72 FRUIT-GROWING 



guess the neighbors thought I was a good deal 

 of a raging lion in those days and that I was 

 due to ruin the whole place in short order. But 

 it refused to be ruined and those steep slopes 

 refused to wash to any injurious extent. How- 

 ever, after several years of reasonably clean 

 culture, I say reasonably clean advisedly be- 

 cause I was never particular about catching 

 every weed and choking it to death, I thought I 

 saw signs of restlessness in the soil on some of 

 our hills. I decided to quit the cultivation for 

 a while and let the weeds and the clover which 

 I planted, get their hand in for once. There 

 are still portions of the orchard, younger than 

 the part of which I speak, and much more level, 

 which we cultivate, but in time these too will be 

 turned into the sod mulch system. 



For my own part I believe that this combi- 

 nation of cultivation in the early years of an 

 orchard combined with sod mulch in its fruit- 

 ing years will be an ideal method of orchard 

 management in hill countries. In a more level 

 section I believe that I would stick to cultiva- 

 tion with heavy cover crops and with an occa- 

 sional year of no cultivation in which a crop 

 of cow-peas or other rank growing plant could 

 be produced to add humus to the soil. So far as 

 the quality, size and color of the fruit are con- 

 cerned I doubt if they will vary greatly under 

 either system. It is claimed on good authority 



