HORTICULTURE 39 



the most common method of solving the orchard soil question. 

 While it is better than some of the other methods employed, so far as 

 soil fertility is concerned, nevertheless it is a practice which should 

 be discouraged. In the first place, it does not increase the fertility of 

 the soil as commonly supposed, but rather robs it unless the animals 

 pastured are receiving other feed than that secured from the grass. 

 Unless animals are grain fed and full matured, the plant food mate- 

 rials removed usually exceed those returned to the soil through the 

 manure. 



Not only is the soil robbed, but very frequently the trees are 

 seriously injured if not entirely ruined. There are apple trees 

 six inches in diameter with the bark torn off by hogs which were pas- 

 tured in the orchard. Horses and cows do damage by rubbing 

 against the branches, breaking them, and knocking off the fruit as 

 well as browsing on the trees. 



The Orchard as a Hay or Grain Field. The second most com- 

 mon use of the orchard is as a hay or grain field. This practice can- 

 not be too severely criticised. It is nothing more nor less than an 

 attempt to double crop an area with the result that neither is a suc- 

 cess. It is practically impossible to grow a crop of marketable fruit 

 in this state without spraying several times during the growing sea- 

 son, and this would be ruinous to the grain. As the result, no spray- 

 ing is done and the fruit is wormy and scabby and often entirely 

 unfit for the market. The trees also suffer for the crops demand the 

 moisture and available food materials just when the crop is making 

 the largest demands. 



The crop is not a success, for the trees shade a considerable por- 

 tion and take so much moisture that it fails to develop, resulting only 

 in a partial crop. The cost of seeding and harvesting is greater than 

 where there are no trees to interfere. This is not successful orchard- 

 ing, or successful grain growing ; it is soil robbery. Either give up 

 the orchard or quit using.it as a place to produce hay or grain. That 

 some horticulturists recommend the sod-mulch is no argument for 

 such a practice for this is not what is meant by a sod-mulch system. 

 (Wis. E. S. B. 207.) 



Potatoes and corn require the cultivation of the soil in summer, 

 and consequently are among the best to grow in an orchard. Pref- 

 erence should be given to those crops that do not require the culti- 

 vation of the soil late in autumn. If the orchard is to be cropped 

 care should be taken that the fertility of the soil is not impaired 

 thereby, and ordinarily it will be necessary to add manure to replace 

 the plant food removed. 



Small fruits of various kinds may be used in orchards but must 

 be removed when the trees get large enough to need all the land. 



Planting with fillers is the system of planting an extra number 

 of trees on the land with the purpose of cutting them out when they 

 get large enough to crowd those that are to remain permanently. 

 Good examples of this practice are found in the planting of peaches 

 or plums in the intervals between apples or the planting of twice as 

 many peach or plum trees as can grow to maturity, the intention 



