STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 43 



the trees. The ground can then be cultivated early in the season 

 and the growing crops shade the land later on. This, I be- 

 lieve, is better than "fillers" for ordinary man, who is carry- 

 ing on his orchard work in connection with ordinary farm 

 operations. He had better take a little more land and set only 

 the trees for the permanent orchard rather than to attempt 

 to set fillers to be taken out later on. The average man will 

 leave them just "one year more" and seriously injure the per- 

 manent trees. The orchard may be seeded down occasionally 

 with clover, and perhaps one crop of hay removed ; but no 

 grain crop should ever be grown and the orchard never left 

 in sod more than one year. 



SHALLOW PLOWING IN SPRING. 



I should recommend shallow plowing in early spring, fol- 

 lowed by cultivation of the ground often and thoroughly 

 enough to prevent the loss of moisture and the destruction of 

 all weeds. In midsummer sow the ground with a cover crop. 

 If tlie trees are bearing heavily, such crop should not be put 

 in until quite late, say the early part of August. If there is 

 no fruit and the trees will bear a little checking it may be 

 sewed two or three weeks earlier. What the crop shall be 

 depends wholly on the growth of the trees. If they are grow- 

 ing very rank, so that the foliage is dense and the sun cannot 

 penetrate, fungi will flourish. I would then not sow a 

 leguminous crop, but buckwheat, oats, rape and turnips, or rye. 

 All but the last named will die before winter, but the latter will 

 provide a green crop which is in itself desirable, but it must 

 be plowed in the spring at least by the time the rye begins to 

 head, or it will do more harm than good. 



If tree growth is desired, then I should use peas, or clover. 

 We are feeling quite confident that the winter vetch is going 

 to be an ideal crop for this purpose, although it is a little diffi- 

 cult to get it established. We frequently use what might be 

 called a combination made up of a pound of rape, a pound of 

 cow horn turnips and two pounds of red clover per acre. 



