176 



were there no scale I would give old orchard trees a spraying 

 of lime-sulfur to kill old fungi. 



SUMMER SPRAYING 



For a fungicide, I have been using Bordeaux mixture, 

 but lately this has been russeting the fruit badly. Except 

 for that, Bordeaux and arsenate of lead sprayed just as the 

 blossoms have fallen, is effectual. Lime-sulfur and Sulfo- 

 cide, both tried with promising results. Lice on trees has 

 made lots of trouble of late. Spraying with oil early in 

 spring while tree is dormant, will kill many of these. 



CULTIVATION 



As a general rule I believe in cultivating an orchard. 

 Nine people out of ten cultivate too little rather than too 

 much. That is, cultivation would be my rule, leaving in sod, 

 an exceptional practice. I recognize there are some places 

 where cultivation is not practical. Where cultivation is 

 practiced, I would start to shallow plow the orchard early in 

 the spring, just as soon as the soil will work nicely, and fol- 

 low this up with a shallow harrowing about every two weeks 

 or so until the first to the fifteenth of June, then sow a crop 

 like clover to be worked into the soil the following spring. 

 I am aware it is a little harder to get a well colored product 

 from a cultivated than from an orchard in sod. But by 

 stopping cultivation somewhat earlier than generally prac- 

 ticed, this trouble will be lessened. Almost always an or- 

 chard that has been long neglected has made too little wood 

 growth, and cultivation is the cheapest and best method to 

 start the wood into vigor. 



Do not try to get too close to trunks of trees in a low 

 headed orchard — the active feeding roots are at the ex- 

 tremities. Where there is an orchard and a supply of mois- 

 ture and soil is heavy, the sod mulch method works well, but 

 the ordinary method of cropping for hay is generally to be 

 deplored. 



FERTILIZATION 



To help promote a vigorous wood growth as well as a 

 tfine textured fruit, some form of fertilization is necessary. 

 You still hear occasionally of people who will claim it is 

 impossible to keep up the fertility of the soil without the use 

 ►of stable manure, that commercial fertilizers are a fraud 



