92 THE COXNECr/CUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



use of commercial fertilizers, the foundation of which is 

 usually muriate of potash and ground bone from the packing 

 houses. 



Cover Crops. — About the last of August we sow a cover 

 crop through the orchards. Oats have been the most satisfac- 

 tory with us — two bushels or more to the acre — although the 

 sand vetch forms an excellent cover crop. This crop robs the 

 trees of their feed at a time when we want them to stop 

 growing and ripen up their new wood. It also acts as a 

 blanket to hold the leaves and snow, preventing deep freezing 

 and bare spots on exposed knolls. Clovers would be even 

 better cover crops, as they also furnish considerable plant food, 

 but they have to be left too late in the spring to get much 

 growth and they are then robbing the trees of food at the time 

 when the trees should be making their best growth. We also 

 find it difficult to get a catch to clover under large bearing 

 trees. 



F'inally. adopt the most intensise niethods, which will 

 produce the largest, handsomest and best specimens; pick and 

 pack them carefull)- and as near ripe as your market will 

 permit ; pack h(^nestl}'. so that you can guarantee every pack- 

 age ; market through some co-operative system that will elimi- 

 nate as manv middle men as possible and you will find a neat 

 balance on the right side of the ledger in the end. 



Now to summarize, this is what I might call "the peach 

 groii'cr's creed" : — 



We believe in budding on vigorous, healthy stocks, from 

 bearing trees of known good qualities. 



We believe in pruning, thinning, spraying, cover crops, 

 and that the peach trees should have entire possession of the 

 land. 



We believe that an orchard nuist l^e fed as well as its owner. 



We believe in high tillage. No soil is so rich that it does 

 not need working. 



We believe in "War to the knife, and the knife to the hilt" 

 against San Jose scale, yellows, little peach, leaf curl and 

 borers. 



We believe that pests are grindstones and whetstones, to 

 sharpen the peach grower's wits. \A^ithout them, any fool 

 could grow peaches. 



