SOME GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 371 



head formed 20 inches from the ground and open and spreading is far better 

 form. The low headed tree in grass is more easily pruned and the fruit more 

 easily gathered, while the windfalls are hardly hurt by the fall on the soft 

 sod. Young trees in the South are apt to suffer in their first years from sun 

 scald, and if headed but 20 inches from the ground a simple shingle stuck 

 on the southwest side will protect the stem, and the spreading top will soon 

 form a sufficient screen, while the tall stemmed trees are for years exposed 

 to the effects of sun scald, and are many of them killed thereby. 



32. An occasional dressing of lime will be of great benefit to orchard 

 trees and will promote the growth of the sod, and thus increase the amount 

 of organic matter returned to the soil from the cutting and rotting of the 

 grass, for if we expect the best results from the apple orchard we must be 

 content to devote that .land to apples exclusively, and not expect anything 

 but apples from it. We will then not be disappointed, and will have no 

 reason to say that we cannot grow fruit as our fathers did. While it has not 

 been practicable in the limits of this book to take up the subject of plant dis- 

 eases and remedies, we take it for granted that every fruit grower is awake to 

 the necessity for spraying his trees to prevent disease and to destroy insects. 

 At some future time we hope to take up this branch of the subject in a separ- 

 ate treatise. 



33. In the culture of the grape on the pine barrens of the South Atlan- 

 tic States it has been found that on these soils which contain little plant food 

 of any kind, a complete fertilizer is annually needed to keep up the growth of 

 the vines. On soils northward and where there is more of natural fertility, 

 the annual growth of peas (or other legumes) as a winter cover will furnish 

 all the nitrogen needed, and any artificial application may be rather an injury 

 than a help, from causing a long- jointed and less fruitful cane. Hence, 

 as in the orchard, the annual application of phosphoric acid and potash will 

 generally suffice, and a coat of lime once in five years will be of great help. 

 Shallow cultivation till July should be the rule in the vineyard. Then a 

 sowing of crimson clover through the centres of the spaces between the rows 

 of vines, where the roots are feeding, to be plowed under in the early spring. 



34. There is no class of cultivators to whom the humus content of the 

 soil is of more importance than to the grower of small fruits. On a soil 

 deficient in vegetable matter, the strawberry rarely succeeds well. A clover 

 sod or a heavy growth of cow peas turned under forms the best preparation 

 for the crop. While a complete fertilizer is needed it should not be too 

 largely of a nitrogenous character, since any excess of nitrogen is apt to pro- 

 duce soft fruits that will not ship well. Where quality is valued to an extent 

 that will warrant the additional cost, the best form of potash for the straw- 



