STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 57 



ment of five barrels, and nine others do the same, from as many 

 different places ; they reach Boston ; unloaded, and mixed 

 together; come to market; buyers ready to purchase; but just 

 what is at hand to sell cannot be determined, only by opening each 

 barrel, and that is impossible. Result — some of the goods may 

 not have full justice done them, but if attention was paid to the 

 advice, there would be no mishap." 



COVER CROPS FOR THE ORCHARD. 



By G. Harold Powell, Washington. 



Illustrated by Stereoptican Views. 



One of the finest features of the pomological meeting is the 

 large attendance of the ladies and in the evening session of the 

 boys and girls. I am delighted to see the gallery crowded with 

 young people. In a few years they will be occupying your places 

 on the main floor and no effort on your part to encourage their 

 sympathy with rural life and its manifold activities now can be 

 too great. I heartily wish that I had not committed myself to a 

 subject for this evening. I would consider it a privilege to 

 address my remarks wholly to the younger people and to 

 endeavor to stimulate their interest in the different forms of 

 nature around them. Apples and peaches and pears and plums 

 and soil management are all right, but the best fruits of the Maine 

 farm are the children that grow there. 



In the older sections of the country where crop rotations have 

 succeeded each other generation after generation or where similar 

 crops have been under intensive cultivation for a long continued 

 time, there is a constant diminution of the vegetable matter of the 

 soil. The orchard soil that is tilled once or more a week for 

 several years, and in which no provision is made for replacing 

 the vegetable matter that burns out, grows heavier and "deader," 

 with smaller water holding and less productive capacity. Good 

 tillage wisely guarded increases the productivity of orchard lands, 

 but intensive tillage has its accumulating effect for evil imless its 

 operations are thoroughly understood. 



It may be well at this point to briefly review the primary 

 objects of orchard tillage. 



