STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. II7 



his club and we had an apple for dessert (for which, by the 

 way, he paid loc) and what do you suppose it was? A Hood 

 River Spitzenburg or a W^enatchee Jonathan? No sir, a New 

 England Mcintosh. And he told me that for the past two years 

 this club has been using New England Spies and Baldwins and 

 Mcintosh, and other choice sorts. Do you suppose that this 

 market for New England apples could ever have been recap- 

 tured by Ben Davis? 



Another serious problem \vhich we have had to solve, and 

 which we have not as yet wholly solved, has been the cover- 

 crop question. As I have said, our land is on the light order, 

 which means that humus is especially important for it and also 

 that the land washes badly. In consequence of these two facts, 

 we have had to use large growing crops and also those which 

 were good soil-binders. Our practice has gradually evolved 

 to about this : We have found that soy beans, rye, buckwheat 

 and rape are our best crops, with clover as a possibility on our 

 best lands. We often handle a block of orchard as follows: 

 About July 1st we will drill in soy beans, making the rows far 

 enough apart to admit of cultivation. W'e then practice clean 

 culture betw^een the rows as late as it seems desirable for the 

 soy beans, say till August ist. Then we seed down between 

 the rows with the last cultivation, using rye and clover, or rape 

 and buckwheat, or any combination of the four crops, rye, rape, 

 clover and buckwheat, that seems desirable, always including 

 rye on any slope which is at all sharp. The advantage of a 

 combination of two crops is that if one does not take the other 

 will and where clover and rape, for example, are used, you 

 get the benefit of a large amount of humus from the rape and 

 the nitrogen from the clover. 



Still another vexed question which we have had to decide, 

 and which we perhaps decided differently from what many of 

 my hearers would, was the question of the distance apart for 

 the trees. We set them, as I suggested in speaking of our meas- 

 uring boards, at 16 1-2 ft. apart each way in some cases and 

 20 ft. in others, depending on the soil. This is close planting, 

 but that is what we wanted ! It is not what we should advise 

 for a great many men, perhaps the majority, because the trees 

 will not be cut out when they begin to crowd each other, nor 



