STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 89 



which are of minor importance, to growing in young orchards. 

 We have always a problem in starting a young orchard to know 

 just what to grow in it. Most of us agree that the young 

 orchard should be cultivated thoroughly for at least four or 

 five years so that the young trees will get a good start, and it 

 is often a question of getting some crop that will pay while 

 the young trees are coming into bearing. I think there is no 

 crop that will pay better, especially if you are near a market 

 where perishable fruits can be handled, than small fruits. And 

 if' you are not near a market, I think it would pay in districts 

 like those we have in Maine and the northern parts of New 

 Hampshire, where there is a special section adapted to the 

 growing of these small fruits, to start canneries, so we can put 

 them up and send them off in preserved form and realize nearly 

 as much money out of it as we would by selling them in a fresh 

 state. The small fruits all adapt themselves nicely to growing 

 among young orchard trees, especially those fruits which require 

 the same kind of cultivation and to which general orchard opera- 

 tions can be applied. The strawberry should be grown perhaps 

 only for a year, or for a second year at the most, because it 

 requires longer cultivation during the growing season. The 

 season over which cultivation extends with the strawberry is 

 too long for general orchard cultivation, so that I. would advise 

 planting strawberries only for the first two years, and then 

 keeping them well away from the young trees. A couple, or 

 perhaps three rows or four rows, through the orchard would 

 be plenty, whereas you could plant bush fruits between the 

 trees and use the land up very well with them. That is a very 

 important thing to consider in our young orchard planting. 



Then another thing, the general adaptability of small fruits 

 to cultivation is a further recommendation for them. Not only 

 for commercial planting but for the home garden they are very 

 essential. Everybody who has a small garden, I don't care 

 how small it is, can grow some of these fruits. I have a friend 

 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, who has a garden of a very 

 small area, yet he grows practically all the small fruits. He 

 has gone to the extent of planting his strawberries in a barrel, 

 by boring holes in it and filling it with soil, and he has had 

 very good crops from that barrel, enough for his small family 

 during the season. This shows what one can do if he has only 



