318 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



during the earlier part of the summer, like early Irish potatoes and other 

 early garden crops, are far better, for all cultivation in the orchard should 

 cease by the first of July; and then some soil cover crop like crimson clover 

 should be sown, to keep a green cover on the land during the winter and to 

 plow under for the furnishing of the organic matter that is to supply the 

 trees with the needed nitrogen. It is a good plan to set a stout stake on each 

 side of the tree a foot or more high in the line of cultivation, to prevent a 

 careless plowman from striking the trees with the singletree. What we want 

 in the trees is a good but not too rank and sappy a growth. Therefore, as 

 a rule, we would avoid the use of stable manure and depend on the promotion 

 of the growth of the legumes by liberal applications of phosphoric acid and 

 potash, to furnish all the nitrogen needed. In fact this will, in a few years, 

 be found a superabundance, and after the orchard is put in grass there will 

 be no need for any nitrogenous application, but liberal applications of potash 

 and phosphoric acid will be needed to replace the mineral matter carried away 

 in the fruit. An orchard in a mown sod on which no animal is allowed to graze 

 and from which no grass is taken away, will be longer lived, more healthy 

 and fruitful than a cultivated orchard, if the mineral matters are kept sup- 

 plied to the soil. The outcry against orchards in grass on the part of some 

 writers has been caused by the old method (or lack of method) with orchards 

 in grass. We wish to especially impress upon our readers that it is not this 

 kind of grass-orcharding we advise, but the keeping of the orchard in grass 

 purely for the benefit of the trees. The grass, mowed frequently during the 

 growing season, will be constantly adding humus to the soil, and tending to 

 promote rather than impair the moisture content. The fertility of the soil 

 must be kept up by regular applications of phosphoric acid and potash, and 

 if this is done the soil loses nothing but what is carried oft' in the fruit, and 

 the fertilizers applied will more than make good this loss. Another advant- 

 age in this method of keeping an orchard in grass is the fact that a soft 

 cushion is formed under the trees, and the windfalls are not bruised. In fact, 

 if the trees are headed as low as we advise there will be little trouble in gather- 

 ing the greater part of the fruit without ladders. An annual dressing of the 

 following mixture will keep the grass in fine condition, and the dead grass 

 itself will furnish organic matter, forming nitrogen sufficient for the trees. 



Acid phosphate, 1,600 pounds; muriate of potash, 400 pounds to make a 

 ton. Of this use 400 pounds per acre annually in bearing years at least. If 

 at any time there should be evidence of lack of vigor in the trees, replace the 

 acid phosphate with raw bone meal, which will furnish about 4 per cent, 

 nitrogen. One caution about the distances for planting. Most of our apple 

 trees will do better planted not less than 35 feet apart each way. Crowding 



