OBJECTIONS TO VEGETABLES IN ORCHARD 105 



ward to their usual dormancy, or if the grower waits until the fall 

 rains wet the ground sufficiently and then puts in his vegetables for 

 late fall and winter growth without extending them too near the 

 trees, he can make his winter garden, enjoy its produce, and plow 

 in the debris so early in the spring that no appreciable injury will 

 be done to the trees, unless he is on that line of light rainfall where 

 every possible effort is demanded to receive and conserve all the 

 water that falls. If that be the case he has to cultivate to conserve 

 moisture both winter and summer and should not think even of 

 winter vegetables in the orchard. 



Perhaps the chief objection to winter vegetable growing is 

 due to the fact that the crop is planted too late and is allowed to 

 occupy the ground so late in the spring that the soil can not be 

 brought into fine tilth which is necessary to save moisture. Instead 

 of this the impacted ground on which the vegetables stood is turned 

 up in clods which no amount of crushing will reduce to tilth and 

 the orchard loses by defective cultivation more moisture than the 

 vegetables consumed in their growth. 



The summer growth of vegetables in the orchard is a more 

 dangerous operation and whether it should be undertaken or not 

 depends upon local conditions p'reviously outlined. Perhaps a 

 specific instance may enforce the point and show what may be 

 taken as favored soil and moisture conditions. In the lower lands 

 of the Santa Clara valley near San Jose there have been constant 

 contributions to fertility by overflows from mountain water bring- 

 ing leaf mold and other materials found in the deposits of "slum," 

 which renew and keep up the fertility of the soil. Much of this 

 land has been under cultivation forty years and upwards, and yet 

 is known as garden soil. Much of this land is adobe, naturally 

 remarkably productive, aside from its benefits from overflow. Such 

 soils have proved able to produce, without apparent exhaustion, 

 orchard trees and the crops that are grown among them. There is 

 an abundance of artesian water for use when needed. It has been 

 a common custom in this artesian belt, so noted for strawberries, 

 to grow onions on the ridges between strawberry rows, and along 

 the sides of other berry bushes. Onions are thus grown during 

 several successive years until the ground is too crowded. Beets, 

 carrots, peas, and other vegetables are sometimes grown among the 

 berries. Crops of onion seed have been grown among the trees of 

 young orchards without irrigation and the trees have done quite 



