11 



iiiitagonizes color in the fruit. Nitrogen represents growth, 

 it is that part, that element which forces wood growth, and 

 t'rowth antagonizes color, so you cannot get this tremen- 

 dous growth and the desired effect on maturity of the fruit 

 that you are after. So it is to choose the cover crop that 

 wiJl absorb this surface nitrogen or surface moisture and to 

 lower the soil moisture, the content of moisture in the soil, 

 run it dow^n low enough to serve as a severe check to the 

 trees, that they may devote their energy through the latter 

 part of th» season to the setting of fruit spurs or fruit buds 

 and also to mature their fruit ; and this, I have said proba- 

 bly two or three times, but I want to drive it home as forci- 

 bly as I possibly can, that we can generalize on certain 

 lines, but after all it is a problem for every orchardist to 

 solve under his own conditions, as to just what system of 

 culture or what method and what cover crop to plant to get 

 this desired effect upon the trees. What may prove to be 

 the limiting factor in one orchard might not in another, and 

 so I feel that as orchardists we should begin to demonstrate, 

 imder our own conditions in a small way, and then we might 

 rind out what were the limiting factors in that orchard, and 

 be able to apply the same system in a larger way in our or- 

 chard work and have a tendency to throw the trees into an- 

 nual bearing rather than to produce a bumper crop every 

 other year. 



I think if we could have ideal conditions we should 

 have just a fair crop every year; it would be much better 

 for the marketing, for the distribution and the consumption 

 of our fruit, and would mean success where, in many cases, 

 perhaps, to-day it is a failure in orchard work. 



Now, perhaps, you would like to know. Can this be 

 done? Has it been done? Do you know of anybody who is 

 doing it? What ground have you for this argument that 

 you are making, etc.? 



I do not want to blow my own horn, but I just want to 

 give you the result of a little block of trees I have. I 

 started out 7 years ago with these trees. They had had 



