FERTILIZERS IN THE VINEYARD AND ORCHARD 317 



two' feet, and we make ours about 20 inches. Farmers say they want the 

 trees tall enough to get under in cultivating. The fact is that there is no 

 need for getting under them, for if the cultivation reaches the outer branches 

 it is sufficient ; for the feeding roots of a tree are all, as a rule, out where the 

 drip falls and beyond, and there is the place where cultivation and manur- 

 ing are needed. Therefore we head back the young tree to the height we 

 want the stem. The low head protects the stem of the tree from the hot sun 

 and the trees do not get blown over as tall stemmed ones are sure to be. When 

 growth begins in the spring we select the three or four best situated buds 

 that start near the top as the limbs of the future tree, and rub off all 

 others; and allow no others to start during the summer but those we have 

 selected for the main limbs. These, at the next pruning in winter, are short- 

 ened back to make them branch and gradually form a round and open headed 

 tree, and care is afterwards taken that no sappy sprouts are allowed to grow 

 in the centre of the tree. These are rubbed out as soon as they start, so as to 

 throw the whole strength of the tree into the desirable form. An orchard 

 started in this way will seldom need any pruning at all after it gets to a bear- 

 ing size, except keeping out the water sprouts in the centre and around the 

 base of the tree. 



We have given these methods of practice as a necessary preliminary for 

 the feeding of the orchard. We have said that the feeding roots are out 

 where the limbs reach. There is, then, little use for putting manure or fer- 

 tilizers up against the stem of the tree after it has developed much top. In 

 our experiments at Southern Pines, N. C., we proportioned the amount of fer- 

 tilizer applied to the size of the tree, and did not apply it ail over the ground 

 until the roots of the trees had occupied the land between the rows. We 

 began by applying the fertilizer to a small circle around the tree, making 

 the amount applied proportionate to the space occupied by the roots, and 

 enlarged the circle every year as the roots extended. In ordinary orchard 

 culture this minute care, is, of course, not needed, and as some crops are com- 

 monly grown between the rows the whole soil should be fertilized at once. 



CULTIVATING AND CROPPING THE ORCHARD 



There can be no possible objection to the growing of vegetable crops in 

 a young orchard to help in paying the expense of cultivation; but the com- 

 mon practice of planting the orchard in corn is objectionable. Tall growing 

 plants like Indian corn and the like, which occupy the land during the whole 

 summer, are objectionable for more than one reason. The crowding prevents 

 the proper development of the head of the tree, and the wide reaching roots 

 rob the soil of too much moisture. Low growing crops that occupy the land 



