258 MANUAL OP TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



should be cut with a mowing-machine and plowed under after 

 the fruit is harvested. Following this the ground should be 

 cultivated and a summer cover-crop such as buckwheat or the 

 whip-poor-will cowpea should be planted. "Winter cover- 

 crops may be planted as early as September, in which case they 

 may have made sufficient growth to be turned under before the 

 harvest begins. This is not always possible, especially if an 

 early variety of loquat is grown ; in fact, it is a question whether 

 it is advisable to plow or work the ground deeply or at all during 

 the setting and maturing of the fruit." In Florida and other 

 regions different methods of cultivation may be required, but 

 the liberal use of green cover-crops seems universally desirable. 

 In addition to cover-crops, stable manure is often used to 

 enrich the land in California orchards. Bearing loquat trees 

 exhaust the fertility of the soil rapidly and it is necessary to 

 replenish the supply of plant-food annually if fruit of large 

 size is to be expected. Condit observes: *When the average 

 California soil begins to fail from heavy production, nitrogen 

 is likely to be the first crop limiter ; after nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid, and after phosphoric acid, potash." Particular care 

 should be taken, therefore, to see that the supply of nitrogen 

 is sufficient to meet the demands of the tree. C. P. Taft, of 

 Orange, California, has found the green cover-crops of great 

 value in this connection. E. Pillans, Government Horti- 

 culturist at the Cape of Good Hope, says that a yearly appli- 

 cation of well-rotted stable manure is amply repaid by larger 

 crops and increased size of fruit. The loquat groves of Japan 

 are said to be fertilized with litter, weeds from the roadsides, 

 and, recently, with commercial fertilizers. Condit advises the 

 application of 15 cubic feet of stable manure biennially to each 

 bearing tree. 



It is ordinarily considered that the amount of water required 

 by loquat trees corresponds closely to that needed by citrus 

 fruits. Probably it would be more accurate to say that the 



