MASSACHUSETTS STATE COLLEGE 

 UNITED STATES DEPARTIvIENT OF AG-RI CULTURE 

 AND COUNTY EXTENSION SERVICES IN AGRICULTURE AND 

 HOME ECONOMICS COOPERATING 



FRUIT NOTES - February, I937 



W. H. Thles 

 Extension Horticulturist 



A Fruit Grower' s Interest in Conservation 



No one familiar with the needs of the average orchard soil 

 can question the worthxvhileness of the various practices included 

 in the Agricultural Conservation Program. Here are a fev of the 

 evidences of a need for doing something about it: A scanty growth 

 of grass, weeds, or other cover crop, a widely fluctuating moisture 

 supply due in part to a shortage of organic matter in the soil, and 

 a failure of the trees to produce good annual crops. Me should 

 recognize, of course, the limitations of each particular orchard 

 from a soil standpoint. For example, one orchard may be desperate- 

 ly in need of heavy mulching. Either that or irrigation may be the 

 one thing necessary for producing a satisfactory crop. Another 

 orchard, planted on a naturally fertile, retentive type of soil v-illl 

 go on for years producing profitable crops vfith little or nothing 

 in the way of soil improvement. Our interest in the improvement of 

 the orchard soil must go beyond the present season's crop, What we 

 do this spring to bring about more favorable growing conditions for 

 the cover crop will have an accumulative effect. And that sugg-ests 

 the importance, while the trees are young, of handling the soil in 

 such way as to insure a liberal growth, not only in the trees them- 

 selves, but in the cover crop as well. The new federal program 

 offers considerable incentive along that line as will be noted 

 below. 



Conservation Practices Which Apply to the Fruit Farm 



Following is a brief suinmary of the va.rious practices of 

 Interest to the fruit grower, along vath rates of payment: 



1. Applying up to 3 tons of lime per acre to established 

 sod, or in preparation for new seeding ($^.00 per ton). 



2. Applying phosphoric a.cid, potash, or nitrogen or ap- 

 proved combinations of these materials in connection vath the seed- 

 ing of biennial or perennial legumes or green manure crops (Ra.tes 

 of payment indicated below) . 



3. Fertilizing sod orchards I'rlth: (a) Phosphoric acid 



ik-^ per lb.), (b) Potash (35^ per lb.), (c) Nitrogen, not over 2k lbs. 

 per A. if hay is harvested, or not over 32 lbs. per acre if hay is 

 left on land {k-^ per lb.). 



K. New seedlngs of clover or clover mixtures at the rate 

 of 5 lbs. of clover seed or its equivalent per acre ($2.00 per acre). 



5. New seedlings of alfalfa or alfalfa mixtures at the rate' 

 of S lbs. of alfalfa seed or its equivalent per acre (^3.00 per acre). 



6. Plowing or discing under small grains, annual grasses 

 or legumes after tt^ey have grov^n 2 months or have attained a growth 

 of 12 Inches, or leaving on land instea.d of plowing under ($1-50 

 per acre) . 



7. Applying 2 to 5 tons of mulching material per acre, 

 leaving on the land all materials produced in 1937 from grass legumes 

 and cover crops ($2.00 per acre). 



