state: pomological society. 89 



othy, clover, and a mixture of timothy and clover soon after 

 the trees were set, and other parts were cultivated, all being 

 irrigated alike. Over half of the trees in the grass plats died 

 and were re-set twice, while the cultivated trees lived and grew 

 well. It is not to be expected that growing grass is young 

 orchards is always as injurious as it proved to be at the Utah 

 Station, yet the reported experiences of fruit growers and 

 experimenters everywhere show the importance of carefully 

 cultivating young orchards. 



From the experiments referred to above it would appear that 

 the growth of grass, weeds, and even such plants as field peas, 

 through the entire season without cultivation, especially in 

 young orchards, is to be regarded as an injurious practice. 



Notwithstanding all this, it must not be inferred that clean 

 cultivation is best in all cases. If the trees are set in fertile 

 soil there is usually no injurious effect from growing a sec- 

 ondary crop between the rows while the trees are young and 

 their roots do not occupy the entire soil, but the secondary 

 crop should always be one that requires careful cultivation and 

 does not evaporate moisture excessively, such as beans, peas, 

 potatoes, cabbages, squashes, melons, and the like. The crops 

 noted, and other similar ones, if not planted too close to the 

 trees, do not hinder cultivation, and they evaporate compara- 

 tively little moisture. As an example of this, it has been shown 

 at the Nebraska Station that in midsummer the moisture content 

 of the soil of well-cultivated plats of cabbage, beans, peas, and 

 potatoes, was but little less than that of cultivated fields in 

 which no crop was growing. Such plants as squashes and mel- 

 ons may hinder cultivation late in the season, but that is usually 

 not a disadvantage, as shown later. As the trees grow the 

 crops should be planted farther from them until the tree roots 

 occupy all the ground, when it is usually best to discontinue 

 growing secondary crops. Orchards with trees set twenty feet 

 apart should rarely be cropped more than three years, but 

 apple orchards can often be cropped for seven or eight years. 

 When the trees begin to bear it is usually time to stop cropping 

 the orchards. 



Aside from the growth of secondary crops in orchards, there 

 are other cases where clean cultivation is not best. It often 



