of the extra labor and of the plant-food you 

 have to supply. Do not rob the trees. Burn that on a large 

 sign, stick the sign in your orchard where you can see it all 

 the time; then go ahead and raise inter-crops until the trees 

 begin to bear nicely. 



SUMMARY 



Crops that pay big profits are unnaturally heavy crops, and 

 to get them we must feed the trees. 



Soil itself never is food for trees it merely carries plant 

 food and it must be finely and deeply pulverized, loosened, 

 and filled with decaying vegetable matter before roots can 

 absorb the plant food present. 



