74 



The Principles of Fruit-growing 



is not doing well, the best advice in general is to plow and 

 till it. Certainly it is better to make tillage the rule and 

 sod the exception than to start with the intention of grow- 

 ing an orchard in grass and cultivating it only when forced 



FIG. 9. A well-kept strawberry plantation. Good tillage and mulch. 



to do so. It is better to pasture an orchard than to allow 

 the grass to grow at will, but close pasturing can by no 

 means take the place of tillage and fertilizing. If a person 

 wants to raise hay or grain, it is cheapest to grow it where 

 there are no trees to bother. If he wants to grow apples 

 or grapes, he would better choose some other place than a 

 meadow or grainfield. The use of clover and other tem- 

 porary cover-crops as a means of fertilizing the land is 

 quite another matter, and is discussed in the next chapter. 

 Growers are always asking whether the apple orchard 

 shall be plowed up. If the grower of apples is satisfied 

 with the crops and growth of the trees, let the orchards 

 alone; but if it is thought that better crops are desirable, 



