6o state; pomoIvOGical society. 



each one of these three places they have a foreman who is the 

 local representative of the company, the man who actually directs 

 the work in the orchards, and who has the management of the 

 crews, and executes the orders of the manager. 



When I went out in this section the first time, which was a 

 year ago last June, I expected to find every orchard a garden, 

 every orchard just in the pink of condition and all that, because 

 I had heard so much of this Ozark territory that I did not sup- 

 pose there could be a neglected orchard in the whole region. 

 But when I got out there, I found that the fruit growers were 

 very much like the fruit growers in every other section I was 

 ever in. Here and there you find an orchard that is kept in just 

 ideal condition, but when you see one orchard that is kept in this 

 condition, you will see anywhere from one to a dozen others that 

 are decidedly neglected. I think perhaps apple trees will stand 

 more neglect out there than they will in some other sections 

 because the soil conditions, the climatic conditions, in fact the 

 whole environment of the trees, seems to be kindly disposed 

 toward them and they make, as you have seen, a very large, vig- 

 orous growth, so that the most careful, exacting care is not so 

 necessary as it is in some other sections. They usually cultivate 

 the young orchards for four or five years, growing in the early 

 years of the orchard some interplanted crop, as corn, and then 

 later on when they begin to bear they will seed them down to 

 clover, usually, and plow them up perhaps for a time every other 

 year, but by the time they get to be ten or a dozen years old they 

 are cjuite inclined to seed them down and let them so remain. 

 I am not sure but what that method is best there. It is simply 

 the application of a principle. If you are after some definite 

 result and can get that result by not cultivating, then there would 

 be no object, of course, in cultivating. The soil retains moisture 

 pretty well ; as a rule they have a sufficient amount of moisture 

 and on account of the very rapid growth which the trees make, 

 I presume if the very best tillage, clean cultivation, was given 

 year after year, they might in many cases force the growth of 

 the tree so fast that no fruit buds would form. 



