Tenth Annual Meeting 201 



plant -food from it the same year. If the land is inclined to 

 be dry, harm may be done by drying out the soil too much 

 with this lush crop. If, on the other hand, the land is very 

 moist, the green crop, by standing till full grown, may be a 

 benefit, playing the part of a temporary underdrain. 



To this 1 would add, in concluding: just as faith without 

 works is dead, so fertilizer without tillage is dead also. 



Tillage can for a time take the place of fertilizers. Ferti- 

 lizers can never take the place of tillage. Nothing could be 

 more striking during the last two exceptionally dry summers 

 than the difference between orchards which were constantly 

 tilled almost up to harvest time and those which had not been 

 tilled at all or only in a half-hearted, unbelieving kind of a 

 way. 



The former kept their foliage green as leeks, and ripened a 

 splendid crop; the latter showed pale, almost yellow leaves, 

 dropping badly, and undersized fruit. 



Tillage is very expensive, but it pays. That I think is abso- 

 lutely certain. It is no matter, then, how expensive it is, if only 

 it pays. 



After Dr. Jenkins concluded his very valuable address, the 

 subject of "Orchard Cultivation" was again taken up, Mr. 

 N. S. Piatt continuing the discussion, as follows: 



Mr. N. S. Platt: ''Mr. President and Friends: The 

 matter of cultivation of orchards is something that need not 

 be spoken about but just accepted. We have so many orchards 

 now, particularly of peaches and plums, and have come to the 

 practice of cultivating more or less thoroughly, that I believe 

 we all accept the fact that peach and plum orchards need culti- 

 vating continually and thoroughly. Accepting it as a fact, 

 then, that our peach and plum and apple orchards need con- 

 tinual cultivation, and we have acres and acres of land to go 

 over and till, some of us believe pretty thoroughly that it 

 becomes an expensive matter through the season. When it 

 runs up to $50 or $ico for the cultivation of a single orchard 

 through the season, and where we have several orchards, mak- 

 ing it cost us anywhere from $300 to $500, then we want to 

 figure closely how that is to be done. An orchard should be 



