FRUITS 



217 



way and apple trees 25 to 40 feet. On rather poor 

 land fruit trees ought to be fertilized when set and each 

 year afterwards. For young trees a complete fertilizer 

 is best. In later years a mixture of phosphate and some 

 form of potash may be sufficient. Nitrogen should then 

 be supplied by cow- 

 peas or some other 

 "catch crop" grown 

 as a fertilizer be- 

 tween the trees. 

 Scatter the fertili- 

 zer as far out as the 

 limbs extend and 

 work it in with a 

 cultivator or harrow. 

 For a few years a 

 low-growing, culti- 

 vated crop, for ex- 

 ample, cotton or 

 vegetables, may be 

 grown between the 

 rows of trees (Fig. 

 145). When, how- 

 ever, the trees get 

 larger, they need all the space; and the orchard should 

 be kept well cultivated until July, when Iron cowpeas 

 may be sown as a fertilizing crop to be plowed under 

 the next spring. 



Strawberries. The strawberry is the earliest fruit, 

 some varieties ripening in April in the central part of the 



Photograph by R. S. Mackintosh 



FIG. 146. A FIELD OF STRAWBERRIES IN SOUTH- 

 ERN ALABAMA 



