73 



and feeding is necessary. That is the reason he gets good 

 results from it. I used to be a clean culture crank, but I am 

 drifting away from it. 



I remember in Mr. Collin gwood's orchard last year he 

 was pointing out a lot of trees. He had some Baldwin trees 

 there bearing every year for, I think, four or five years that 

 never had any cultivation since he has had the place. 



There was another very interesting article I saw in 

 "Better Fruit" two or three years ago with a comparison of 

 two orchards, — one clean culture and cover crop and the 

 other in alfalfa, in the far West. The report for the previous 

 six years was that the average production of trees under the 

 clean culture was 10 and a fraction boxes per tree, and un- 

 der, alfalfa, 19 and a fraction per tree. 



ME. GEER: I have an experience with cultivating Mc- 

 intosh trees. Some 10 years ago we had about 50 or 60 bar- 

 rels of Mcintosh on young trees, probably 12 years old. The 

 Mcintosh did not get good color. Potatoes, corn and various 

 other crops had been planted and we were disgusted with 

 the trees and wished we had not set out a single Mcintosh. 



I made up my mind that I was going to seed down those 

 trees. Before this I could not keep Mcintosh. They 

 wouldn't keep until the middle of November. They would 

 all soften up and had no color. The result was that within 

 a very few years after the land was seeded down, we got a 

 good colored Mcintosh, and they kept until April right in 

 our cellar; and I wouldn't any more think of plowing up 

 the land where those Mcintosh trees are now than to think 

 of cutting them down,- — not a bit. It has been a great benefit 

 to seed down that land, it added so much to the color and 

 keeping quality of the fruit. So, for our land, I wouldn't 

 think of cultivating. 



MR. BARCLAY : In orchards where cultivation is prac- 

 ticed and you pick them at the same time, you may not get as 

 good color, but if you will let them hang on the trees 10 

 days or two weeks you will get just as good color. That is 

 my experience. I heard the talk "Not to Plow Your Or- 



