No. 4. J COMMERCIAL OKCIlAKDlN(i. 45 



he (l(»t'.s in>L want tu dniiii up ti'iule lV)i' his W'calthics ami 

 h)S(' it wht'ii llubbardstoiis are in season, only to work it u{) 

 again for his fancy Baldwins or his Spies. He wants a suc- 

 cession of varieties, from the earliest to the latest, and for 

 this purpose he wants from six to a dozen varieties. This 

 is the type of trade which we hope to capture, and we are 

 therefore setting a fairly long list of varieties. 



Another cpiestion, to which we have devoted a good deal 

 of thought and some experimenting, is the matter of cover 

 crops. It is of course out of the question for us to use 

 harn manure for our trees, and we do not wish to continue 

 buying nitrate of soda any longer than is necessary, so it 

 is imperative that we get a rank-growing, nitrogen-gathering 

 crop, to su])ply us with humus and nitrogen. We used this 

 year cow ])eas, soy beans, summer vetch and buckwheat. Of 

 course this last does not add nitrogen, but otherwise is an 

 excellent cover crop, and one of the best for raw lands such 

 as ours. I^one of these did very well for us this season ex- 

 ec] )t the buckwheat, but from experience in the college or- 

 chard we expect the soy beans to be one of our " stand-bys " 

 when we get our land in better shape, and we shall give the 

 others further trial. AVe shall try next year, also, the com- 

 mon " pea bean " as a cover crop. We used it the past 

 season to grow as a crop between the rows, and it made a 

 splendid growth, and would have supplied a large amount 

 of humus and nitrogen had we ])lowed the crop under. Of 

 course it was sown early, in drills, and cultivated for some 

 time before the orchard was " laid by," and I believe that 

 many cover crops should be handled in this way to get the 

 best results. 



Still another vexed question which we 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 

 measuring boards, at 16l/> feet apart each way. This is 

 close planting, but that is what we wanted. It is not Avhat 

 we should advise for a great many men, perhaps the ma- 

 jority, because with most men the trees will not be cut out 

 when they begin to crowd each other, nor will they be pruned 



