POMOLOGY 



The surface tilth may bo 

 soil early in spring with a cutaw 

 or other surface-working tools, 

 sible, however, on very heavy 1 

 adds humus and protects " 

 baking in the winter. 



ured by breaking the top- 



Litawav barrow, gang plow 

 niMV nnt be pos- 



rogi 



If it 

 lable r 

 cases, to use cover-crops 

 £ the leguminous kind, tli 



ma 



trogen and the fruit plants make too 

 illy the cover-crop is plowed under ii 



.ver-crop 



Uiiigand 



op it also 



ssible, in 



rticularly 



s too rich 



y growth. 



ing at the 



avethe soil nioist- 



ersal practice to use 



■le idea has come to 



t or not as his judg- 



i!-,!,. tlif. ( nonnniical 



, "I ' lo be the 



, . ; , I-. With 



tbr 

 gradu- 



1401 



ind: 



fruits, there are always two rules to be kept in i 

 (1) Remove the injured, imperfect or diseased speci- 

 mens; (2) remove sufficient fruit so that the remaining 

 specimens stand at a given distance from each other 

 How far apart the fruit shall be, will depend on many 



Usually - . . , 



very earliest opportunity m order 

 ure. It is by no meaus the un" 

 cover-crops on fruit lands, but 

 stay, and the grower may adop 

 ment dictates. In order to ta. 

 and efficient tillage of fruit bin. I 

 practice to devote the land wli- 

 plums and pears and some <ji1i 

 often allowalile to use the land t< 



years for annual crops, but thet. ■, , , , . -„ ,,,„t 

 allv diminish and every caution should be taken that 

 they do not interfere with the care of the trees. Apple 

 o chards, wlien the spaces are 40 feet apart, may be 

 cropped for sis or eight years without injury, P™™l'ng 

 good tillage and other efficient treatment are gn en 

 One reason for allowing orchards to stand m sod in the 

 old times was that it was difficult to plow beneath 

 full-grown trees. Those persons who desired to plow 

 and UlTtheir orchards, therefore, advocated very high 

 oriinine The difficulty with these old orchards was 

 the fact that the land was allowed to run into dense 

 sod Heavy plowing in an old orchard Indicates that 

 ?he plantation has been neglected in Previous years 

 Orchards that have been well tilled from the first do 

 not require much laborious tillage, and the roots are 

 low enough to escape tillage tools. In re'-ent times 

 there has been an evolution of tillage tools which will do 

 the work wmZt n.-cessityof pruning the tops very 

 1 'h Withi. the last ten years, at least in the eastern 

 states, the practice of tilling orchards has increased 

 rapidl'v. At^lirst it was advised by a fe^ growers and 

 teachers, but the movement is now so well established 

 that it will take care of itself, and in the commercial 

 orchards of New York state, at least, the man who does 

 not till his orchard is the one who needs to apologize. 

 On the Pacilic coast, the importance of tillage is uni- 

 versally recopni/.ed, because of the dry summer cli- 

 mate The necessity of tilling orchards has forced a 

 new ideal on the pomologist; and when he goes to the 

 ext.ense of tilling he feels the necessity of giving 

 sufficient care in other directions to insure profitable 

 returns from his plantation. . 



4 Ml. re ami more, as competition increases, is it 

 nfc'pssMrv to Rive attention to pruning. It is unfortu- 

 iiati-lv true that trees will bear without pruning. This, 

 tluT.Voro i.uis niiremium on neglect. The old practice 

 nll.iwcd the tree to grow at will for three or four years 

 „ ,1 to become so full of brn^li fli;it the fruit could not 

 Tw^ll Crvesml i U:-u a„- top was pruned vio- 



The result w; 



I set into redu 





This 



(iant growth and was iiii. a \mi 



tended also to set the tne into wood-bearing rathe, 

 th.in into fruit-bearing. By the time the tree had again 

 settled down to fruit-bearing the orchardist went at it 

 with ax and saw and a good part of the top was taken 

 awav It is now understood that the ideal pruning is 

 that which prunes a little every year and keeps the tree 

 in a uniformlv healthy and productive condition.^ Ihe 



pruning of trees has now come to be a c" "" 



this ideal must gain in dcflnitciicss 

 long as fruit trees are grown. >•■ • ii' 



id precisii 



■d. TlK 



1- £r 



irrow larger and better, it saves the \ iiaui) oi mc k , 

 and it giVes the orchardist an opportunity to remove the 

 diseased specimens and thereby to contribute something 

 toward checking the spread of i°^«'« ?"<> ,f»"ei- Th.n^ 

 ning is exceedingly important in all fruits that are 

 essentiallv luxuries, as peaches, apricots and pears. It 

 is coming also to be more and more important for apples 

 and for others of the cheaper fruits. In the thinning of 



ideal in nursery stock.- 

 irm. hieh-topped trees. 



I alio 



conditions. With peaches it is a good rule not t 

 ?hem to hang close? than four or five in-^l'^J < ^^-^^'^e 

 7 or 8 in.), and in vears of heavy crops they may be 

 thtnned more than this. This amount of thinning often 

 removes two -thirds of the fruits. It nearly always 

 gives a larger bulk of fruit, which brings a higher price. 



