10 



trees along and lost a large percentage of them by trying to 

 overdo the growth in any one season ; therefore, it is very 

 important that we check the w'ood growth about July 1st or 

 July 15th, at least. How are we to check this wood growth? 

 By sowing some sort of cover crop in that orchard. And 

 here again is the problem for individual orchardists. There 

 are no two conditions alike on the same farm or in the same 

 community, and what would be an ideal cover crop^m one 

 instance would be a wrong cover crop under other condi- 

 tions. It is a matter for each individual orchardist to solve 

 recording to the amount of moisture and nitrogen in the 

 soil. If the tree is making too large a growth and there 

 f.eems to be too large a tendency to wood growth, I would 

 not hesitate to sow a heavy crop of oats in that orchard, 

 because they are large nitrogen and moisture drawing 

 plants. If the ground was reasonably dry and the moisture 

 content was w^here I wanted it. I would sow a lighter cover 

 (rop, buckwheat, rye, or something of that sort; or, if the 

 orchard was making too much growth, millet is another 

 very good cover crop. I would say that under our condi- 

 tions, clover does not prove to be an ideal cover crop, we 

 cannot get stand enough from sowing it, by July 1st, to 

 serve as a protection through the dormant season or to be of 

 value as a humus-creating element in the following Spring 

 when it is turned under, so I do not believe that in many 

 eases in Maine it is policy to sow clover as a cover crop. 



Now, the amount of nitrogen and soil moisture are 

 working together to influence fruit or wood growth or to 

 retard the maturity of the fruit then on tlie trees, and Avith 

 a great many of us we do not quite understand whether it is 

 an excess of nitrogen or lack of moisture in the soil ; that is 

 one of the hardest things to control and to determine, pos- 

 sibly, so as to know just what sort of a cover crop we should 

 supply in the orchard in order to get this desired result or 

 effect on the trees. 



I think every man present who has fertilized and tilled 

 trees realizes and knows beyond any question that nitrogen 



